source: Tyler Ward's Facebook page

I think I was listening to one of Vevo's playlists when I stumbled upon one of Tyler Ward's songs. If you're a big YouTube user, you've probably already heard of him. He is, for all intents and purposes, an independent artist in the U.S. who signed a record deal earlier this year with Sony Music Germany. Random much? For an independent artist, he's done some choice gigs with established artists, such as The Band Perry.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm usually hesitant to jump on the bandwagon of an artist who's built their fame from sites like YouTube and MySpace ... and though Tyler hasn't exactly done that, he has an extensive library of covers and originals (with accompanying music videos) on his YouTube channel. But I do think it's interesting to see how the internet can create opportunities or overcome physical barriers, and how well artists born of the internet fare in comparison to their more traditional counterparts (if there is still such a thing, what with all the music competition reality shows producing new stars every day). Tyler, having been in the business of making music for quite a while now, makes music that is really polished and in tune with current music trends ... so much so that if I only close my eyes and ignore the low budget quality of his music videos, I could almost swear he had a major label recording budget.

His music is hard to pinpoint -- it's a little bit of everything, from alternative rock with tinges of punk to R&B and acoustic pop. He has the kind of clear, beautiful voice that suits every genre, which is probably one of the reasons it took so long for him to be signed -- he doesn't quite come ready-made. In fact, the songs he's released on Sony Music Germany are decidedly bland in comparison to the spirited songs he'd previously posted on his YouTube channel. If he lasts on Sony, I hope they figure out how to showcase his talent in a unique way. Otherwise, he might as well continue on as an independent artist -- he has a decent YouTube following ...


I love what he did with Taylor Swift's "Red" below ... not much by way of vocals, but the production is slick.