We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jorge Brea a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jorge, thanks for joining us today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

Symphonic started with me as employee 1 but quickly became something where a few close friends were involved. Originally, I wanted to focus on releasing on Vinyl and CD but just didn’t have the funds so I started releasing content digitally, that did well and then, I went ahead and helped all of the labels that worked with me on the Vinyl days to also adapt and release content digitally. Soon after, 6 or so months, I started to work with a few friends and such to get the business going. The initial team and folks that we had was there more-so out of the curiosity, willingness to help, and love of the business. Since we were in music, we had found something that could make money, which was very hard to do at the time. There wasn’t much of an interview process but rather, “let’s do this” attitude.

As the business grew, we hired and sadly fired as we needed to and then I wanted to really grow faster but also get a lot of experience. I sought after a Series A 10 years after bootstrapping the business because I wanted a proven entity, the music industry was in a better position than it had ever been, and really, it was the time to think bigger but also, surround myself with people that had seen things that I hadn’t.

I think if I was starting today, I would try and draw out the technology and how its supposed to work. A lot of the challenges we’ve had have been around the fact that we didn’t have the right expertise in that seat and that in general, we were so gung-ho that we’ve had to fix some of the issues over the years.

Jorge, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

First, I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Since I was young I was always interested in music but also technology. As I became more aware and interested in technology, I started to learn more about software and particularly became interested in music production software as it could enable me to do what I enjoyed listening to without having to learn how to play an instrument.

I was always pretty driven and when I found a passion, I sort of obsessed and focused on it and solely it in terms of a hobby. As cheesy as it may sound to some, one summer I found out that you could develop levels for Duke Nukem 3D as it came with a “Level Map Creator” and it was pretty interesting as it was almost like a junior version of CAD (architecture design). I went pretty nuts with that, built many levels that were featured on websites dedicated to the game, even launched my own website, podcast show etc… real nerdy stuff haha. After that though I really became interested in making music because my brother would always play electronic music and I had never really heard anything like that before. This was mid to late 90’s and then I officially really got into it in the 2000’s especially after high school. I applied that immediate obsessive behavior of sorts that I had building video game levels to music.

I would go and buy vinyl records and then I saw that one label would press your music on vinyl if you won the remix contest that was included. I did it and I submitted 8 versions with one of them being the winner so I had a vinyl pressed at the age of 16 and then I focused myself on getting as many vinyls as possible pressed so I would go to the record store, note down the emails and websites of these labels and began to message them to work with them just because I wanted vinyl records.

When I started to become active in terms of producing / DJing, I then wanted to control my own destiny and release my own records, my way, on my schedule but, that was so difficult so I began to see that there was an online ability to release music and when I did that and saw the potential in it, I applied the same sort of, obsessive behavior to the work and that is where Symphonic came from. I just wanted to work and do this thing that was super unique and different, digital distribution.

Symphonic is at heart a Digital Distributor. We have a platform that any creator, whether its an artist, manager, record label, etc…. can log on, upload and we then get their music out there to all of the DSPs. We’ve been around since 2006 which was during a period where the industry flat out wasn’t where it is today. Napster decimated the music industry and online piracy was growing heavily with physical plummeting. This thing called “Downloads” was growing but not really that fast and in general, there weren’t a lot of reliable platforms out there that could sell music so, it was really exciting to be part of something where people were figuring it out. I kind of imagine and see the same excitement in folks involved in Web3 and AI as well feeling the same thing I felt and it’s also exciting to still find a certain sense of evolution within the industry for what I believe is now the third time since i’ve been involved (1. Physical to Downloads / 2. Downloads to Streaming / 3. AI).

As any business does, we’ve evolved and we do a lot more than just make your music go from point A to point B. We help market, distribute physical (selectively), place music on tv shows, commercials, films, and monetize in new and exciting ways.

The main problems we aim to solve is easily being able to get your music out there but, also give you insights that wouldn’t have been available years ago if you were a creator. You literally get to see and understand how many people are playing your music, where, and on what platform. In addition, we pay you monthly, allowing you to potentially make a consistent living doing this business and further, even make it easy for the creator to pay others and handle their business. We want to continue to expand that with more creator tools and partnerships to essentially, have an ecosystem from the start of making a song all of the way to where it’s consumed and loved.

