Ashley Rappoport, Chelsea Eagle, Hilary Kee, Elijah Clark-Ginsberg, Jayme Pounders

Company Background

American Hip-Hop record label owned by Universal Music Group

1984 - Created by Rick Rubin in his NYU dorm

Russell Simmons joined Rubin shortly after

Their first singles were a success, which lead to a distribution deal with CBS and Columbia Records

Lyor Cohen became president in 1988

Russell Simmons, and currently L.A. Reid, are the most recent owners of the company

Strengths

Market Conscious

Label recognition

Networking

Ideal location - Manhattan

Great eye for talent and potential

Exclusive to who they sign; credibility

WeaknessesDeclining record sales

Limited audience; generally only appeals to hip-hop / R&B fans

The Company Hierarchy

Icons (Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, Kanye West)

Artists with medium-sized fanbase (Aaron Fresh, Lady Sovereign, Curren$y)

Unknown (Ace Hood, Big Sean, Natasha)

Mixing Hip-Hop From One Artist to the Next.

Building Artist Recognition Within the Company

Leveraging the popularity of known artists to build lesser known ones

Get Def Jam artists’ songs all over NYC radio stations: Hot 97, Hot 108 Jams, Z-100

Threats

Vast amount of record labels nationwide as well as direct competition in the Manhattan area

Pirated Music/ P2P File-sharing

Most popular music among Americans is Country and Rock

Opportunities

Variety of talent to choose from

location is easy to utilize; promising artists all over NYC

Huge hip-hop fan base

MixtapesIcons featured in lesser known artists’ songs

Likewise, lesser known artists have guest appearances in the icons’ music as well

start branding the mixtapes months in advance of release

TV commercials and radio spots

Central Park Performance

Def Jam will host a mainstage performance featuring both iconic and unknown artists.

Mixtape Preview; premiere a collection of the songs

Livestreamed worldwide

Goal: Give unknown artists exposure

Spread the Word

TV commercials

NYC DJs at clubs make announcements

Radio Spots

Flyers, signs, etc

Billboards

Mixing hip-hop from one fan to the next.

Club Crawl Afterparties

After the Central Park performance and other big events

First 1,000 concert attendees get pass allowing them to go to the afterparties

Icons and smaller artists pair up, and go to different clubs

Fans have the chance to meet the artists and other fans

Getting the Fans Involved

Contest featured on Def Jam’s facebook page

Winner will have the chance to be Def Jam’s Next Big Thing

Fans vote on winner

Given the opportunity to record with one of Def Jam’s major recording artists

Winner and several of his/her friends given special backstage access at Central Park Performance

Mock Flyer / Billboard

Why These Ideas Work

Inter-artist communication

Artist to fan communication

Fan-to-fan communication

BudgetCentral Park Performance: $2.8 million

Production costs: $3 million

10,000 ticket sales @ $20 = $200,000

Promotional Costs: $4.6 million