All About The Joy

The Indie Artist’s Playbook: Jesse Flores on Scaling, Streaming, and Team Building

• Carmen Lezeth Suarez • Episode 218

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What if the difference between “out now” and “taking off” was simply three weeks of planning and the right people answering your email? We sit with Jesse Flores, VP of Artists and Label Partnerships at Intercept Music, to map the modern indie playbook—how to keep your masters, design smarter releases, and turn attention into a durable career.

Jesse takes us from his mixtape‑selling college days to national roles at EMI, then into the services world where distribution is only half the story. We talk through the shift from record stores to streaming, why singles now anchor most strategies, and how playlisting and editorial pitching actually work on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. He’s candid about who is ready for a services deal and who should start DIY, what signals tell him an artist can scale, and why proactive, responsive support is the secret advantage in a crowded market.

We also get into AI’s role—useful for bios, press materials, and workflow, risky when it fabricates artists or fuels fraud—and the surge of cross‑genre collaboration as hip‑hop blends with Latin, Afrobeats, and even country. Jesse shares his “Fantastic Five” team framework: a strong distributor, manager, publicist, entertainment lawyer, and digital strategist. Add focused networking at Music Biz, ASCAP or BMI events, and industry weekends, and you’re not just releasing music—you’re building leverage. If you’ve been wondering when to drop, how to pitch, or what it takes to move from hobbyist to pro, this conversation lays out the steps with clarity and heart.

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Thank you for stopping by. Please visit our website: All About The Joy and add, like and share. You can also support us by shopping at our STORE - We'd appreciate that greatly. Also, if you want to find us anywhere on social media, please check out the link in bio page.

Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth


DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.

Carmen Lezeth:

Hey everyone, welcome to All About the Joy. This is the private lounge, and then the house is Rick Costa. Cynthia is here, and our guest, Jesse Flores. How are you? It's nice to meet you.

Jesse Flores:

Same here. Very nice to meet you, and thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Carmen Lezeth:

I'm excited. Let me just say a little bit about who you are. You can tell me if I'm wrong. Um, you are the vice president of artists and label partnerships at Intercept Music. Is that correct? Okay. And um, it's a for people who don't know, it's a digital platform that empowers independent artists and labels through marketing, distribution, and strategic growth. You're a veteran of music. You've been an executive for 20 years, which I was like, what were you like five when you started? But we'll, you know, we'll talk about that later. Um, and you've worked with some big legends. You've worked with Ice Cube, Stephen Marley, uh, DJ Premier, Carla Morrison. I was shocked to see that.

Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:

Um I just have to point out, I just have to point out Andrea Picelli right behind you.

unknown:

Yeah.

Carmen Lezeth:

Oh, so now you're excited, Cynthia. She was all nervous, people. She was so cute. Well, welcome to the show. We're glad to have you. Your person, uh, is her name Makeda?

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, Makita Smith is our wonderful publicist.

Carmen Lezeth:

Yeah, she reached out to me. And so I've been going back and forth with her, and I was excited to have you on the show. Um, I kind of want to talk about to start off with uh Bad Bunny, because I know that you're Puerto Rican and Mexican, but we can talk about what you want to talk about too. I don't want to bombard you too quick.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, no, I think it's a great opportunity. I mean, anytime you have a platform like the Super Bowl, uh, and you have an artist like a Bad Bunny or even like a Kendrick Lamar like last year, uh, you're getting that exposure that's priceless. I mean, he's getting true global exposure from sports fans around the world that watch this one uh event annually that I believe is the most watched event uh ever, you know, from what I understand. So uh the exposure is great. Uh I understand that not not a lot of people speak Spanish, but it's 2025, you know, that's the way uh things are happening, you know. The reality is there's a lot of Latinos out there uh that love football. So I think it's a great opportunity for him.

Carmen Lezeth:

How did you start in this business? How did you get your feet wet and and how old were you? Because it must have been like five, six years old when you started. I'm sorry, I saw his picture, I saw you in a couple of videos. I'm like, there's no way he's been doing this for over 20 years.

Jesse Flores:

So actually he's closer to 30, it'll be 30 next year. Yeah, started in 96 in December of 96.

Carmen Lezeth:

You're gonna have to share your moisturizing regimen. We'll talk later. Okay.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, I mean, I actually started in college. You know, I wanted to get into music. I love music. Uh, I was a big collector of albums and CEs and cassettes at the time. And uh I started selling mixtapes at my college, University of Florida on campus. Um, and that kind of part laid into uh me finding out about an organization on campus run by students that actually uh promoted shows uh at the school. So it was basically a student-run booking agency. So I joined that and uh, you know, it wasn't a paid position or anything, but I got to learn like certain aspects of the business and get my foot in the door. You know, we brought some great acts like um, you know, Victorious VIG, Farside called Quest.

