Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus Veltri.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Marcus. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My musical journey officially began in 6th grade when I started playing trumpet for my middle school band. At the time, I cared more about sports than music, but my parents suggested I should at least give it a shot. I ended up actually enjoying the trumpet more than I thought, which led me to continue doing band throughout high school. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I discovered my passion for piano by watching piano covers on YouTube.
This led me to spend all of my free time practicing piano instead of trumpet, and I quickly realized I had become obsessed. Because of this, I started my own YouTube channel in 2010 to post piano covers and tutorials. I initially had zero expectations with my YouTube channel and was mainly doing it just for fun. My videos hardly received any views but it didn’t matter to me because all I cared about was playing piano and sharing it online.
Over the next couple of years, I started to realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing what I truly love, which was playing piano. This led me to audition to various music colleges so I could turn my dream into a reality. To my surprise, I was accepted into the UNT College of Music, which happened to be my number one choice. My first semester at UNT as a music major was an amazing experience. I strengthened my knowledge on piano, music theory, composing, and even had a friend teach me how to beatbox. Things were going great, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first semester.
Despite how much I enjoyed my first semester as a music major, I was slowly losing confidence in myself as a musician and was also learning how difficult it was to make music into a career. This led me to drop out of music school and switch over to finance. This was a very tough decision for me, but it never stopped me from playing piano, beatboxing, and making YouTube videos whenever I could.
During my sophomore year of college, I thought of the idea of playing piano while beatboxing at the same time. It seemed like it could be a great way to combine two skills I already had, and it was something that wasn’t being done by many people at the time. Unfortunately, I was absolutely awful when I first tried doing both simultaneously. Despite how awful I sounded, I spent the next year practicing piano while beatboxing because I knew the idea had a ton of potential. This led me to start posting piano beatboxing videos to my YouTube channel.
During my junior year of college, I had been posting videos on YouTube for over six years and I only had 2,000 subscribers. This had me convinced that my career path would be finance and that music would remain a hobby. But everything changed when I made my first Omegle video.
Omegle is a video chat website that pairs you with random strangers to chat with. I played the piano while beatboxing to strangers on Omegle, filmed their reactions, and edited down several hours of raw footage into a 7-minute video. My first Omegle video was an instant hit and was getting more views and subscribers than I had ever received.
This made me realize how much people enjoy listening to piano while watching random people react to the performance. I ran with this concept and started expanding outside of Omegle. I’ve played piano to strangers in elevators, random employees at drive-thru restaurants, random strangers in various video games, and even drove to Area 51 recently to play a new original composition I wrote. The combination of music and entertainment has gotten me to where I am today and I couldn’t be more grateful for what I have.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have definitely faced a ton of struggles leading up to where I am today. I think one of my biggest struggles was auditioning to music colleges after playing piano for only two years. I was going up against pianists that had been playing since they were three years old. I genuinely thought I had no chance of getting accepted anywhere. I remember friends and family being so confused as to why I chose to audition on piano since I had been playing trumpet for seven years. It seemed like I was against all odds at the time but looking back, I couldn’t be happier with the decisions I made.
Another one of my biggest struggles was making the decision to drop out of music school. It seemed like I just threw away everything I had worked so hard for in the past three years. The problem was I had no confidence in myself as a musician and didn’t think I would be able to make a living off of music. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case. That’s why I am SO grateful to have an amazing audience that goes out of their way to make sure I continue to live off of music.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
The vast majority of my business resides on YouTube. I’d say my specialty is making content based around the idea of playing piano for random people I have never interacted with before. Stuff like Omegle and video games with voice chat make it very easy for me to always meet new people. This makes it so my viewers can enjoy not only the music I’m playing but also the candid interactions I have with random strangers. Everyone loves watching people’s reactions, so in a way this allows my content to reach a very wide audience.
I think what I’m most proud of is how many kids, teenagers and adults have been inspired by me to start learning an instrument. It is a very humbling thing to hear, especially since I was inspired to start learning piano by watching various YouTubers. It truly is the most amazing feeling to be able to share my passion for music, and have it have such a positive impact on so many people’s lives.
What sets me apart from others would most likely be the combination of piano and beatboxing. I’ll never forget searching “Piano Beatboxing” on YouTube a few years back and finding hardly any videos of people playing piano while beatboxing. The only videos that came up were videos of one person playing the piano, and another person beatboxing. This inspired me to start practicing right away because I knew this would be something that was fresh and unique.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment was hitting 1 million subscribers on YouTube, and receiving the gold play button. Even after being a full-time YouTuber for over three years, I STILL don’t believe how many subscribers I have. After giving up on music as a career when I was a freshman in college, I didn’t think I would ever have another opportunity to pursue music full time. I can’t say enough how thankful I am for all of the support I have received, and I couldn’t be more grateful for being in the position I’m in today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marcusveltri.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcusveltri/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcusVeltri
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