Tyler Ward, Dave Days, Tiffany Alvord, Kurt Hugo Schneider and Madilyn Bailey. In the words of The Gaurdian’s Alexis Petridis, unless you are a “female and aged between 12 and 18,” it is unlikely you’ve heard of any of these names. Nonetheless, each of these individuals have gained an undeniable stardom created by the media giant, YouTube.

Dave Days has more followers than Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. In short, Dave is the most subscribed to musician on YouTube. When Meridith Valiando, a major-label A&R and manager, discovered that there were dozens of other artists like Dave, she was stunned at the success and independence of each artist. However, record labels have not been successful when it comes to signing these YouTube stars. This is in large part due to the revenue stream available to these artists that conventional musicians do not use. Since each music release is a video, ad revenue from YouTube is the beginning of a revenue stream, followed by branded content and finally the ability to go on tour. “If [these musicians] know how to kind of navigate this new world order, they can actually make a very sustainable, healthy living, and they don’t need to give a good portion of their rights away to a major company.”

To see exactly what Dave Days has done to gain his popularity check out his parody of Miley Cyrus “We Can’t Stop”

And to read more about the business of YouTube artists check out this article from The Guardian