Carmen Lezeth:

Wow.

Jesse Flores:

Uh yeah, Lost Boys, Red Man, so a bunch of artists that were relevant at the time. And uh, you know, they got a magazine called CMJ. And in the classifies, there was uh an opportunity for a college up in North Central Florida for Polygram Distribution, which was one of the big distribution companies at the time, it was one of the majors. And I had an interview for that, I got it, and uh I got my foot in the door as a part-time college up with Polygram.

Carmen Lezeth:

And that's how it started.

Jesse Flores:

That's how it started, yeah.

Carmen Lezeth:

We all love music, but a lot of us don't go into it. I mean, are are you at all a musician? Do you sing or whatever? But did or did you always know you're gonna go on the business end of it?

Jesse Flores:

I was. I played instruments phone all through uh my youth. You know, I played uh uh ultimate baritone saxophone, and even my first thread school, I was in the program to be, you know, uh a music major, but at the end of the day, I was like, I don't want to major in performance. I want to major in music with the music business. I didn't have that at my school at the time. So I switched my major to business management and um I found my way to work in the music part later on with uh SGP, that student-run organization, and then later on with Program as a college.

Carmen Lezeth:

And so you do a lot of management of artists right now, right? Is that what you would more or less say? Like, so just to explain really what you do nitty-gritty, give me like a day in the life of.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, so my day-to-day uh is really business development. So I'm out there for intercept music looking for new opportunities, whether it's a new distribution deal with an artist or an independent label. Uh, we're actually doing catalog acquisitions now. So any artist or label out there that wants to sell their catalog, their rights, um, that you know has a fairly mature uh history of releases and just wants to like, you know, basically cash in or sell their catalog, we're into that as well. But our core business is distribution, so we're looking for any artist out there that you know wants to get their music out there distributed to the Spotify of the world, the Apple Music, the YouTubes, uh, Amazon Music. Uh, we provide that service as well as marketing services on top of that. Because to be honest, there's a lot of companies out there that can get your music from A to B. We want to add that extra layer of service out there, that White Glove service, you know, to help you with release strategy, coming up with a marketing plan, helping out with some of the advertising opportunities, all that kind of stuff. So that's the kind of company that Intercept is.

Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:

So is it basically like trying to help the artist like basically keep their money, make money on their own rather than having the big labels and having them take like basically like 80% of it, you know?

Jesse Flores:

No, you're right. Yeah, we're definitely into artist empowerment uh when it comes to independent artists. So you do a deal with Intercept, you have 100% creative control, and you have ownership of your content. So we're there to provide a service for you, which is distribution and marketing.

Rick Costa:

Um 2025, as opposed to like 50 years ago, what's the difference between what you would do now as opposed to how it was 50 years ago?

Jesse Flores:

Man, that's a great question because it's totally changed. Even in my my career in the past 25, 30 years, uh the distribution landscape is totally different because back then we had record stores and you know we had physical products, and we still do now, but it's not to the level that it was uh back then. And you know, what I would do when I was starting out was go to each record store and you know, put up posters and banners to promote our new releases, set up real retailing stores. So when an artist comes in town, we take them on a promo run and do like a signing at the actual record store, or you know, we take them to radio stations along with the radio reps. You know, there's a whole face-to-face more interaction. Now everything's digital, everything's online, you're streaming music as opposed to actually buying it and having that ownership uh of a physical product, so it's totally changed and the players have changed as well. You know, back then it was you know Tower Records and Virgin and you know Sam Goody and Best Buy in Walmart. Now you go to Walmart and there might be a rack of it. And this has totally changed. And you know, that's how people consume music now, is online through streaming. So it is amazing in the fact that you can actually own or have access to uh millions of phones on the palm of your hand with your phone, you know, using these apps, these different platforms. Uh whereas back in the day, you know, you had to go to a record store. I would like to sit in the store and you know just spend hours listening to new albums and you know going through the racks. So totally different.

Carmen Lezeth:

Do you think something's been lost in like just buying an entire album? You would listen to it from beginning to end, and now people just listen to one song over and over and over again.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it's definitely more of a singles game now, you know. Um, when I listen to an album online, you know, I might add up to five songs to a playlist. You know, it's just not like it was back in the day where you had uh no-skip albums. Like one of my favorite albums is Mary Triplies My Life. But that album today, you could play it from track one to the end to be happy, and it's just an amazing album, very deep and just no skip tracks. Like it's just no fun.

