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FOR RECORD PRODUCERS, BEATMAKERS, AND SAMPLEMAKERS 💿.

Develop Your Catalog, Monetize Your Beats, & Connect With A Label Full Of Success-Minded, Progress-Oriented Musicians 💾.

The system to go from $0 to $1,000 to $10,000 to $100,000 as an indie record producer by turning your beats, knowledge,  and unique character into a catalog of products that bring multiple sources of revenue.

I will mentor you to build your skills, tools, and products that bring profit instead of begging artists in cold DMs, hoping plug-in companies and music brands give you sponsor deals, or waiting for YouTube Monetization.

 Join 85+ producers who have already signed to the label🧠.

🛒 Sign Now

Nothing about your beats will matter if they sound like đŸ’©Â coming out of the speakers🔊


You have The 4TEEN Drum Kit & you’re a reader of the DOPE Letter.

You’re got some of my best sounds and access to hidden gems you won’t find on YouTube.

But none of that matters if the work is trash 🚼. And even if it’s any good, what’s that matter if no one hears it? đŸ€·â€â™‚ïž

So I guess my question to you is


What are 4TEEN and my newsletter actually gonna do for you?

Do you want to get your first sale with it?

How about your first 1,000 views on YouTube beats? Or your first 100 monthly listeners on Spotify?

Maybe you want to get placements and win awards?

All while operating on your own terms, untethered by gatekeeping music studios


So
 why aren't you doing that yet?

Let’s be frfr too - this isn’t the first time this idea has crossed your mind. How many times has that desire overcome you? The desire to share your art, make money cooking beats đŸ‘šâ€đŸłđŸ”„, connect with other success-destined creatives, and build a name for yourself


When is it gonna be your turn to shine? đŸ€”

When you read this page to the bottom, you’re gonna find out how to use your beats to create a brand that enriches lives and earns you money without sacrificing what you already enjoy.

 

Yoo homie, my name is Chu. 

 & in 2018, I had the exact same thoughts as you do right now
 💭

BANG!

It’s 6 am, the sun is still tucked behind the horizon enjoying his rest.

I envy him.

I pull the covers over my face - I want 30 more minutes of sleep before getting up for class.

BANG! BANG!!

“Leasing - Open the door.”

I think to myself, nahhhh I'm good lol.

I wait until I hear footsteps walking down the steps and away from my front door before getting up.

After a cup of coffee, I sit down to finish a coding assignment that was due last night.

I type my last line and send in my late submission (along with a half baked excuse sent in a separate email to my professor - I think I said I had strep, but really I was just making music).

On my way out the door, something catches my attention.

A slip of paper on the ground - it looks like it was slid underneath the door.

I already know what’s inside, but nothing could have prepared me for what I felt after reading it.

“Your lease is being terminated due to 3 months of past overdue rent. Please vacate in 30 days.”

I used to be a super reactive person. But in this moment, the anxiety completely paralyzed my ability to react.

I just folded up the letter and put it on the desk in my room.

Then I stepped out the front door into the humid Philadelphia morning air, and started the walk (and train ride) to my biostatistical computation lecture.

I was broke, starving, and alone.

It was my first semester in graduate school.

Even though I had many opportunities to get a regular work-study job, I chose not to.

I’d picked up a beat making hobby in undergrad and wanted to see if it could earn me money.

I had gotten a few sales, and even had a couple of recurring clients. Some months it was just enough to pay my third of the rent. And it even covered most of my food (since I was okay with the severe caloric deficit).

It seemed like a no-brainer to me. Just keep going the way I am and my new business will keep growing.

Why stop now to get a different job? What was the point in working for someone else when I already kind of worked for myself?

There was one huge issue:

I had no way to replicate any of my successes, so everything happened at random and out of my control.

That’s how I ended up at the point of owing 3 months of rent. The stress of unpredictable progress (and income) made me less effective.

So not only could I not understand how to grow, but even the little I could do was reduced because of anxiety.

