Biggest thing I’ve learned this year: make music an event.

Before Forever Yours, I sold about 20,000 copies of my music total. This year I’ve sold over 300,000 copies. But more than that, I see more people excited about my music than ever before, getting together to listen and share the video and turn up to events.

I owe this change to my belief in giving people reasons to buy the song beyond the song itself. Especially in a world where people listen to music on Spotify, where no purchase is required, there needs to be a reason for people to support a download of a song.

Christmas number one, Charity, Guinness World Record: these are all things I think make my music more fun and worth purchasing. If you don’t like the song, you don’t have to buy it, it’s up to you. But if you do like it, there’s more of a reason to make the download instead of sitting on the fence. If we can achieve something like a chart position or a Guinness World Record, it’s not about buying a song anymore, it’s more like casting a vote - for me, for unsigned artists, for YouTube and the power of the internet - and I think that can be really powerful.

It’s also a way of compensating for those that, when I first started releasing music, said I was just trying to be a sellout asking for money without doing anything. (Of course, now I’m trying to make it fun and give people more reason to get involved, they say I’m gimmicky - can’t please some people.)

That’s why Stupidfest is happening this Sunday: I don’t wanna just release a song and have you buy it. That’s too passive. I want us to get involved in doing something cool. It’s why I refer to my single as a ‘project’ instead of just a release. Sure, people will buy it, people won’t buy it, but let’s use the amazing community we have to make something fun happen along the way :D That way, even if we don’t achieve it, it’ll be a hell of a ride.

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