Carmen Lezeth:

So it's like Lauren Hill's miseducation, right? That's another one is no skip.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, and even the talent out uh of an artist like Lauren Hill. I mean, she could rap with the best of them, she could sing with the best of them. Like she is an amazing talent for sure. Yeah.

Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:

Oh wow. So funny because like I have I have a few friends that are that are DJs, and I still remember back in the day, you know, them lugging in the big crates with all the records and everything. And now it's like you just bring a laptop and you're all set. You got everything at your fingertips.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, I know the DJs are love in the digital age, because yeah, that's that's you have to have to have somebody with you to do all that for sure. Right.

Carmen Lezeth:

Um, how do you think AI is affecting your industry right now? Good, bad, or indifferent?

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, I I think it varies. You know, when it comes to AI, uh, we actually have AI incorporated with our database in our dashboard uh within Intercept uh as a marketing tool. So if you're an artist and you don't have a policy, you can generate um, you know, a press release or a bio using the AI in our dashboard. Um I think where the difference is uh is when uh use AI for content creation. That's a different story because you know you're having a computer-generated song or track and you know, or artists per se, and it's just uh I think it takes away from the human element. You know, so as a company, Intercept, we definitely support the marketing side of AI. When it comes to content creation, you know, that could lead to potential issues. Because when you have AI created content, that could also lead to fraudulent activity at the DSPs and having fake streams and you know to go along with that quote fake artist. So that's definitely an issue and something that all the major platforms are trying to take a good look at now to resolve.

Carmen Lezeth:

What's one moment in your career that you can pinpoint that kind of changed everything for you that you knew this was what you were going to be doing?

Jesse Flores:

Um, I'd say without a doubt, uh when I started my job at EMI, which was the mid-2000s, uh, I went from being like a regional sales rep to an actual uh national position where I was head of our urban marketing. And from that I was able to correlate into um head of business development where I had the ability to sign distribution deals with artists. And these are artists that I grew up listening to. So they were already established, and most of them are coming off their major label deal. They didn't want to go back, but also wanted to keep releasing music uh in an independent fashion. And the way we were able to do deals there was um, you know, I signed to a dirt third-party distribution deal with EMI, they owned the rights, they had control, we provided distribution, but we also had Capital Records, one of our main labels, provide marketing services. So even though they were independent, they had capital providing radio promotion and publicity and which was huge at the time. Right. That was a big one for them.

Carmen Lezeth:

What would be your advice for an up-and-coming indie artist? What would be like kind of your beginning business advice?

Jesse Flores:

I would definitely say, you know, really sit down and think about what do you want to do? Is this gonna be your career where you wanna you know make a living? Is this just something you want to do on the side? And if it is something that you're serious about and really wanna uh earn some some money at some point in the career, you know, during your career, you gotta have a plan. Like everything you do, you gotta have a plan and sit there and really for the next 12 months, here's what I want to do. I want to release two EPs, I want to release an album or singles or whatever, and then put together a strategy um, you know, to approach each platform to optimize the the most uh ability to basically have that major exposure. So, say, you know, you put out a release for a single, you want to have a plan for Spotify, a plan for YouTube, because each each platform is different, each platform has different fans. So you want to make sure you want to do that, and then also incorporate a team that you trust and that believes in you that can help you achieve your goals.

Carmen Lezeth:

And that's what you guys do, right?

Jesse Flores:

I mean that's yeah, and that exactly like a distributor is part of that team that I call the Fantastic Five. So it's a good distributor, a good manager, um, a good publicist, a good entertainment lawyer, and a good online marketing and social media strategist. Having those five people or five entities in your uh life when it comes to being an artist are crucial because you can you know go back and forth, you can heed their advice, you guys can throw ideas together, come up with that plan, and really uh help grow your business.

Carmen Lezeth:

Okay, so what is the biggest shift you've seen in hip-hop?

Jesse Flores:

Um, I think lately it's been a lot of the cross-polarization of genres. You know, you see hip-hop uh being integrated with Latin music per se, Afrobeats as well, um, country, you know, there are a lot of country uh artists working with hip-hop artists now. So just hip-hop becoming more mainstream and bleeding into some of the other genres that are typically um not used to having hip-hop being a part of it. And you know, hip-hop is just going to another level. We were talking about Bad Bunny earlier. He's basically a hip-hop artist that raps in in Spanish. So, you know, it's pretty much global now, and I don't think it's going anywhere.

