Alex Day

 

Alex Day, 22, is a YouTube producer (video blogger) otherwise known as Nerimon (his account name). He has had over 1,702,000 channel views  and he has over 50,420 subscribers.

Day has been recording music and posting music videos directed by his flatmate Charlie (also a successful YouTube producer known as Charlieissocoollike)  made. He also released his music on iTunes, so far he has released two albums and three singles. These were released without the backing of a record label, on DFTBA Records which is a company that distributes YouTube artists work and is largely independent.

 In November 2011, Day posted a video telling his viewers that he had written a song and he wanted to attempt to get to Number 1 in the Christmas Charts with this song. He admitted he thought it was unlikely they would reach the top 20, but decided that he was going to attempt this anyway. He posted a video asking his viewers to download his single ‘Forever Yours’ on the 18th of December, which he named ‘Forever Day’, so it would count towards the Christmas Chart. On December the 18th, much to the surprise of the official chart company, Alex managed to reach number 4 in the iTunes chart, and this was only the first day of his attempt. This caught peoples attention and during the week leading up to Christmas Alex appeared on the BBC and ITV London news and was interviewed by newspapers and radio stations. Alex Day also released 11 alternate versions of ‘Forever Yours’ after learning that alternate versions of the song count towards the place of the single itself in the chart. He confirmed that all sales revenue made from the alternate versions would go to the charity World Vision. On Christmas Day, 2011, "Forever Yours" reached number 4 in the UK Singles chart, selling over 50,000 copies. Day became the first unsigned artist to reach a top four place in the Official Charts in the U.K.

This is an amazing example of the power the internet has for the success of an artist and also the ability for a musician to have their music heard on a wide scale without the backing of a record label.