Make Your Own Rules: Stories and Hard-Earned Advice from a Creator in the Digital Age

Andrew Huang

Feb 2024 · Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Andrew Huang

About this audiobook

USA TODAY Bestseller

YouTube sensation Andrew Huang offers practical tips and hard-won advice for creatives seeking financial stability while staying authentic.

How does a musician with acute hearing loss, a refusal to perform live, and no industry connections carve a path to millions of followers and lucrative royalty checks? In Make Your Own Rules, Andrew Huang shares stories from his two decades as a music industry misfit and offers advice on both the artistic and business sides of working as a creator in our digital era.

Beginning with auctioning his songwriting skills on eBay as a teenager, Andrew continuously found new ways to thrive in a music career over the last twenty-plus years. His storied career and hard-won wisdom can help aspiring digital creatives find success as well. Organized by sections on building your creative foundations, growing an audience in the digital age, making money, and staying true to yourself, Make Your Own Rules pairs personal anecdotes with concrete advice applicable to any freelance digital creator. You’ll learn how Andrew became an early adopter of sharing music online—for free!—and how he leveraged social media to grow an organic following and amass millions of song streams and video views. Additional chapters provide insight into his designing an online course and music production tools that have been used by tens of thousands of people, and how he created revenue streams for himself that didn’t exist previously.

With open-minded perseverance, Andrew made up his own rules for life. His unlikely journey will inspire creators to find opportunity, financial stability, and fun in their pursuits.

Ratings and reviews

I first wasn't sure if this book was for me because I'm not a full-time creative, but I actually got a lot out of it ♡ I got inspired to push past some of my insecurities within my creative life. For example, the questions for self reflection helped me understand that I'm judging my work too much and need to use more of my time to make music just for me. Also the book feels so cohesive and the ideas so relatable, because of the way it is structured around Andrew's life story

Full of useful advice and inspiration for modern day music producers and content creators. A great listen!

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About the author

Andrew Huang is a partially deaf Toronto-based musician, music/video producer, and YouTuber with over 2 million subscribers. A versatile and prolific creator, Huang has released over 2,000 songs in a massive range of genres, and his YouTube content runs the gamut from music education to equipment reviews to interactive projects with fans and other industry titans. He lives in Toronto with his family.