Indie Def Jux’s Uzoigwe Answers: What Is Working?

In conjunction with US. independent music trade group A2IM (American Association Of Independent Music), we’re asking
indie professionals: In this fractured media landscape, what is
working? What outlets and tools are helping your artists build an
audience?

In this 6th installment, Amaechi Uzoigwe of NYC based indie label Definitive Jux (Chin Cin, Aesop Rock, Dizzee Rascal) shares what is working for his label and artists:

"In addition to taking advantage of the usual suspects (itunes, myspace, blogs, touring), we’ve been able to successfully leverage the brands of both the label and our artists to create new exposure and revenue opportunities.

This includes a strong emphasis on merchandising (mainly t-shirts & hoodies), but also specialty items like limited edition vinyl and posters, belt buckles, jackets and even winter coats, which we sell from our website along with….

an assortment of digital music and video content. This year we successfully introduced our first sneaker line, designed by legendary NYC graffiti writer Phase 2, and in early 2009 we’ll begin selling music from other premier labels on our site.  We aim to use the merch as a vehicle to promote (and sell) the music, often including digital download cards with physical purchases. we’ve also now introduced blogs and forums to the site, which is having an amazing effect magnetizing traffic.   And the continued increase in our traffic  results in a continued increase of sales for much of our catalog.

We’ve done some really cool partnerships with companies like Adult Swim/Cartoon Network to reach a much wider audience, and have worked with select corporate sponsors on tours, special events and merchandise.  For example, the backpacks we did with Brooklyn Industries were a big hit.

Musical collaborations have also been big for us – be it el-p with trent reznor/cat power/mars volta or remixing beck, NIN, ghostface, and all american rejects; aesop rock with john darnielle; cage with head automatica; dizzee rascal with ugk; or the mighty underdogs with damien marley – by tapping into their respective fan bases.

Our artists also have relationships with incredible graphic artists (i.e. aesop rock w/ jeremy fish, and cage w/ alex pardee) and through their collaborations on packaging, posters, videos and t-shirts they’ve been able to introduce each other to new audiences and benefit from the exposure.

We license a grip of music to TV, film and video games, which has also helped raise awareness for our artists and brand, and will be working even more closely with these mediums in the future.

We love making music videos at def jux and despite the tiny budgets, have been fortunate to receive some healthy airplay, on both network and online platforms, which has been another great way to expose our music.  We did a 52/52 campaign for aesop rock with MTV that was really effective.

We’re also very into digital platforms like youtube, imeem, pitchfork, fairtilizer and certain blogs, which do an amazing job spreading word to the digisphere and beyond.

And we are beasts with the touring.

But ultimately, by consistently dropping strong material, we’ll hopefully earn the right to grow in all kinds of new ways."