Zojak's Independent (Winning) Streak: How a Female Entrepreneur Turned Chance Meeting in Kingston into a Global Music Company

04 April 2025 - Press release

 

Zojak CEO Zoe Espitia went to Jamaica for a vacation, never suspecting that trip would completely change her life. A healthcare executive who loved music, she was exploring the local scene when she met an artist. He asked for her help producing a track. Though she had never done this before, Zoe said yes.

What happened next launched a fresh, artist-centered approach to the music business and became Zojak World Wide, a distribution and artist services company that has always known you need a human touch to do right by artists. Now the distribution home for more than 50,000 artists, independent producers, and record labels with more than a half a million assets, this quiet force, barely known in the US music industry, has found success in many markets where artists faced unfavorable terms and challenging conditions, bringing these hard-working creatives more money and better service. 

Zojak’s record is impressive. The company helped many Jamaican dancehall and reggae icons such as Vybz Kartel release hit songs independently over the last 18 years including certifying a gold record for Vybz Kartel’s single “Fever,” changing the music business in Jamaica. They have provided a royalty lifeline to artists from Ethiopia to India and every country in between, thanks to fair contract terms, a savvy YouTube strategy, and innovative social media promotion, among other services. They have built marketing and promotional tools and networks that can empower artists willing to put in the work to get their music heard. 

“We believe that artists want and need a human touch when they are working with a label or distribution network,” reflects Zoe. “We got our start and became successful because we kept that human connection and met artists where they were, while showing them where they could go. Everything we’ve built as a company supports that goal.”

After her time in a Kingston studio, Zoe came back to Miami with a CD in hand, music another producer she met wanted to distribute digitally to this new service called iTunes. This was all new to Espitia, so she turned to her IT specialist and friend at the assisted living facility she led. “I was very knowledgeable about business, and I loved music, but I was clueless about the music business back then,” she remembers. “I came to my friend and said, ‘I have this idea to distribute this CD online. Can you help?’ It was early in the digital music era; the iPhone hadn’t come out yet. He responded that we could probably do this on our own independently. From that point forward, things took off.”

Working with little capital and just a credit card, Zoe and her friend and new business partner Aaron “AK” Mahlfeldt helped more and more Jamaican artists distribute their music worldwide. Word spread, as a growing number of artists and producers saw the benefits of what was a new distribution method at the time. To manage the rising tide, they changed professions and founded Zojak World Wide.

“We both have an independent streak and that fed our attitude,” recalls AK. “We started to tell people that they didn’t have to sell their souls to a label for small change, that they could control their music career and their royalties themselves. We educated artists and producers about their options and that created an avalanche.”

As they rode this wave and got more music online, they began to see that distribution was merely the first step. Artists also needed promotion and marketing support. They began by building a community of DJs who loved reggae & dancehall and created a robust email blast list before it was an industry standard, expanding as times shifted and promotional needs changed. Now, Zojak boasts a variety of tools and approaches that can help artists who want to do things their way.

Yet there’s a single throughline that runs from that singular moment in Kingston to the present: the human touch the company strives to bring to every artist willing to push themselves. With Zojak expanding in India and the US, as one of the last truly independent artist services companies left standing, this dedication to artists as people, not content creators or mere numbers, is key. 

“Zojak is always exploring and expanding the digital frontier, while other companies do the same thing over and over. Unless you already have a million fans, you’re unlikely to get much out of them,” says AK. “We’re here for the rising and mid-career indie artists and producers, for people who want to work outside the sterile robotic modern distribution model.”