I am most proud that what I started is becoming something that is loved by creators from all places of the earth as well as even staff members that are my age and/or even younger and that we all have a drive to get creativity and messages that we are passionate out there for many other there. Every year we do our annual meeting where we get as many of our staff together and it’s a pretty emotional thing for me to stand in front of the company and see the faces that have contributed. I really truly believe that it’s a team effort so to see people that are energize and love what we do is incredible.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funding your business – tell us the story of how you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I began the business in 2006 and it was bootstrapped until 2017.

I was working a full time job and in the evenings and weekends, i’d work on the business. We made money by getting the music out there and waiting for the consumption to occur so when I say that, it feels interesting and funny in a way because, you just “do”. What I mean is, I had no idea that the music we’d sign to distribute would do anything but, it didn’t matter. It was just fun and energizing to be able to do the work for folks.

I took a very conservative approach and really wanted to build up the cash of the business but reinvested as much as I could to continue to expand. I knew that if the business was going to grow, it was going to grow with people and individuals. I’d usually say to staff members that I look forward to having 30 people one day and i wanted that more-so than my own personal gain and comfort at times because when you are in business, and if you are in it for the right reasons, you are in it for something greater and sometimes, it is something that you can’t really see but that you feel inside that you want to keep doing.

After many years of being bootstrapped, we became a bit fortunate that the industry was shifting to something really scalable and that was streaming. I started to see in the trades that there was more capital coming into the industry and that started to really peak my interest because while I could had gone to a bank, I wanted to try out this “investor” thing. Our cap table was clean, just me as the majority owner and I started seeking out investment capital because I wanted our business to benefit from the interest that the markets were showing.

I was fortunate to close a Series A in 2017 after understanding the process and working closely with an investor that really took the time to make me feel comfortable as an entrepreneur. I went through a financial audit for the first time and that changed a lot about what we needed to do as a business but at the same time, it was incredibly interesting because it also showed what we needed to do as ab business to go to the next level. Doing the fundraising, mostly by myself but with the assistance of an interim CFO as well as legal was rewarding but also, felt like a reset and day 1 again after it closed. I felt a responsibility to give a return for an entity that trusted me and I feel the same thing now. We raised a Series B at the end of 2021 / early 2022 and we’re excited because now that helps bring in more capital to the business but also has enabled us to grow.

I wanted 30 employees…. we know have 150 employees doing what I believe is some of the best work in the music industry.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I am a bit of a transparent / wear your emotions on your sleeve type of thing. I remember being pretty shy in high school and as I started meeting more folks professionally, more public speaking, I realized that If I wasn’t being myself that it wasn’t going to be authentic but that it also made me more anxious and nervous. Many people that meet me may have an opinion of me in person vs. what I may be if I am on email but I will always attempt to be someone that is myself. Sometimes I can be opinionated but never with the intention of harming or making anyone upset but, I have an opinion, a voice, experience and I think it’s something that others should at the least consider even though they may not fully disagree.

I’ve worked really hard to remember why I am here, why the business is here, who I am doing it for and it is challenging at times to stay humble but, the work we do keeps you humble and I think that sometimes, I may be humble to a fault but, that is and will always be me. I believe more-so in doing the work and doing great work than I do what you think of the work or what you think of me personally.

So saying all of that, my reputation, one of which continues to be built has been built day by day and as people get to know me and realize that the company has a bit of the DNA and that I can be approachable and hear what doesn’t work. I don’t accept or appreciate anyone telling me something in a way that is not productive, offensive, and/or close minded but I will listen if the feedback comes to me in a way that is constructive.

Hopefully that answers the question but in short, being authentic as a person and as a business has what I believe helped us build that reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.symphonic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/symphonicdistro/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/symphonicdistro
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgeebrea/ https://www.instagram.com/symjorge/

Image Credits
TBBW Magazine