Broke Records

Lore & Background

Broke Records was founded in 2021 by Andre Benz as an independent record label, publisher and distributor headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The label was established following Create Music Group's acquisition of a majority interest in Benz's previous ventures, The Nations, YouTube network and the Lowly record label, in 2022. The label has established several strategic partnerships, including a joint venture with Isekai Records launched in 2024, which has worked on viral hits by artists including Ndotz and Stepz.

The label's business model centers on rapid response digital marketing and viral content promotion. The company can sign a record and turn around content in less than 24 hours, with the complete process of finding a record, negotiating a deal, ingesting it and marketing it taking less than 48 hours, compared to traditional record labels which typically require three to four weeks for similar processes. In 2024, Broke Records signed several notable artists including Zhu, who signed an exclusive distribution deal, and Julia Cole, a country singer-songwriter signed in August 2025.

Reader's Guide

Broke Records represents a shift in the music industry toward digital-first, rapid-response marketing, leveraging social media platforms like TikTok to generate viral hits. Its ability to sign, produce, and market a record in under 48 hours contrasts sharply with traditional label timelines of three to four weeks. The label achieved over 15 Billboard-charting singles in 2024 without major label backing, and two of its artists landed on Spotify's flagship Today's Top Hits and Global Top 50 playlists. Combined, the label's top performers have generated over one billion streams across digital platforms. Its joint venture with Isekai Records in 2024 expanded its reach into the UK market. By signing artists across genres—from country singer Julia Cole to electronic artist Zhu—Broke Records demonstrates a flexible, genre-agnostic approach to discovering and promoting music. The label's early viral success with tracks like 'Montagem Mysterious Game' and 'Embrace It' underscores its focus on data-driven, social-media-centric promotion.

Did You Know?

• Broke Records can sign a record and turn around content in less than 24 hours.
• The label achieved over 15 Billboard-charting singles in 2024 without major label backing.
• Its top performers have generated over one billion streams across digital platforms.
• The label launched a joint venture with Isekai Records in 2024 to expand into the UK.

Founding & Corporate Lineage

Broke Records came into existence in 2023 as an independent record label, publisher, and distributor headquartered in New York City. The venture was co-founded by Andre Benz and Brandon De Oliveira, and it operates under the umbrella of Create Music Group. The label's creation was directly tied to a 2022 corporate move in which Create Music Group purchased a majority stake in Benz's earlier projects, including The Nations, a YouTube network, and the Lowly record label. Rather than simply continuing those operations, Benz and De Oliveira built a new entity with a distinct identity and a sharper strategic focus. From the outset, Broke Records positioned itself around digital marketing and social media promotion, with particular emphasis on platforms such as TikTok. This digital-first orientation set the tone for everything the label would go on to do, distinguishing it from legacy labels that still rely heavily on traditional A&R pipelines and long-term campaign planning. The New York base and the Create Music Group backing gave the young company both creative independence and the infrastructure needed to move quickly in a market where attention spans are measured in seconds.

The 48-Hour Machine

One of the most striking aspects of Broke Records is its operational speed. The label's entire business model is built around rapid-response digital marketing and the promotion of viral content. In practice, the company can sign a record and produce promotional content in under twenty-four hours. The full pipeline—identifying a track, negotiating a deal, ingesting the audio, and launching a marketing push—can be completed in less than forty-eight hours. By contrast, conventional record labels typically need three to four weeks to accomplish the same sequence of steps. This compressed timeline is made possible by the label's deep familiarity with social media ecosystems, especially TikTok, where a single well-timed clip can propel a song into the global consciousness overnight. The model effectively treats a music release as a real-time event rather than a months-long campaign. For artists whose tracks are already gaining organic traction online, Broke Records can ride that momentum almost instantaneously, turning a fleeting viral moment into a sustained commercial run before the algorithm's attention shifts elsewhere.

A Roster Without Genre Boundaries

Broke Records has assembled a remarkably diverse roster that spans multiple genres and continents. The label's artist lineup includes electronic acts such as Sevdaliza and CamelPhat & Rhodes, hip-hop and rap names like Bbno$, Blackbear, DC the Don, and Kenny Allstar alongside Headie One, as well as artists including Sosocamo, RJ Pasin, BLP Kosher, Sainte, Adore, Cult Member, and NCTS. In 2025 the label broadened its scope further: Julia Cole, a country singer-songwriter, was signed in August, marking Broke Records' first entry into country music, while Grammy-nominated electronic producer Zhu joined under an exclusive distribution deal. The label also forged a joint venture with Isekai Records in 2024, a partnership that helped produce viral hits from artists like Ndotz and Stepz and opened a pathway for Broke Records to expand its reach into the United Kingdom. This willingness to cross genre lines and geographic borders reflects a label that defines itself by marketing agility rather than by a single sonic identity.

Chart Success on an Independent Scale

The commercial results Broke Records has achieved in its first couple of years are remarkable for a label without major-label infrastructure. In 2024 alone, the company put more than fifteen singles onto the Billboard charts, all without the backing of a major label. Two of its artists also landed on Spotify's flagship playlists, Today's Top Hits and the Global Top 50, a placement that typically signals mainstream crossover appeal. Taken together, the label's top-performing releases have accumulated over one billion streams across digital platforms. Individual tracks illustrate the scale of that success: Ndotz's "Embrace It" gathered nearly 250 million Spotify streams and was ranked the fourth most-streamed UK rap track of 2024. Earlier, in 2023, LXNGVX's "Montagem Mysterious Game," a funk automotivo track, became one of the label's first viral breakthroughs. More recently, Zhu's 2025 reimagining of his 2014 hit "Faded," released as "Faded (Blacklizt Version)," demonstrated that the label could still generate buzz around a reworked classic. These milestones collectively position Broke Records as a force to be reckoned with in the independent music landscape.