When GoldLink, a prominent hip-hop artist, came to record a live performance of his song at the COLORS studio in Berlin in 2016, he thought he had come to the wrong place. Later, he told TIME that the place was “so danky and small… It was in this weird, sketchy building — you didn’t know if you were there yet”. After COLORS released his live performance of “Rough Soul”, the video got over 17 million views on YouTube. GoldLink went viral, and this was where his rise to the top charts began. 

GoldLink is not the only artist whose career jump-started after featuring in the COLORS studio. Indie artists like HONNE have also enjoyed a rise in popularity after recording their performances in the studio. But perhaps there is one person who got the most from the spotlight: Billie Eilish. COLORS invited her before she got famous back in 2017, where she performed “Watch”. After her worldwide success, she returned to Berlin, and it was her turn to promote the studio. Her live performance of “idontwannabeyouanymore” was watched over 150 million times on YouTube, making it the studio’s most-watched video.

The studio’s channel typically gets about 50 million views per month — an unusually large number for an independent studio. The key element to such popularity is the content style. Every performance in the studio is like no other, but one thing they have in common is the setting. The stage is minimalistic, featuring only a studio mic and monochrome walls, accompanied by an artist delivering their performance from the heart. Sticking to the essentials, COLORS produces content comparable in sound quality to that of studios recording top artists. Songs performed in the studio sound better than official audios, and dozens of comments asking to upload the COLORS version on Spotify only confirm that. 

COLORS does not focus on a single genre. Their selection mostly showcases soul, R&B, hip-hop, and indie music, but the studio creators do not label songs by genres. Instead, as the name suggests, they label the performances by colors — after recording, they choose whatever color seems most fitting to the song. This approach, depicted in the studio slogan as “All colors, no genres”, has brought them a fanbase from all over the globe. 

In return, the studio also presents artists from different countries and cultures. This way, subscribers find out more about the music scenes from other parts of the world. A typical case is a listener getting acquainted with the heavyweights of French hip-hop like Niska. But COLORS does not feature international artists simply for being exotic — some deliver politically charged manifestations in their songs. Such was the case with Nathy Peluso, whose explosive performance of “SANA SANA” alludes to the dire economic situation in Argentina. COLORS does not hesitate to promote activism, going as far as introducing a separate series of Sudanese artists with songs raising awareness of the protests in their country.

COLORS produces exceptional content, and the story of how the studio was founded  is no less impressive. In 2016, Philip Starke and Felix Glasmeyer were rookies in the business of studio recording when they launched a small studio with cracked walls in Berlin. Having no connections with the music industry, Starke and Glasmeyer, as they confessed to TIME, barely kept the studio running. After the Australian singer Emilio Mercuri agreed to appear as the first artist in COLORS, they hurriedly painted the studio walls mint. Before switching to a chroma key background, Starke and Glasmeyer were manually repainting the studio walls for every performance. Eventually, the refined aesthetic of the studio and the remarkable performances of the invited artists started attracting fans. In a couple of years, COLORS turned into a trendsetter, surpassing their competitors such as NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. These days, artists visit COLORS to promote their upcoming albums. Belgian hip-hop star Krisy even released his new single right on the studio’s YouTube channel.

In an era where algorithms and big commercial studios dictate the discovery of music, COLORS has found a niche by carefully curating underrated artists. While Apple Music and Spotify recommend songs, pandering to what the user has liked before, COLORS is not afraid to experiment. In offering something completely new, whether it be a Spanish R&B track or a soul song in Farsi, COLORS achieves the perfect collaboration. Because in the end, all three parties — the studio, the artists, and the audience — get what they want. Minimalistic in essence, COLORS proves that to get recognized, a million-dollar budget and stars from the Billboard charts are unnecessary. A monochrome background with a soulful artist performance is enough, because sometimes, less is more.