All About Kurt Hugo Schneider: An Introduction - Part1

Are you a music lover and a YouTuber? If you are then you most probably know this guy. If not, then believe me that he is a very famous internet celebrity. Search for him in Google or other search engine, you'll be directed to millions of results. He is even associated with famous TV personalities like Nickelodeon stars Max Schneider and Victoria Justice. But of all the people he worked with, he's most popularly associated with neighbor/alumnus/colleague/friend, Sam Tsui, "the face of the Schneider Youtube brand" (quoted from Sarah Yager).

Kurt's first viral video had been praised by Time Magazine in 2009. He also appeared in shows like Ellen (2010), Oprah (2010), and Bonnie Hunt (2009). In 2011, Kurt's cover video with Sam was posted in Britney Spears' official site. In the same year, Business Insider included him in the list of The World's Most Powerful YouTube Stars and the top 1 in their YouTube Thought These People Were Going To Make $100,000. And to top the year, he signed with renowned music publisher Steve Lindsey, the same publisher of Bruno Mars' debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and now with Grind Management. By 2012, he partnered with Alloy Digital, a big distribution company. Shared the stage with Shontelle and 3 other Youtube stars including Sam in 2013 singing Impossible.

At a young age of 24, Kurt had already built a name for himself in the industry. It is also notable to mention that through the years, he had been nominated and won different awards both in the academe and professional world. And to add to his very impressive portfolio is his latest and biggest independent project for 2013, Sam's first all original album, Sam Tsui The Debut Album. To cut this all short, Kurt Hugo Schneider is just starting, so watch out Hollywood.

So, who is Kurt Hugo Schneider really and what's the big fuss about him?



Since this will probably be my longest blog, I decided to divide this into 3 parts:

1. MAN OF MANY TALENTS - THE MUSICIAN, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, WRITER IN ONE BODY

2. THE NERD - ACHIEVEMENTS AND TESTIMONIES (coming soon)

3. THE ACCIDENTAL HEARTTHROB - FROM NERDY TO CUTIE (coming soon)



1. MAN OF MANY TALENTS - THE MUSICIAN, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, WRITER IN ONE BODY

Kurt Schneider, currently residing in LA, is a man of many talents. His skills includes, but not limited to, producing, directing, playing instruments, script writing, composing, arranging musical pieces, sound and video editing, talent scouting, singing (he have very few videos of him singing though) and rapping. Impressive right? Just don't expect much from him when it comes to dancing (sorry Kurt :P) but he does know how to do Whip my Hair (I'll post this video some other time), hahaha. What else can I say about this super human?

To start off, Kurt's YouTube channel, KurtHugoSchneider, has a following of more than 2,000,000 subscribers with more than half a billion video views. Before YouTube decided to change its layout back in 2012, Kurt's videos always gets featured in the homepage within 0-5 days after uploading it and reaches at least a million views within the same week. And, as always the case, his uploaded video receives a rather significant number of views and likes than that of the singer he collaborated with. There was also this funny speculation going around that he's being paid by huge music producers to make covers of their songs because, at that time, whatever he uploads becomes so popular in Youtube that those who had not heard the original song will want to hear it just to compare which is better. Then again, it was just a speculation among fans. At present, his estimated annual net worth is around $180K - $1.7M (statistic from Social Blade).

Kurt Hugo Schneider is what we can call a music prodigy. He not only plays almost all musical (and non-musical) instruments available to men, he can also arrange and write music, and to top it off, identifies talents that can go viral. He's also known to discouraging use of autotune in his audios, what you hear is the real thing, its just that through technology he is able to mix various audio clips to form a music. He has no musical background prior to him learning the keyboards for the first time back in his junior high school days. His first attempt at recording with Sam was back in high school days with just a twisted round hanger and a pantyhose around it. However, his musical career really kicked off in his college days, around the time of Michael Jackson's death, when he uploaded the viral Michael Jackson Medley video with Sam as the one-man choir in July 24, 2009. Since then, he became known in YouTube for his multiplicity works and cover arrangements. Today though, he is more commonly known as that-young-producer-who-can-make-you-internet-famous, literally.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/R12QVtuB0_Q]

Covers and one-man choir music videos are not the only ones that made KurtHugoSchneider a formidable YouTube Partner. He is also most YouTube's most famous personality for medleys. And as part of tradition, he annually releases Pop Medley videos with Sam starting back in 2010. Actually, his very first dated Pop Medley was way back 2008 with his friends Jake Bruene and Jamie van Dyck.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Xl1aLIjoJXk]

Music arrangement for covers are not the only musical arrangements that Kurt does. He also composes original songs, the first known one was Sam's debut Don't Want an Ending. He did admit though that his earlier (when he was still in school) compositions were embarrassingly bad. Besides composing songs for Sam, Kurt had also composed numerous songs for other artist including Cody Simpsons' Standing In China, Paradise album's bonus track.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/n1p74Isbcgc]

If you don't know yet, he also sings and raps but at a minimal level as much as possible. He's only doing it nowadays as a form of appreciation to his fans (the ones who requested it) but he always points out that he is not a good singer (which I completely disagree, he can sing better than I, who had no singing capability whatsoever, do). He's usually more of a behind-the-scene guy. At least now he gets more exposures and is already always included in the videos.

Aside from being a musical genius, Kurt is also known throughout the YouTube Community as an awesome director. He'd directed for both films and music videos, and even made 3 commercials as entrees for the Doritos' Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest in 2012. These videos were Where's Dave (my favorite), Parents are Home (quite funny actually), and Girl Next Door, all of which he did with Max Schneider and Daniel Karp. As a director, his most amazing work (for me) is his one take music videos especially the Maroon 5 Medley.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/GbKZYIiAPYE]

[youtube=http://youtu.be/p5eoHHrTKvs]

As mentioned earlier, he also directed for films. He had done some while in College but his much anticipated movie to date would be College Musical The Movie, which took 3 years in the making. Ever since the announcement of its making way back in 2010, the release date had been constantly moved and finally announced that it'll surely be released this year, 2013. Though I am kind of doubtful because of Kurt and Sam's current project, which is surely taking a lot of their time.



References:

Kurt Hugo Schneider's Youtube Channel

Sam Tsui's Debut Album

Popular YouTube Performer Kurt Hugo Schneider Joins Alloy Digital

The World's Most Powerful YouTube Stars

YouTube Thought These People Were Going To Make $100,000

Youtube effect: Making Money from Viral Videos

Grind Management - Artists, Songwriters& Producers

Kurt Schneider re(de)fines formula for YouTube success

Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider Interview

KurtHugoSchneider Stats by Social Blade

Doritos' Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest

College Musical The Movie



Author's Note: That's it for Part  1 of the Introduction. Will work on Part 2 soon. As for his works, I will have to make another post on it as that will entail a longer blog, hahaha. Don't forget to leave a comment ^_~