Carmen Lezeth:

I don't think it's going anywhere either. Um, I think, you know, I I don't know a country artist that does hip-hop.

Jesse Flores:

Am I concluding that that really does hip hop, but I meant like doing a hip-hop song like with an artist and having like maybe a country hip-hop track. Like I know Nelly did one with um uh um hip-hop artists years ago. Like he was one of the first ones.

Carmen Lezeth:

Oh, okay. I I'm not a fan of country, everyone knows that. So I'm like, what?

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, definitely some mashups, I guess they'd say, you know, between country artists and because I think we kind of need that in a weird way.

Carmen Lezeth:

We need there to be more crossing over because I think it helps bring people from different genres but different geographic and political strives together, you know what I mean? And this country kind of needs that, right? How big time. Um, and I think music can play a big part in that.

Rick Costa:

Uh your company at all deal with uh music videos or is just tripping music?

Jesse Flores:

We do. We do um have a partnership with YouTube where you know we we optimize and monetize uh any videos that are posted to YouTube. And then I think pretty soon on the roadmap we're actually gonna start delivering to like uh Avivo and some of the other platforms that sell music videos as well.

Carmen Lezeth:

If you could build a dream label from scratch, what three values would define it? This was totally an AI question, by the way, but now I want to know. Well, no, what would be your dream label?

Jesse Flores:

Uh I think it would have to have definitely um top-notch customer service, you know, that's a big part of it because reality is a lot of days, a lot of times now, um, when you talk to these distributors and artists that are with other distributors, they have a hard time getting people on the phone, having a hard time, you know, having somebody email them back in a timely manner. So just being able to talk to someone and reach someone when you have an issue, you know, that that's important.

Carmen Lezeth:

Now that's everywhere.

Jesse Flores:

That's everywhere, exactly. And I was talking to somebody about like my car insurance or my mortgage company. I couldn't get anybody on the phone. I need to talk to somebody.

Carmen Lezeth:

Okay, so so that's it. Well, that's one.

Jesse Flores:

You have two more and then having a perfect blend of uh music distribution tools and technology, just providing tools that are definitely gonna help um, you know, the artists and and label get to their what they want to do, whether it's advertising, whether it's marketing, whether it's playlist promotion, you know, developing tools that are actually there that are gonna help grow the business.

Rick Costa:

On the personal side, growing up when you were a kid, what kind of music played in your house?

Jesse Flores:

All kinds of music. Uh, my mom was big into like the Motown era, so we heard a lot of uh all that great music that Motown had in the 50s and 60s and 70s. My parents were Latino, so there was definitely some Sasla, some merengue, and then I grew up listening to RB and hip-hop, really. Uh a little bit of jazz, uh play jazz in the band. But um, but yeah, it was a nice mixture of all types of music. I grew up in the south, I grew up in Florida, so we had art genres of music as well, booty music, all that kind of stuff. That was big, and definitely RB. Like after 10 o'clock, that's all you heard in the radio stations was RB music. Yeah, a good blend of all those.

Carmen Lezeth:

Who's your favorite artist?

Jesse Flores:

Wow, that's a great question.

Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:

Um I get in trouble for that.

Jesse Flores:

I love I always love the artist on Uptown Records, so I'm a big Jodice fan.

Carmen Lezeth:

Um Jodicey.

Jesse Flores:

Oh, yeah, I'm a big Joe D fan. That because I grew up in the 90s and that they were they were it. They were like the game back then. I'll say Jodice.

Carmen Lezeth:

Wow, okay. I I would have lost that bet if we had to make a bet. Okay, cool. You've worked with some of the big legends, right? Ice Cube, Stephen Marley. I always say Steve Marley. Why am I saying Steve? Is it Stephen Marley?

Jesse Flores:

It's definitely Stephen, yeah.

unknown:

All right.

Carmen Lezeth:

You know, we personal friends, so you know. What's what's a lesson you've learned from some of the great artists that you've worked with?

Jesse Flores:

Definitely work ethic from an artist like uh Ice Cube. You know, this is someone that is you know, I grew up listening to, so just working with him was uh a dream, you know. Uh and then just at the time of my career, I was really young, so I was just getting started out. And I noticed that he's different than a lot of the artists because he also has uh a movie career. And when you're in movies, they move differently. Like you have to be on time, they just have a different uh work ethic about them. Same thing with Tyrese. So these people that are not just artists, you know, they're really about their business, they have a bigger team around them, they uh have more opportunities come about, they you know seem to uh move differently and not sleep, you know, just but still be able to function and do what they need to do. Um, so I think learning the work ethic from those type of artists really helped me realize where I could fit in and what I can do better.

Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:

Have you ever been starstruck by any artists that you've worked with?

Jesse Flores:

Uh I wouldn't say starstruck, you know, but I do I might get a little nervous. Like when I first met someone like DJ Premier, who I really looked up to, um, I kind of fumbled my words to begin with, and I'm like, oh boy, just did that. But not so much starstruck where I was like, oh my god, I can't talk to them type of thing. It was more so being a little nervous.

Carmen Lezeth:

Is there anyone that would make you fumble in a big way? You know what? Because I I felt the same way until I met um James Earl Jones. Okay. And I was beside, you know, like I mean, I meet a lot of celebrities, but that was like one of my heroes, and it was really hard when I first met him. Um, but it was cool, but I didn't think I would do that. So I'm wondering, is there anyone that would do that to you?

Jesse Flores:

You know what? I think the answer would be different if I was just starting out my career, because I would probably say, yeah, there's so-and-so. But now that I've been in this business for a while, you realize that everybody's human and everybody's just like you uh in some sort of way or started out just where you were. So I mean, I was just you know, I don't think I'd ever be really starstruck to be honest at this point, this point in my career.

Carmen Lezeth:

Really? See, I started I would be, I think I would be some people, yeah. I don't know. I'm trying to think now if I would be, but I think I would be. I think there were a few people that would just throw me. Yeah, I I would cover it though, right? I would I'd be like totally chill, but inside I'd be dying.

unknown:

Really?

Carmen Lezeth:

Inside dying, yeah. I think so. I think people like um, I mean, you know, may may he rest in peace, but like Robert Redford, like meeting Robert Redford would have been really cool. You know, um Prince, you know, I mean, I love Prince, and I never saw you know, like I would have been like beside myself.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, I think you know what now that I think about it. If I had met Halle Berry in the 90s, I probably would have been spread for it.

Carmen Lezeth:

Interesting. I may know certain people, I don't know. Can't really talk about it. You know, NDA. I'm just getting NDA. Um, what's next for you?

Jesse Flores:

Uh we're just excited about what's down the road for me, for the company at Intercept, because you know, we're poised for great growth over the next year or two. Just with the you know, who we're hiring, you know, we're adding people to our team where a lot of the major companies and music nowadays are consolidating and merging. Yeah, and it's deciding time to be an independent artist. You know, independent uh record labels and artists own, I think, at least 40% market share now out of the entire music industry, which is crazy to think.

Carmen Lezeth:

Wow, that's I didn't know it was that much really.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, it's like 38 to 40 percent now of the music consumed is coming from an independent artist or label.

Carmen Lezeth:

That's really good, actually.

Jesse Flores:

That's amazing, yeah.

Carmen Lezeth:

That would be amazing if it could happen like in television and movies as well. Like I mean, I think it's everything's changing, you know? That's amazing.

unknown:

Yeah, definitely.

Carmen Lezeth:

So that kind of inspires independent artists. I mean, saying that, yeah, I think it's kind of inside I don't think people realize that.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, it's true, and that's the reason why I wanted to join Interstate because uh, you know, I've been working with independent artists for uh years now, and I I see it, and I see what happens when you uh have results and you work as a team and you're strategically grow their business along uh with what you're doing as a company. And you know, there's just so many ways that you can you know optimize and monetize uh different content. You have total control of how you want to release things and what you want to release, like just the whole independent spirit is something that drives me and something I want to do going forward.

Carmen Lezeth:

Not talking about music, but from a point of view as a manager, as somebody who knows business, what would be your advice to someone who's just starting out in any kind of way, wanting to start a creative career? What would you say to that person?

Jesse Flores:

I would say do your research, you know, really go out there and see for yourself what this business is that you're doing. So, say if you are an artist or a label and you want to get into the business, you need to start going out to different events and you know, that some of the companies out there have. Like, you know, the performing rights organizations for music, uh, ASCAP, BMI, and CSEC, they constantly have events that you can attend. There's conferences that you can attend because you want to see who is part of the business that you want to be in. You want to see where you fit in, observe, or at least that's what I would do. Um, just to kind of get the lay of the land. So you know you're not going in there blind. Uh, that's the first thing I would do. The second thing I would do is um mix and mingle and meet people, network, and try and find a mentor, because that's one thing I'd I would say I did not have in my career, is having a mentor that could kind of take me under their wing and show me the ropes. I didn't really do that, but the type of person I am, I I learned on my own and just from you know observing and being part of the business. But having that mentor, I think definitely helps, uh, especially in the long run, because you never know in an industry like uh music, which is very volatile, uh a lot of people get laid off, a lot of people lose their jobs, or something happens. I've been in the business almost 30 years, I've been laid off twice, uh, only due to company mergers, you know, not due to cause. So there's just things that are inevitable that happen that you got to deal with. And having those people in your corner that believe in you and trust you can only help you uh with your next move.

