If you don’t explain why you’re building, no one really understands what you’re doing.
So here we are. Time to talk about Fankee.

The world is full of people talking about “the industry.” Sharp analysis, perfect storytelling, motivational decks, podcasts that pump you up.

Great speakers, maybe with a book under their belt, but they’ve never put skin in the game. They’ll tell you how the market works, explain the frameworks, drop strategies, but they’ve never actually done it.

Luckily, there are also the builders, the ones who don’t just talk, they build. That’s who I take inspiration from.

OFFTRACK was born for this. Not to perform, but to document the real thing: ideas, sleepless nights, tiny wins, brutal hits.
To be honest, it helps me too — to exorcise my demons. But also to leave a trace for anyone who, one day, decides to jump. With no pedigree, no contacts, even from zero.

So yeah, let’s talk about Fankee.

We talked about what labels do. We told the story of a co-producer, and not just any co-producer.
Now put the two together: a label, and a regular kid who becomes a co-producer. That’s how Fankee was born. Almost by accident.

Yes, the same madness I talked about in my first newsletter. The radical shift. The thing that sometimes makes me wake up at 5AM. And no, I’m not in the 5AM Club, I often don’t sleep at all.
More often, it just pisses off the people around me, who’d rightfully like me to be more present.

Let me go back to a metaphor that stuck with me.

If a label today is like a giant private equity fund, investing only when an artist already has traction,
Fankee wants to be an accelerator.

Like Y Combinator, for those who don’t know it. The program that launched Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, Stripe.
A system that gives a first boost to those with talent, but no access.

Because let’s be real, today the artist is alone. Having a good voice or knowing how to produce isn’t enough.
You need to write, promote, shoot videos, understand TikTok, build a scene, study distribution, learn the rules. And maybe work a job on the side.

What artists need is someone who walks with them, opens doors, builds together.
Like YC does for startups, with mentorship, network, structure, vision.

That’s what Fankee is. A label, yes, but built on completely different foundations. Designed to fill the space no one else dared to step into.

Why? Maybe because I had the advantage of coming in from the outside.
Insiders would call me a rookie, someone with no experience. And maybe that’s true. But that’s exactly why I look at this industry without filters.

From day one I’ve been asking myself:
“Do people really believe they can still do music like 15 years ago, when everything around has changed? From social to tools, from distribution to AI?”

So I started digging, studying, building.

And now, I want to bring you into that journey.

They broke without a major behind them.
Fans found them first, through word of mouth, shows, online buzz.
Labels said no at first, then chased them when it was already too late.

Fans lead. Labels follow. But no one ever built the bridge. No structure, no incentives, just momentum left on the table.

So the artist starts thinking, “If Ed Sheeran made it, why not me?”
And they’re right. But without a system, everything gets lost. Energy, fandom, potential.

Today anyone can upload a track in five minutes, but 120,000 new tracks are released every day, and most die in silence. The numbers say it all: 45.6 million tracks in 2023 got zero plays. 79.5 million got fewer than 10. Over 80 percent stayed under 1,000 streams.

The problem isn’t creating. It’s being heard.

So artists face a brutal tradeoff: go it alone and drown, or sign with a label that shows up late and takes 90 percent.

Meanwhile, it’s the fans who do the real work. Sharing, remixing, creating content, pushing songs. In 2024, 84 percent of global Billboard hits started on TikTok, thanks to fans.

And yet, no credit. No upside. No recognition.

Fan-driven discovery is the new normal. The problem is, there’s still no system to reward it.

That’s the gap.
And that’s where Fankee comes in.

Fankee turns raw fan energy into a structured launch system. Artists already have what they need — the track, the talent, the spark. But without structure, energy fades. Fans burn out, tracks vanish, momentum dies.

Fankee captures that chaos and turns it into traction. Fans discover early, invest in a share of the track, promote it with real skin in the game. They’re not just hyping it because they like it. They believe in it. And if it blows up, they win too.

For artists, this means independence that scales. No waiting around, no 90 percent deals, no promo funded from your own pocket.
Fan funding drives organic reach.
Fankee is the layer in between.

And for fans? It’s the first time their cultural labor becomes visible, traceable, and valuable. They’re not followers, they’re co-producers. They don’t hype for sport. They do it for themselves, for the artist, for the scene.

The result is a flywheel.
A system where hidden fan work becomes a growth engine. Where hype becomes streams, streams become traction, traction becomes shared upside. Where everyone gets a stake. And no, this isn’t some fantasy. It’s a response to what’s already happening.

Labels don’t launch artists anymore. Socials do. Fans do. Fans are already doing the job, but no one’s rewarding them.

While streaming pays peanuts, superfans are the ones who spend more, create more, believe more. But still, no one gives them a share. AI is transforming how we build companies, communities, tools — but no one has used it to imagine a lighter, smarter, scalable label.

And above all, ownership is the new status.
From K-pop to token drops, fans don’t want perks. They want proof they were early. I go deeper into this in the articles at the bottom, but one thing is clear: all the signals say it’s time.

Saying “fans and artists can rewrite the rules” isn’t enough. You have to build it. Test it. Prove it.

The ambition and the challenge are real.
It’s contrarian. And that’s exactly why we believe in it even more.

Over the next year, we want to prove the model. That fan co-ownership works.
That when fans have skin in the game, they act like co-producers.
That a track can grow without giving up rights.
That promotion doesn’t have to be manipulation — it can be participation.

The product is live. Artists publish music, raise funds, track impact.
Fans invest, share, earn. And every time the loop completes, it spins faster.

Now we’re building the tools to scale: seamless onboarding, an AI agent to help artists launch, promote, and grow — like having a label in your pocket, without signing anything.

And then?

In a few years, Fankee won’t be a startup anymore. It’ll be a market network for music, where artists launch directly with their community. Where fans co-own rights and drive promotion. Where curators, artists, and tastemakers get recognized for spotting what’s next, not just reacting to what’s already big.

The label won’t be a company. It’ll be a network. Coordinated by incentives, not gatekeepers. What used to be a signature becomes a collective act.

Because the future of music doesn’t get signed, it gets built. Together.

#WeAreFankee 😉