On the train that morning, there was so much on my mind:

💭 “Where am I gonna live now?”
💭 “What am I going to tell my parents?”
💭 “How is this going to look to my friends?”
💭 “Does this mean I have to quit making beats to make money another way?” 

BUT


There was another question there too, and it was hiding.

Or perhaps it was being hidden by all the limiting beliefs that my culture, my family, and my schools had taught me.

It was always there, but this morning I paid full attention to it.

💭 “What if I just focus on the beats?”

Have you seen my merch before?

When I was on the train that morning, I pulled out my journal and wrote one sentence down:

When in doubt, make better beats.

It’s been the guiding principle of my life ever since that day because it fixed EVERYTHING.

The first thing I did was lock back in the with beats 🔐.

If I was getting kicked out in 30 days then I better get to work taking advantage of the free WiFi my apartment had.

When I wasn’t in class or doing the bare minimum to complete homework assignments, I was making beats and sending them out.

This helped me recover some motion I’d lost due to anxiety. But all that happened from this is that I was back where I’d started.

So next, I recalled the marketing classes I took at UPenn, as well as a couple of failed startup pitches to on-campus incubators.

I rolled all that experience into content creation and began publishing videos and articles about my work.

This is where I first started to see improvement đŸ˜€.

3 interesting things happened;

1) I grew an new audience of music producers interested in my beats and creative process.

2) New artists found me through my content instead of me having to initiate cold interactions.

3) It was easier to get people to agree to pay me since I’d built authority on the internet.

I made enough money to pay my landlord half what I owed her - I told her it was a good faith payment, that if she waited until next month she’d be recouped in full đŸ€Ż.

She agreed hesitantly, doubtfully.

I made good on my promise to her 😎.

NATURALLY


This had me more inspired than ever.

FINALLY, progress!! 💡

And along with it, a rush of epiphanies


& then it really finally clicked


In a quiet moment after closing an exclusive sale over FaceTime đŸ“Č, I thought to myself


💭 “I’m really just an artist and a label in one fr.”

So I got into a habit of studying artist development and the structure of record labels. If I had free time from beats and school, I was reading about:

1) The process musicians go through to develop their craft and the skills necessary to build a professional career in the industry.

2) How record labels gain resources, research the market, and leverage their power to grow the careers of artists.

Things just fell into place after that.

No more randomness.

Anxiety disappeared.

And begging people to peep my work became a distant memory.

This is when I got kind of angry fr.

💭 “Why does no one talk about this?!”

Like, no wonder I felt like I was falling apart. There’s a system for creative growth and success, but nobody shares that.

It’s how record labels hedge their bets with artists and turn them into assets that make their companies butt loads of money 💾.

It’s how indie artists build careers out of seemingly nothing without getting a dime of outside support.

Some indie artists do this unconsciously - think Russ.

BUT


Most learned it (or were taught) and put it into practice - they usually won’t admit that though đŸ€š.

And labels aren’t in any rush to start spilling the secret they've been using for over a century to run up the bag.

I was up to my neck in a flood of typical advice:

 

đŸš« “Trust the process.”  

đŸš« “Follow your heart.”  

đŸš« “Just don’t over think it.”  

đŸš«â€œContact 5 artsits per day.”

đŸš«â€œPost content 3 times a week.”

đŸš«â€œImprove your mix.”

đŸš« “Do more collabs.”

đŸš« “Release beats daily on Beatstars and YT.”

đŸš« “Develop your own sound.”  

đŸš« “Get a beat tag."  

đŸš« "Don't focus on selling your own work and music - just get brand deals, bro.”

đŸš« “You need to be on every social media platform.” 

I was like,

“Cool - but can any of you show me how to stop drowning though??”

Either they knew and weren’t telling me (they're Disney Villains), or they were completely ignorant.

Because once I figured out that none of their advice addressed the issue, I was finally able to break through the dreaded “saturation.”

