Trade
Promote, sell, deliver – the daily triathlon
we tackle for our labels and retail partners.
Marketing
highlighting
products
How we work
Artists and labels invest talent, time, and money in creating a product and promoting the release. But the journey does not end there, the media product still needs to find its way the customer. That is why marketing tailored to each individual product is a core component of our sales and distribution strategy. Here we evaluate every product’s sales potential, develop effective strategies and pinpoint the most effective sales channels.
Marketing for physical media
Initial marketing support comes from our label managers, who advise their labels on product formats, optimal configurations, potential special editions and the strategic timing of release dates. From there, our sales team takes the lead on classic retail marketing.
Once a product’s sales targets are defined, everything is set in motion. Marketing for physical products involves crafting compelling selling points, producing impactful sales materials such as release sheets, catalogues and repertoire lists, planning chart-relevant pre-sales, running dealer promotions and pushing special editions. POS marketing including in-store displays, product placement and the use of advertising space is also part of this process. And ultimately, close coordination between our sales representatives and retail buyers ensures that everyone is working towards the same goal.
Marketing for Digital Sales
When marketing digital content, we start by optimising the sales-relevant metadata to ensure releases are presented at their best in online stores. After all, strong metadata is the first step to getting heard by fans. Most importantly, our team maintains close, ongoing contact with the editorial departments of key platforms, pitching songs weekly for playlist inclusion and for prominent placement on service providers’ main and genre-specific pages. In addition, we make full use of content marketing across social media channels, aligning these efforts with our physical sales activities through strategic cross-marketing.
Sales
Optimal
placement
In the end, it all comes down to our sales team. After all the effort involved in first creating and then promoting these valuable products, it is their job to ensure they reach their audience. To make sure this happens every time, our sales team maintains strong relationships with retailers. For us, specialist retailers are more than just clients. Above all, they are our partners. That is why we only offer retailers products we know they can sell. And we also make sure that nothing with sales potential slips through the cracks. Delivering the best possible recommendations to retail buyers requires in-depth repertoire knowledge and strong market insight. We must be pretty good at this, as our sales team enjoys an excellent reputation in the retail sector.
375 Media is our powerful sales Force
Mutual trust and close cooperation with specialist retailers are the key ingredients for shared success. Nevertheless, as a sales organisation, we need a certain amount of clout to set ourselves apart from other music distributors. Our goal is clear: to secure strong visibility for our distribution labels’ releases and maximise their market potential. To strengthen our market presence, the two indie pioneers Cargo Records from Wuppertal and Indigo from Hamburg joined forces back in 2018, combining their sales operations. Since then, we have been marketing the products of both music companies through our joint subsidiary 375 Media, establishing a powerful and unified marketing and sales organisation.
Logistics
Save
handling
Music fans rarely think about how their favourite record finds its way into shops, yet behind the scenes, it often takes a bit of magic to make sure the right product is in the right place at the right time. After 25 years of managing our own goods deliveries, in 2018 we decided to entrust our logistics to the specialists at kdg medialog. From our central warehouse in beautiful Tyrol, we now supply specialist retailers across Germany and Austria, and we export to our distribution partners around the world.
Europe-wide fulfillment from our Hamburg warehouse
Independent of our retail logistics hub in Austria, our warehouse operations in Hamburg provide Europe-wide fulfilment services for both domestic and international labels. This means that we operate a central warehouse in Hamburg on behalf of our clients, from which we distribute goods to their European partners. For our international labels, we take care of all the necessary import procedures and provide support with international tax issues. Thanks to our comprehensive range of services, we are able to offer each of our partners a tailored logistics and distribution solution that meets the highest standards.
Back Office
Maximising
value
Our business administration team may work behind the scenes, but our seven professional accountants are essential to keeping everything running smoothly. This is where all our operational data comes together, allowing this department to maintain a full overview of operations. Their combined expertise, coupled with a sophisticated information processing system, results in an efficient administrative structure. The Indigo back office plays a key role in making sure that our small group of companies can operate on an impressively large scale.
Technology that empowers our partners
The hottest room at Indigo? Our server room – and not just because of the temperature. It is home to cutting-edge technology, including our powerful Enterprise Resources Planning System, which runs on high-performance servers. This software has largely been developed in-house and is continuously being refined by our IT manager. The IT system spans the entire company, forming the backbone of efficient communication across all departments. It also enables smooth commercial interactions with artists and labels, retailers, content aggregators and collecting societies.
reliability that adds real value
The advanced infrastructure of the Indigo back office adds real value for our business partners. In both physical distribution and at INDIGO DIGITAL, we provide comprehensive tools for performance analysis, sales reporting and a wide range of billing services. We document all business transactions with precision, in a way that is always transparent and easy to follow. What matters most to our business partners is the end result. That is why we are genuinely proud of our reputation for flawless sales settlements and prompt payment. This level of reliability defines how we do business.
Alliances
Global sales
Indigo’s distribution services are focused on the German-speaking markets. In addition, we offer our labels the opportunity to reach broader audiences through trusted distribution partnerships across Europe and around the world. Our distributors have consistently proven their reliability over many years. We enjoy doing business with them, and we know they have a strong grasp of our catalogue.
A strong export partner
Many of our labels choose to use our export infrastructure for their international business, rather than managing their own distribution agreements. The advantages are clear: As a major business partner, we have a better standing with foreign distributors, which has a positive effect on both product acceptance and commercial conditions. At the same time, by bundling a wide range of products, we can ensure a regular supply even to smaller markets. We also take on the collection risk for our labels, a crucial factor in international operations.
Indigo Musikproduktion
+ Vertrieb GmbH