New Paltz High School graduate and rising music star Avery Berman, 23, was recently nominated for three awards at the prestigious Artists in Music Awards (AIMA) in Hollywood and won two of them, including Best Electronica Artist and Best Producer of the Year. Berman, who picked up the guitar at 17 years of age and has been pursuing music and honing his craft ever since, has been posting his songs and videos on his YouTube site The Ground Above, where he has gained a following of more than 6,200 subscribers in only eight months and one million hits on YouTube. His songs began to be picked up by the Emerge Radio Station Network, and soon he became one of the deejay’s favorite artists. “He’s a great guy, and became a big fan of my song ‘Beach House’ and then started to ask me for more of my songs,” said Berman. Soon, without doing any self-promotion, Berman was the fourth-most-requested musician on the radio station.
The deejay was aware of an indie award show that focused on musicians and producers who were not signed to a label. He nominated Avery for three awards, and called to tell him that he was among the “top five finalists in all three categories. He said that one would be decided by fan votes, so I asked my subscribers to cast their votes, and they certainly did! I had 1,000 votes in a short amount of time.”
His deejay friend strongly suggested that Berman come to Hollywood when they would announce the award-winners. Good thing he flew out there, because he not only secured two awards, but also came in a close second for Artist of the Year.
He said what he loves about YouTube and Facebook and promoting his music online versus signing with a label is that “It’s my direct outlet to the world. I get to maintain complete control over my art and speak directly to my audience. I’ve met so many wonderful people through my music and my site. Most of the music labels do not understand Internet promotion and are stuck in the year 2000.”
Berman has committed to posting a new video or song every Tuesday. “Producing a new song every week is a tall order, so if I can’t do that, then I always post a new video.”
To learn more about Berman and his music, go to https://youtube.com/thegroundabovemusic or to his FaceBook page, which is The Ground Above Music.
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