Carmen Lezeth:

But let's do it a little bit more concrete, right? You said mix and mingle network. Like in the music industry, I don't know where that happens, right? So LinkedIn, like what do you do? Like, how do you find out these places that you could go and meet people?

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, so there's different organizations that hold events. Um there's also music conferences, like there's a big conference in Atlanta every year called Music Biz, uh, where everybody pretty much on the business side of the music um industry, they go there and you know present their new releases and have um you know panels that have discussions and showcases. So those type of events, they're not as many conferences as there used to be, but there's still some around. That's a great place to kind of get your foot in the door and learn about the music business. And and then there's different events in bigger cities, like even the event weekends like BT Awards weekend or NBA All-Star Weekend or Grammy weekend, those are all events where you want to be in the city because there's constantly people that are in the business you want to be in that are there out and about.

Carmen Lezeth:

Oh, yeah. So you're just saying like networking around in those areas, finding out in your city, whatever.

Jesse Flores:

So you know what?

Carmen Lezeth:

What's your website name? I can't believe I didn't write that down.

Jesse Flores:

So the website is interceptmusic.com, and we also have an Instagram handle. It's at Intercept Music Official.

Carmen Lezeth:

Okay, and I'll make sure to put that down or whatever. So it's um say that again, interceptmusic.com. And Instagram is what?

Rick Costa:

At Intercept Musicofficial. I got some. Remember back in the day when they had those memes, it's like what they think I do, what my family thinks I do, what I really do. Like, can you think of like a misconception or two of what people think you do? But it's like, nah, Brian, doing that. What do you talk about?

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, my people back home, they definitely think I mix and mingle with stars like 24-7. This is just so nothing.

Carmen Lezeth:

I think you do too.

Jesse Flores:

No, no, when you're in distribution, you're in the business side of the music business for sure. Like there are definitely times where there's a listening party, or you know, you you have another um an artist go around uh to different, you know, meetings with you know Apple Music or or you know uh Spotify or something like that. But for the most part, it's definitely a business side. Like we have marketing meetings, we have sales meetings, we have business development meetings, um, and it's all like you know, it's all work.

Carmen Lezeth:

And you're talking to all of their entourage people.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, yeah, we're not talking to the artists, we're always talking with their manager.

Carmen Lezeth:

Yeah, I can't tell you how many times like I'll like people will expect my client to show up, right? Because I work for some people, and it'll just be me and our assistant, and they'll be like, oh yeah.

Jesse Flores:

So it's work. It's yeah, it's definitely the business side for sure.

Carmen Lezeth:

So so what makes you so happy? Like you said, it's the work, you love what you do, so what is it?

Jesse Flores:

I can't see myself doing anything else. I mean, I I've always wanted to be in music, and and yes, when I was younger and I had those uh I guess what I would call lower level jobs, it's it's definitely more fun because you're basically on the road going to record stores and promoting music and having boxes full of CDs and posters and stuff that kids would love to have. And you know, I would literally go to hotels, you know, that would need to stay in going on the road and give them a box of a few CDs and get like a free room, you know, stuff like that. But those days are gone because we don't have anything to barter with anymore. But yeah, I mean, and then you know, you just you just it's just a part of lifestyle. It's like you just part of your life. Like I can't see myself doing anything else, like working at a bank or or something. It's just I don't know, it wouldn't be the same.

Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:

Now, where are you based out of?

Jesse Flores:

So I'm by coastal, I live in LA and also Atlanta, but I spend most of my time in LA.

Carmen Lezeth:

Where are you right now? You're in LA?

Jesse Flores:

I'm in Los Angeles.

Carmen Lezeth:

Oh, the city is cool. I'm in Los I didn't know you I for some reason I thought you were in Atlanta, but okay.

Rick Costa:

What would you say would be something you could say that sets apart your company as opposed to other ones?

