While it’s only now that we’re seeing an explosion of YouTube stars who’ve crossed over into the mainstream and begun topping iTunes charts, it’s a movement that’s been building for a while and it can all be traced back to a musician named Terra Naomi.
Naomi was the number one most subscribed musician on YouTube in 2006, coming in ahead of big names like P Diddy, who was number two. Naomi essentially started the music revolution on YouTube, paving the way for each musician who followed.
So why isn’t Naomi a huge crossover star like Troye Sivan? Simply put, she signed to a major label. Yes, the route that most think would ensure success for an independent artist boasting a grassroots following is actually what Naomi reckons “nearly destroyed my music career”.
As she recounts in a new op-ed for Digital Music News, after the video for her song ‘Say It’s Possible’ landed on the front page of YouTube, Naomi decided to capitalise on her newfound exposure and recorded an EP, which shipped 5,000 CDs in one month.
“The music industry took notice of the attention I was getting and quickly jumped in with various offers, each one better than the last,” Naomi writes. “I was deeply in debt and barely getting by as an independent artist, and I was also very much attached to the old paradigm.”
“I valued the support of a major label as much as I needed the acceptance and approval of the industry that had ignored me for what felt like so long,” she adds. But it didn’t take long for Naomi to suspect that she had made the wrong choice.
Amid signing with Universal Music Publishing and Universal Island Records in 2007, Naomi was also in talks with the team at YouTube. “They asked if I could hold out on signing for a bit; told me they were developing ways to monetize the platform,” Naomi writes.
“[They] predicted I would eventually make even more money with YouTube while retaining the creative control I’d be forced to give up at a major label… The only people in my life who saw my selling out as a plus were my parents and my creditors.”
“Smart people who saw the future of music, and saw me as a leader and an innovator, rallied against it, but to no avail. The pull of big money was too strong, given the debt I was in, and the instability I’d lived with for years.”
“He emphatically slammed his hands onto his desk, nearly shouting with excitement, ‘So! Tell us about this YouTube!'”Things changed after her first meeting with Universal’s marketing manager. “He emphatically slammed his hands onto his desk, nearly shouting with excitement, ‘So! Tell us about this YouTube!'” Naomi writes, before noting that this was 2007 and everyone in the world knew about YouTube.
“In that moment I knew I was doomed,” says Naomi. Meanwhile, the fan base that she’d built on YouTube had turned against her: “The audience I’d built online was starting to see me as a sell-out. Their indie poster child had tossed them aside for a shot at the major leagues.”
“I emerged from my major label experience broken and defeated. I’d lost my deal with Island Records when the president who signed me left the label, and by the time I moved back to LA and tried to reengage my online following, I found that my people had pretty much moved on,” Naomi writes.
“There were new, more exciting YouTube musicians to connect with. People were collaborating, forming alliances, new stars were born, new communities had formed, and I was seen as the one who started it all and then jumped ship for something ‘better.'”
As for that album that Naomi was supposed to be working on, after she was convinced by her producer that she should make an “accessible” and commercial friendly album that will shift units and actualise her own vision later, Naomi released a debut LP that was a commercial flop.
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“If I could do it over again, I would have postponed my relocation to London, jumped in my car immediately, and played shows in every city and town across the US, capitalizing on the exposure I’d received from the YouTube Awards. I would have continued to build the audience I had created on my own, with nothing more than a camera and a tripod,” Naomi writes.
So what’s the lesson to be learned here? Should bands and artists just avoid major labels, or any labels for that matter, at all costs and stick to building grassroots followings online? Not exactly. As far as Naomi concerned, the issue isn’t major labels, but authenticity.
“My biggest takeaway from this time was a lesson in authenticity,” Naomi writes. “It’s tempting to listen to people who want to change us, even just a little bit, and steer us in a direction that isn’t authentic. It’s easy to doubt ourselves, especially when we’re just starting out.”
“We think people with more experience know better than we do about what’s best for us, and it’s simply not the case. We fall for the hard sell, the glitz and glamour, but for every massive major label success, there are dozens of disappointments and disastrous failures.”
