Few years back, who would have thought of taking one’s talent online! In fact, many of those who couldn’t utilize the traditional ways to showcase their talent had to let go of their dreams. But the sheer magic of YouTube has now transformed lives of many by not just giving them a platform to showcase their talent to the world but has also helped them to extend their journey further, beyond the web. From being born as a video sharing site, YouTube has today become a platform playing numerous roles in fuelling the aspirations of millions of people, giving fame to those who need while empowering many other socially and economically.

Plenty of artists these days have found success through YouTube and have gained strong fan base. In this feature we list singers and musicians who started their journey through YouTube and in the process have been discovered by major label producers while many have become popular household names. Mind you we are only talking about Indian artists for the moment.

Shraddha Sharma

A cyber rock star as she is called, Shraddha is a small town girl with the biggest dreams. The Indian sensation on YouTube captured the nation's attention through her voice when she uploaded her first song “Main Tenu Samjhawan Ki” from the movie “Virsa” in 2011. She has since then uploaded 30 videos. Her channel 175,959 subscribers and her videos have 14,185,635 views. (Photo of Shraddha Sharma)

Maati Baani

Maati Baani, the brainchild of Nirali Kartik and Kartik Shah, combine rustic folk, Sufism, Hindustani classical, funk and new age sounds with world music. Celebrating “One World, One Love and One Language,” they collaborate with famous musicians and rare talent of the world purely online, producing original music with songs like ‘Balma’ – an Indo-French song with 11 musicians from 5 countries and ‘Rang Rangiya’ – the first ever India-Pakistan peace song.

88Keys to Euphoria; Aaskash Gandhi:

It’s a channel started by Aakash Gandhi with piano and instrumental covers of popular Bollywood songs. It has now grown to become one of the most recognized brands on YouTube dedicated to acoustic Bollywood music and has got 114,915 subscribers and 32,989,292 views

Chandralekha Adoor

A four-minute video featuring Chandralekha Adoor singing a melancholic Malayalam film song while cradling her baby in her arms, was shot and posted by her brother-in-law on YouTube last year. It went viral, with 700,000 hits within a month and fetched her numerous singing opportunities. Today she struggles to even find time to complete her daily household chores.

Shirley Setiva:

Shirley is a music enthusiast from Auckland, New Zealand who holds interest for Bollywood music and has gained immense popularity for her songs. She holds 81,892 subscribers 7,183,811 views on her channel

Gaurav Dagaonkar:

Gaurav Dagaonkar is a music director, singer, songwriter from Mumbai, India. A lead vocalist of the group 'Synchronicity', he has shared the stage with renowned artistes and bands from India and Pakistan such as Junoon, Silk Route, Mohit Chauhan. His channel has 57,153 subscribers and 7,478,355 views

Nishant MC:

Nishant is a passionate rapper and a song-writer who hails from Jalandhar City of Punjab. His work has been loved and appreciated by a number of people. He has around 885 subscribers and his videos have gained 363,636 views

Arunima Bhattacharya:

Arunima Bhattacharya is a professional singer and performer and has also been the vocalist of a pop band in Kolkata. She loves singing latest Bollywood numbers, romantic / Sufi songs, Ghazals and popular English numbers.

Studio Unplugged:

This Studio is a brain child of Jai & Parthiv, which was started in the year 2010.One of them looks into composition and the other takes care of the technical aspects of the composition. They have around 38,698 subscribers and 8,256,882 views

Text and Photos by Verus Ferreira