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Grammy Nominee Omar Apollo Learned To Sing On YouTube And Launched His Career On SoundCloud – He Might Not Be The Last

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Plenty of people today turn to YouTube videos to learn to sing or play guitar. A few could likely become successful musicians, but Omar Apollo is likely the first self-taught musician to learn to play by watching videos to be a Grammy nominee. The singer and songwriter, who released his Warner Record debut album Ivory last year to positive reviews, earned a nomination for Best New Artist at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.

His career's beginnings were actually similar to other successful artists.

After buying an acoustic guitar at a pawn shop, Apollo – real name Omar Apolonio Velasco – learned to play by watching and mimicking YouTube cover videos. He then worked odd jobs to save up money for a laptop and then for a microphone. As a teenager, he also studied singers on YouTube until he became proficient as both a vocalist and guitarist.

Instead of heading to the studio, however, he opted to record music in his parent's garage, which he uploaded to the DIY streaming platform SoundCloud, before opting to upload his track "Ugotme" to Spotify in 2017. It soon made it to the platform's FreshFinds where it found an audience – racking up 20,000 streams. Just a year later, Apollo's song crossed the 15 million streams mark.

Apollo is clearly part of a generation of artists who are able to take advantage of social media and streaming services to find an audience.

"That is a big part of the story," explained Mark Tavern, music industry lecturer at the University of New Haven. "We think of YouTube as a video service, but it is actually much more than that – as it is now among the biggest music streaming services."

It is also an educational resource for nearly everything, and for musicians, it can teach them more than just how to play an instrument.

"YouTube is now invaluable not just for people who want to sing, but also in how to use the software to make music," added Tavern. "These digital tools make music available to everyone, but if you're unsure of how to actually use it, you can also turn to YouTube."

A Democratization Of Music

The fact that Apollo was able to upload music and find an audience also is quite different from the "old days" when artists had to build a following by playing small venues, or by sending out demos to record labels in the hopes of being noticed.

Omar Apollo is part of a new generation of musicians who have uploaded their songs and let the listeners decide if its any good.

"The means of creation and studying music has become democratized, and that doesn't mean that everyone will be good at it," said Bruce Barber, professional in residence and general manager of WNHU radio at the University of New Haven.

"But is also means that the way music is discovered is democratized as well," Barber added.

There are those who might suggest that this will allow more mediocre music to flood services such as YouTube and SoundCloud, but that just means that artists like Apollo have to be that much better to stand out.

"There is still going to be that X factor of what makes music really good, despite the fact that it is easier than ever to create," suggested Barber. "Not all the content is going to be great."

A Different Way To Build An Audience

An argument could also be made that such iconic musicians as the Beatles may have needed to travel to Hamburg to get their big break and that they might not have been as successful had they been able to upload their tracks to SoundCloud.

The flip side of the argument could be that the world has missed the next Mozart because there weren't the tools or the opportunity for that person to be discovered.

Yet, today the work will still need to be done in making the music and then in growing an audience – it is just done via social media and streaming services instead of traveling in a beat-up van to play gigs at dive bars.

"YouTube and SoundCloud have proven to be ways to connect with that audience," said Tavern. "The creation process that once required a studio can now be done on an app on a phone, and that makes it easier to create the music, but as Apollo has shown, there still needs to be the talent. He used social media to build his following. It is clear from his interviews that he is a natural, and he is comfortable being in the public eye."

YouTube just helped get him here.

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