BY: RANYA KHOURY

From YouTube channel to label, 11:11 Music Group’s Alex Marcu filled me in on how he was able to build global brands across YouTube, Spotify and, most recently, a label.

The 5-year endeavor began with YouTube channel Chill Zone, which eventually rebranded into Sleepy Wolf, a network with over 457k subscribers that supports artists across all genres.

After gaining close to half a million subscribers on YouTube, Marcu decided to start a separate brand/label, 11:11 Music Group.

“The thought process behind creating the record label was the same as 5 years ago, I wanted to work with my favorite artists in order to bring value and help them grow,” shared Marcu. This is where the idea of growing his own playlists from scratch started and in just over 7 months, 11:11’s Spotify has gained over 600k followers.

On the label side of things, 11:11 has released over 600 tracks and garnered nearly 100m streams across all DSPs. “We’re not really a label that ‘locks’ people in,” Marcu explained. “We only release singles with the artists that we work with, so they could be completely independent but still work with us.”

Although the channel is primarily seen as a lofi label, they are currently branching out into different genres, hoping to support pop, rap, indie, and more by 2021.

Check out 11:11’s Spotify network here.