In a monumental moment for independent music, the first ever indie artist has reached the rarely accomplished milestone of one billion views on YouTube, joining the likes of signed superstars including Eminem, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.
It’s a true triumph for the little guy and proves that musicians don’t need to sign to a major label and sell their souls to a marketing team in order to become successful. Instead, sometimes all it takes is pure musical talent and a true passion for the craft.
This artist is the 27th most viewed musician on YouTube with their videos receiving an average of two million views per day and their channel has 300,000 subscribers which is set to double by next year.
Their most famous single is currently the 23rd most watched video of all time, and has gone platinum 96 times in Greece despite their tough economic conditions. Finally, if you combine the views from the artist’s two official channels with user-generated uploads, their total estimated view count surpasses 3 billion.
So, can you guess who it is? Brace yourself, as it’s probably not who you’d expect. (You can cross Gotye off your list – he’s signed to Universal.)
We’ll give you three hints: It’s a male solo artist, he creates dance music, and he’s edible.
Introducing: Gummibär. That’s right – the first ever indie artist to amass a billion hits is a virtual bear-shaped block of chewy sugar. Congratulations world, you’ve only got yourself to blame. We’ll give you three hints: It’s a male solo artist, he creates dance music, and he’s edible.
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You were probably first introduced to this green monster in a Jamster ad, where he demanded in his piercing auto-tune voice that you pay $10 (plus coughing up the ridiculous weekly fees), for the ringtone of his breakout single, ‘I’m A Gummy Bear’. Young, naive and slightly afraid, you got out your Motorola flip phone and did as he said.
In reality, Gummibär is the project of two German producers Moritz Bad and Christian André Schneider. Whilst the integrity of their music might be questioned, this duo have accomplished an incredible feat in creating one of the most commercially successful music acts of all time – and all without the help of a major label or backing. The cottage industry develops the character’s songs and have been released in over 40 different countries and in over 27 different languages.
As reported by News Day, over the pair’s seven-year career they have released seven EPs and three full-length albums using their candy-inspired character. They’re reportedly currently in the studio working on the follow-up to 2010’s La La La Love To Dance, which featured classics such as ‘Nuki Nuki (The Nuki Song)’, ‘Boom Bing Bing’ and ‘Boogie Woogie Dancin’ Shoes’.
It could be argued that a gelatine lolly being the world’s most popular indie musician on YouTube is a poor reflection on the rest of the industry. There are genuine, hard-working artists out there trying to make a living, (like Swedish singer-songwriter Crazy Frog). However, let’s not take away from Gummibär’s moment. Above all, it does show that artists can achieve massive success in the competitive music industry without hundreds of people working for them behind the scenes, and it’s still a legitimate indication of indie’s ability to thrive.
In a statement released on his website, Gummibär is clearly very excited about the achievement:
“A big HELLO! and THANK YOU! to all of my YouTube friends and subscribers. The Official Gummibär Channel now has more than 1 BILLION channel views! Wow, that’s a lot! Hugs to everyone!” said the 2cm-tall sugar bear upon hearing the news. “Yvan eht nioj!”
