Kina Grannis – A YouTube Singer to Watch For
After watching the latest episode of American Idol, I went online to find a copy of Andrew Garcia’s acoustic version of Paula Abdul’s Straight Up, because it was absolutely terrific.
In the process, I found another singer on YouTube that made me stop and listen longer than a few seconds. In fact, I ended up downloading a bunch of her songs and have really been taken by her sound.
Let me introduce you to Kina Grannis. She is releasing her third independent album on February 23rd called Stairwells. As I started to look up information on this girl, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, although she was signed by Interscope Records, she had gone out on her own as an independent artist. It is apparent, this very talented artist is trying to make a go of it using social mediums like the blogs, YouTube and Wikipedia.
I have to say, it is quite refreshing to see an artist doing this – one who has real talent I mean. There are endless YouTube videos online that make bad Idol contestants look like they have natural singing talent, but it gives me hope for the future of the music industry to see an artist taking control of her own direction, sound and make a stab at it on her own terms.
I enjoyed Kina’s debut video on YouTube, Valentine. It appears as if she is handling the manufacturing and distribution of her CD’s and makes me really question the need of the music industry fat cat boys in the suits and ties. In my opinion, they are what is wrong with the music industry. That goes for the movie industry and the publishing industry as well. With the advancement of technology, not only do artists have the means to produce quality material for distribution, but they also have the alternative avenues to get their works into the hands of fans – without the need of the 19th century industry machine.
Can you imagine it? Singers producing their music on their laptops and uploading them straight to bittorrent and YouTube or allowing direct download for.99 cents a song, without the need for iTunes? The idea of the money I pay for music or for an eBook going into the actual hands of the person who created it in the first place (where it should go) is quite a liberating thought. Maybe the digital pirates of the world are on to something here. Maybe they are paving the way for a real shift in the culture of art and music and books and how entertainers interact with their fans.
Whatever the future might bring, I would recommend you check out Kina Grannis and pick up one of her albums at her website or on uTorrent or watch her sing with her sisters on YouTube. I don’t think you will be disappointed.