My brand grew, I helped artists and producers, and I earned money.

I think the issue comes from way up top, starting with the labels đŸ€·â€â™‚ïž.

Because I’ve come across many people who’ve worked at major labels, people who definitely know this secret.

Yet NONE ever gave me even a crumb of this information.

This attitude trickles down. And so it’s a sort of taboo to share this information in anyway.

Even producers and artists who end up signing other producers and artists under them never teach this secret - So that’s why almost all artist run labels fail.

Now that I understood how labels actually build successful artists and producers, I started to win everywhere.

I was able to build listenership for my own music - as a producer who only posts beats.

I started winning awards and accolades for my beats.

And my beats were on major networks being played through the screens and speakers of people who used to doubt me.

Oh... And I got sales too 💾.

But then I found out it was way more fun to help other producers get sales...

And I enjoyed helping people build their listenership even more đŸ˜€

It was already shocking enough to see this system totally change my life and career.

But seeing it work for others was icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the ice cream Sunday 🍒.

Other cool things happened to me too:

🍒 I was able to travel more because most of my income was divorced from my time.

🍒 I could get in rooms and have conversations with people who used to be off limits.

🍒 I was able to leave graduate school to make music full time.

🍒 I could spend my free time reading manga and working out instead of clocking in to build someone else’s empire.

That’s why I launched DOPE - my open source record label.

It took me 2 years to build out the fundamental system. When I wasn’t reducing concepts into lesson plans, I was building out my website.

I spent countless all-nighters building an email newsletter correspondence of over 12,000,

🛒 Sign Now

and various playlists across multiple platforms,

all so each of my label-mates had a place to promote their work.

And this is just one example of the painstaking efforts I've taken (and still take) to ensure that each person on this label has a chance to eat đŸœïž.

But it’s ALL been worth it 😎.

It makes promotion and scaling visibility so much easier.

AND...

DOPE takes everything that took me a decade to learn and build, and puts that power and wisdom in your hands (and mind) immediately.

At DOPE, we’re focused on developing producers in the same way that other labels develop artists. We do this for you in 4 specific ways:

1) We organize, support, and promote your music releases, so you can eliminate the anxiety preventing you form dropping music.

2) We assist you in building, refining, and marketing your own products, so you can earn money doing what you love while serving dope producers just like you.

3) We teach you time-tested workflows, so you can finally start learning and applying useful production techniques.

4) We give you access to the DOPE Network, so you can connect with the same artists as me for more opportunities to build your catalog.

Here are a few things my label-mates are saying about DOPE 👇

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Don’t let me get ahead of myself though


Do you think you’d like being a part of DOPE?

For the cost of a couple of smoothies 🍉 per month, you can get immediately plugged into the support system, the promotion, the information, and everything else that comes with signing.

It’d be tough for me to show you everything inside, so let me just show you my three favorite things.

First, I love how A&R works in DOPE.

The workflow is simple.

I send you every opportunity I get so you can help me make more connections. I also help you organize and launch music and merch, so we can earn money and get streams together on collaborative initiatives.

🛒 Sign Now

Second, I love the playlisting and promotion.

It’s another simple yet effect one - I build infrastructure and platform so you can

1) Feel more secure in your creative efforts, and

2) Get more results for the effort you put in.

I’ll regularly call on you to send me music to playlist and promote.

The benefit is mutual. You get:

âšĄïž Placement.

âšĄïž Promotion.

âšĄïž Visibility

âšĄïž Streams.

I get more good music for my playlists which I’ll share with my newsletter readers.

Third, I love the lessons.

Like I just said above, mutual benefit is our focal point here. The lever that creates motion at DOPE is community.

We’re a Wolfpack that hunts and eats as one. And such, the lessons are probably my favorite part simply because I get to teach you things that took me a decade to learn.

And, as you’ve already seen on my channel, everything I teach is structured in a way that I reduce concepts down to their most tangibly applicable units - all so you can actually use the stuff you’re learning.

