Running a successful record label isn’t only about finding the next big star. Theda Sandiford, SVP, Commerce and Digital at Def Jam Recordings, will give us the inside scoop on how a successful record label managed to make a lasting impact not only for their artists, but for Black Lives and all marginalized communities.
Theda Sandiford, Def Jam Recordings
Notes
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- Theda leads revenue and digital strategy for Def Jam records and has been working in the music industry for the last 20 years
- She has won numerous awards and grants as a visual practice artist
- Hip Hop culture is founded in African tribal music customs and emerged in the early 1980s within the Black community in NYC
- From its very beginning, Hip-hop has embodied activism
- Theda was asked to join the label task force in the wake of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd’s murders
- The goal of Def Jam Forward is to fight for change and support the social awakening and equity for all and to create lasting and meaningful change
- The task force successfully lobbied for voters and was able to get people registered to vote
- The company globally has days off to go vote
- They worked with corporate communications to bring in new, fresh charitable organizations – over 500
- There were only twenty when they started
- Getting out the vote is the main goal of Def Jam Forward now
- Hip-Hop has always been a vessel to fight for social change
- They hired a corporate compliance officer in order to fight the right way and gain access to politicians and get people out to vote
- Research showed that people didn’t even know where to vote
- They provided voting information such as profiles for all candidates
- They hosted voting parties — never underestimate the power of free food
- Digital service providers, such as Youtube and Spotify, had similar task forces
- Working together and learning from one another helps you move your own organization forward
- Def Jam focused on its strengths — musicians and connections
- They sent artists out with pizza and filmed videos and interviews and roundtable discussions
- Every bit of money goes to fund Def Jam Forward and the other partner organizations
- Livestreaming in the last couple of years promoted dialogue and understanding through music and video to highlight diversity, equity, and inclusion
- The program aims to surprise and delight while moving action forward
- An artist can make music but they are also influencers, so Def Jam amplified those traits
- The purpose now is social advocacy
- Black and Blue panel Livestream — each artist has recorded music speaking on police brutality, but in this panel, they were able to share their own stories
- Def Jam Summer Fridays (Series) — DJs at an in-person event
- They began using this on Twitch and YouTube — they had to fight Twitch to get the rights to have their music on the platform, and they won
- They raised more than $50,000 on two events
- The target audience was 18-24 year olds — they each pledged $10 each
- Each of these events built on each other as they kept learning from them
- They now do paid events and concerts
- A goal of Def Jam Forward was to build sustainable programming overtime
- Respecting the DJ since 1984 — they used their platform to amplify the DJs and expand them into education
- Edutainment — Def Jam entertains and educates – how did Def Jam Forward do it?
- The yellow for the sub-brand is way out of their brand guidelines and it queues to the viewer that this is something different
- They developed hashtags for rallies
- They organized staff to amplify frontline voices on the # — “I got 10k new followers because of you”
- The staff was decked out in Def Jam gear
- Def Jam is breaking barriers in the field
- They celebrated Women’s month and had another compilation record just on women of Def Jam
- They celebrate women at the company — in 1984 they had very few women working in the hip-hop industry
- #Frontlinemessages
- #Ivoted
- #BreakingBarriers
- They had artists from all over the world posting
- They asked them to share that they had voted
- Def Jam gained 1% of the discussion globally
- A mix of video messages mixed with static messages played very well with the social algorithms
- Artists committed to different issues and then wrote a comic with Marvel and shared their aspirations for the future — police brutality, LGBTQ+ rights, mental health
- One song on an album may just be a statement, but when you put them all together it creates a different experience
- The record that was handed out at the beginning of the presentation is an example of this — a soundtrack for social justice
- They also created a social game to help people learn the songs
- They are doing another compilation series as well
- By listening to the community, they know what they need to deliver
- Mental Health and Personal Development