Jesse Flores:

Uh I definitely think it's our customer service. You know, as I stated earlier, you know, you're not gonna be chasing us, you're not gonna be able to have an issue getting somebody to talk to, any about your issues, because a lot of times when you have an issue with the a distributor, it's because something's not up at a certain platform or you need to deliver something, you know, late and you want to make sure it gets live on time. So you need that urgent, you know, response. And I think that's kind of what we excel at is basically being there and also trying to be proactive. You know, if you're an artist and you put something out and you know you turn into music and you're like, oh, I want this to come out this Friday, we're gonna push back and say, hey, look, it makes more sense to do it, you know, three, four weeks from now, because the reality is that Spotify or Apple Music, they have their pitch meetings three weeks before a release date. So why would you want to put something out if you can't at least discuss it with them and get in front of them? You never know how they're gonna support. They could, you know, give you a playlist or they might you know feature your project. You just don't know until you know you let them know that it's coming. So little things like that, I think, could definitely help and are beneficial to any of our artists and label partners.

Carmen Lezeth:

What is it that you're looking for in people reaching out, you know, talent-wise? Um, and what are you not looking for? Like what would be a reason you would reject someone?

Jesse Flores:

So, yeah, we're definitely looking for artists and labels that want to distribute or that help them take to the next level. You know, uh, definitely prefer artists that have a commercial fan base, so somebody that has followers on Spotify, subscribers on YouTube. Uh, the one thing that we probably wouldn't accept at this point is just like a brand new artist that has never released music before because we just don't know what kind of following they have or you know, what kind of interest there is in their music. So we wouldn't necessarily reject them, we just say it's not the right time. You know, come back to us, let's revisit it once you've put out some releases and to see what kind of fan base you generate. So anybody that's out there that's got some type of commercial fan base that's looking and ideally a catalog that could transfer over, uh, we'd be looking forward to working with.

Carmen Lezeth:

So the the fan base could be on any social media. So if you have TikTok followers or whatever, like that would work too.

Jesse Flores:

More so ticks, the the the monetized uh platforms for with music. So say like a like you said, a TikTok, a Spotify, a YouTube, Apple Music, uh Amazon, a Pandora, those type of platforms.

Carmen Lezeth:

Right. Right. So you're not looking for beginner people. Sorry. Rick. No, I'm just kidding.

Jesse Flores:

There's distributors for them though. There's like District Kid and TuneCore. Those are the distributors that that work with the DIY type of artists where they're just getting started. And then you know, once we get to a certain level, you can start generating some sales and some some streams. That's where you can look at other distributors.

Carmen Lezeth:

But those guys aren't your competitors? I thought I read they were your competitors.

Jesse Flores:

They can be, but they offer different types of services. Like if you're a DIY and you're at a TuneCore or distro kid, you probably don't have marketing services involved. This is strictly distribution. So we're we are a different company that's kind of fits in the middle of a distro kid in like an uh orchard.

Carmen Lezeth:

Right. And you again, I think it like for people who are not in the music business, to me, it sounds like complete management. But is that wrong? I think that's management what you do.

Jesse Flores:

It's definitely like artist. I say artist or label management. That'd probably be the correct term for it. Because that's essentially what we're doing as a distributor.

Carmen Lezeth:

Right.

Jesse Flores:

Right.

Rick Costa:

Okay, cool. What's on the youngest and oldest person you've dealt with? Wow, who would be the oldest? I'm trying to think. Not the name, but like the age. Oh, the age, yeah.

Jesse Flores:

We probably wouldn't know who it is. The oldest, yeah. It's not that old, probably in her 50s. Um, and the youngest is teens, you know, late teens. Yeah.

Carmen Lezeth:

Okay, now I do believe that you're in your 30s, you know, that you've been doing this for 30 years because nobody who's really young would be like, you know, young, like 50s. That was your tell. Okay, I believe it now. Yeah.

Jesse Flores:

Hey, I'm I'm one year away from 50.

Carmen Lezeth:

So really, well, you look fantastic. I'm just saying. We are doing makeup tips afterwards, so you can tell what you do with your skin cream. Um, if somebody comes and they're 14 years old and they have a huge crowd base or whatever, how much of that role matters, like especially if their mom and dad are heavily involved or not?

Jesse Flores:

It depends because if the mom and dad is like the manager, then yeah, I think it definitely uh is a factor. But usually when you're a young artist that you know might not be a little mature or might not be emotionally ready or stable to deal with uh the industry, we usually have like a buffer. We usually have a manager that we deal with strictly. Like the only time we really deal with an artist is like when they're actually there and at like an event that we're you know, we we sponsored or or brought to the table. Um, now there's also the case where you're an employee at a music company and you you have that situation. That's a different story because it can get tough. Like there's been meetings and stuff where people's gotten yelled at and it's gotten tense and or a little high stress, or you know, deal with deal with adversity, you know, deal with crazy situations where you're getting calls in the middle of the night, so-and-so's left and up, you know, how can we fix this? Uh, I don't want them on my project anymore. Don't let the guy touch my record, that kind of thing.

Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:

That happens a lot. That happens a lot.

Jesse Flores:

Exactly. So you have that on both sides, the artist level and on the business side as well.

Carmen Lezeth:

Yeah, it's very painful. No, I'm just thinking about like, you know, dealing with especially people who are high-end artists. Um, and the thing is that when they get upset, because it takes a lot usually, because by the time because it's gone, it's filtered through 15 people. Yeah, right. They're entourage of people. So if they're upset, it's a whole different ballgame.

unknown:

Yeah.

Carmen Lezeth:

Like we're now in the weeds. Yeah, and we usually have to fire whoever they're upset about because if it's gone that far. I don't know about your your industry, but it must be the same thing.

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, it's very similar. If they're not fired, say if it's like a product manager, we switch product managers, like it's somebody else going forward that's gonna handle that artist going forward, type of thing. So yeah, this is the background juicy. I haven't seen where everybody's fired.

Carmen Lezeth:

Right. In the same respect, when everything goes well, you don't usually hear anything. That's it. Yeah, isn't that true? Like if everything goes spot on perfectly, it's and it and it doesn't matter how hard you worked or whatever, no matter how hard the team worked, you're not gonna hear like a thanks, or I'm not saying all the time, but you know what I mean.

Jesse Flores:

Oh, yeah, it's to be expected uh at certain times, but yeah, but not hearing anything sometimes is a good thing, especially.

Carmen Lezeth:

Yeah, no, no, no, it's always a good thing. Yeah, that that's what you want, but it's so interesting how and and you're saying it's the same in the music industry. It's kind of the same thing when you're dealing with high-end people, it really is a filter of a whole bunch of entourage-pew, and then you know, it takes a lot of work to make people look magical. And if it works, it's great, but if it doesn't, it's it's bad. Yeah.

Rick Costa:

Exactly. When you retire, is there something like a dream or a bucket list thing like, oh yeah, this was a hard time doing this?

Jesse Flores:

I haven't really thought about that deeply, but I'm definitely all about peace and tranquility in my life. So whatever it is, I'm gonna be like, you know, I'll be college football fans, I'll be watching football on the falls, uh, a little bit of baseball in this in the spring, and just uh spending time with my loved ones. Yeah, nothing.

Carmen Lezeth:

You know what? It's so funny because I think we all need some peace and tranquility. Man, and that is what music gives me every day. What does music do for you?

Jesse Flores:

Let's it does it all. I mean, there's music for every every type of emotion and feeling. You know, if I want to work out and really get into it, I listen to my my run playlist. If I want to just chill and relax, I have like a chill jazz playlist. So it just varies, you know. For any mood you're in, there's a music for it.

Carmen Lezeth:

Yeah, somebody today at work, it was so funny because I was listening to Sting. I was listening, I forget what it which album, but it's not the police, it's Sting. And I just had it on the I didn't think anybody was in the office. And one of the guys was like, You're listening to this? I didn't know you'd like. I'm like, what do you like? I don't just walk around only listening to Beyonce and Prince. You know what I mean? Everything changes, right? There's like a different, I don't know, it was just on in the car, and then I went into the office and I put it on, you know. Uh whatever. There's music for each mood. Absolutely.

unknown:

Very true.

Carmen Lezeth:

Well, it was really good to have you. It's just I you're very efficient. I don't know. I have never done my list of questions and gone through them all. No, this is a compliment to you. That feels special or a diss to me for not doing better work. But we appreciate having you on, Jesse. And if people want to if people want to reach out to you, could they do that personally, or would you rather that they just go check out the website?

Jesse Flores:

Yeah, definitely check out the website, IG, or they can send me an email. I'm at jesse.flores at interceptmusic.com.

Carmen Lezeth:

That is so awesome. All right. Well, people heard that. I'll make sure to put that out there. Um really grateful to have you on the show, and thank you so much. And everyone, remember at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy. Thanks, everyone. Bye. Don't hang up, Jesse. Don't hang up yet.

unknown:

Okay.

Carmen Lezeth:

Thanks for stopping by. All about the joy. Be better and stay beautiful, folks. Have a sweet day.

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