That way you don’t have to totally nerd out the get good at the technical stuff. You can still dive down the rabbit hole, but that’s no longer a requirement with DOPE’s weekly lessons and quarterly module plans!

BUT


Like I said, there’s way way more.

You’ll also get perpetual access to the Centerfold Drum Kit 🏆,

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to in-depth beat review sessions which occur 2-4 times per month,

and to the “Hotline đŸ“Č” where I tap in with you daily to guide and mentor you.

The full cost of everything in DOPE goes as follows 👇

  • Personal A&R from me (project organization, playlist curation, promotion) - $300/month Value.
  • Opportunities for joint venture sync licensing projects with my agents and A&Rs (using my connections we work together, submit/release together, run it up together) - $300/month Value
  • 1 to 3 private lessons per week - $400/month Value
  • Perpetual access to the Centerfold Drum Kit - $15/month Value
  • Weekly Beat Reviews (in depth) - $150/month Value
  • 24/7 text mentorship (no fluff) - $500/month Value
  • Access to the private 'A DOPE Podcast' series - $25/month Value

So the total value is $1,690/month because I share resources that I could easily keep for myself.

If all this did was get you your first sale, would it be worth it? How about your first 100?

If all DOPE did was make sure you never release another single that gets zero streams, would it be worth it?

I’m not going to charge you $1,000+ for your DOPE membership.

I won’t even charge you $100/month even though I could easily do that.

I’m only going to charge you $30/month.

I’ll even give you the DOPE Band-4-Band guarantee.

If you hate your first month, just show me that you’ve put in a genuine effort but you’re just not feeling it for some reason. I’ll refund your fee and dissolve your contract agreement - no hard feelings.

Here’s the thing


Like I just said, this is a lot for me to take on. There’s a limit on how many people can be in DOPE at any one time because I can only do so much as one Chu (still working on the clone thing).

As long as you can access this page, there’s at least a couple of spots left - but it probably won’t be like that for much longer, to be honest.

Just imagine what it’ll be like when we help you get your first sale,

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or when I show you my tested method for starting and launching a Spotify profile from scratch to get to over 100 listeners in less than 2 months,

or the support you’ll have on a daily basis from a label full producers who think just like you.

So click the button below ASAP and you’ll go to page where you can sign and pay your fee. After your payment information is processed, you’ll get immediate login access to the platform as well as an email to download the app linked to our site (so we can really stay in touch).

Once you're in, go to the beat review section and make a submission ASAP. Then hop in the Hotline đŸ“Č to introduce yourself and let me know what you’re working on so I can start helping you.

It might also be a good idea to look into some of the lessons to jump into whatever quarterly topic we’re currently running a module on (as of writing this we are on week 3 of dynamics, transient shaping - week 1 was compression basics and week 2 was soft clipping).

BUT


I'll be so real with you right now.

It literally doesn't matter if you sign or not.

I still keep growing my brand and that of DOPE, and we’ll all keep making more and more gains.

We’ll keep hitting milestones, growing our catalogs, and increasing the visibility of our brands.

But, without our help, you’ll keeping banging your head against to wall doing too much and getting too little in return.

It’s hard for me to tell you that, but it’s just you and me here so I don’t want to lie. I think you agree there’s a bit of truth in that.

So one more time, here’s what you’ll get immediately when you sign to DOPE:

  • Personal A&R from me (project organization, playlist curation, promotion) - $300/month Value.
  • Opportunities for joint venture sync licensing projects with my agents and A&Rs (using my connections we work together, submit/release together, run it up together) - $300/month Value
  • 1 to 3 private lessons per week - $400/month Value
  • Perpetual access to the Centerfold Drum Kit - $15/month Value
  • Weekly Beat Reviews (in depth) - $150/month Value
  • 24/7 text mentorship (no fluff) - $500/month Value
  • Access to the private 'A DOPE Podcast' series - $25/month Value
🛒 Sign Now