- Theda wanted to start pushing the personal development of staff
- Mental Health is rarely talked about in Hip-Hop
- She started a virtual mental health day and staff began using the tools that the company provided for mental health
- Use breakout rooms to discuss communications and breakdowns
- Communication is the cause of most breakdowns
- She noticed that digital literacy was lacking and people couldn’t share their stories or thoughts and experiences
- She created a weekly digital happy hour — free booze works too (like food)
- They have guest speakers and conversations about all kinds of things — NFTS, sports, music, the metaverse, bitcoin
- These are incredibly valuable because now there is a baseline understanding of all of these concepts
- Day to day experience as a Black woman in the world has not changed much in two years
- The amount of gaslighting and othering behavior would shock you
- When you add in inflation, the assault on women’s rights, and the war in Ukraine, there’s a lot to handle, so Theda focuses her energy on the one issue
- Free Your Mind is a public textile art that collects and exhibits personal narratives
- It’s becoming a bit of a physiological experiment
- Theda is taking this to other cities and building a website that you can click on and see the stories
- She just received a grant and is going to add all kinds of things that bring this project to life
- Surviving the revolving door of trauma — she hopes for a life free of all of these things that people are struggling with and being bombarded with every single day
- Theda is bringing people together to assemble something new and she is a creative activist seeking justice for the social arts
- Questions:
- Def Jam rolls out campaigns the same way they roll out their records
- They have a meeting every Friday where they talk about all of their social justice work since they use the same channels – they run Def Jam Forward like a business
- They are also able to move money around to pay for these services
- HR and Corporate Communications
- HR loves Def Jam Forward because they advocate for all the things they care about
- Corporate Comms is another story – there are times when “they don’t need to know this”
- They sometimes have to pivot to find new ways to get exciting ideas done
- Internal Campaigns for change tips:
- No one wants to talk about mental health, but then you see people suffering and see how they’re impacted – reaching out to your team to make sure they’re okay shows that you care
- People are really suffering from the issues and we need to do something about
- Personally reach out and offer help and invite them to join events
- Cancel stuff – mandatory 24 hours without looking at email and taking calls off
- Sometimes the job isn’t the right fit for you and it also allows for others who are excited about it
- Winning trust
- Evolution of your role as a leader
- She feels that she is doing the same job – educating and informing and being curious
- The best skill to have as a digital person is being curious
- Things get recycled – you drive new things but other things come back (ex. Vine to TikTok)
- Attaching fan clubs to NFTs – she’s doing the same thing but the platforms have changed (ex. records to Spotify)
- Ownership model to an attention economy
- Theda went to Barnes and Noble and bought HTML for Dummies to learn how to build Def Jam a website
- Digital knowledge is now a baseline
- What tools does the team lean into?
- We love Slack
- Monday.com
- Box
- Zoom
- Microsoft tools
- Adobe Suite
- Tons of free tools online and on app stores
- Def Jam uses everything and they’re willing to try everything
- They have built great efficiencies through all of these tools
- They are early on a lot of things – one of the first advertisers on FB and one of the first to put videos on YouTube without a licensing agreement
- The process of wrangling artists for Def Jam Forward
- It is easier to do when it’s their idea
- Jadakiss wanted to deliver pizzas to the frontline workers
- The news came out about this and then several other artists said “we’re doing something similar”
- Ask and listen to what they want to do
- In the past two years, people have really wanted to get out there and do something
- If it’s something the artist cares about then they really want to do it
- Finding people from the songs are generally already halfway there because they’ve talked about it
- Planning
- Set goals and KPIs up front – we want x people to show up
- Every day they look at how far away they are from reaching their goal
- This is the same that they do for their advocacy work
- How much did I get? Personal stories, messages, videos, etc.
- Most of the time people want to be seen and heard
- Why do you show up at the office every day?
- “I make people’s dreams come true, what could be better than that?”
- Theda meets with people and finds out what their goals are, then she and Def Jam Forward makes it happen