Michael Wolff and Andy McKee

Andy McKee is a shining example of the way the music industry can progress in the near future. While he has several albums released both independently and from a label, the majority of his exposure has come from videos of his playing uploaded onto Youtube.

This has led to sell out tours, deals with even bigger labels and on a more basic level, the exposure of his music to hundreds of thousands of people the world over. At what other point in music history has music been this accessible without the use of major labels?

Clearly McKee is an artist we can all learn from, so it’s a good thing that he wasn’t totally put off playing guitar despite how much he hated getting lessons. He first picked up the instrument at 13 years of age when his father bought him a nylon stringed classical guitar.

He soon began teaching himself, inspired by the likes of Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani and Metallica. By the time he was 22 he’d released his first album, 2001’s “Nocturne”, and was playing live in places as far flung as Taiwan by the time 2003 rolled around.

It was in the summer of 2003 that McKee would find one of the crucial instruments behind his success, with a Ron Spillers harpguitar he won first place at the New Jersey State Fiddling and Picking Championships in the assorted acoustic instrument division. He made playing the harpguitar a full time part of his act and that’s when word about his skill started truly spreading.

While he was still making records and touring, 2006 saw McKee upload videos of his playing onto YouTube, where he developed a cult following for his creativity and sheer technical wizardry. For a time, three of his videos were the top three most watched videos on YouTube as a whole.

Since then videos of his have been viewed upwards of 50 million times and still climbing. He’s performed with everyone from Josh Groban to Prince and God willing, he will be an inspiration to many others in how he uses the internet to spread his music far and wide on his own terms. He’s a rare talent, and one to be seen performing live as soon as possible.