It is common knowledge that YouTube has become a powerful influence in the music industry. When Justin Beiber was 13 years old is mother started uploading videos of him singing R&B covers.

By chance, one of the hundreds of thousands of viewers of his YouTube channel just happened to be Usher.

Impressed by his voice, Usher convinced his record label to sign Bieber. Those three-minute clips of raw, a capella singing has led to a platinum album and seven hit singles.

Greyson Chance posted a video of himself singing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” at a sixth grade music festival at his school. It went viral on YouTube and eventually led to a gig on the Ellen Degeneres Show and a record deal.

MattyB, the breakout rapper who been performing on shows such as the Wendy Williams Show, was also discovered on YouTube.

The 7-year-old reached 300,000 hits on the video of his version of Rihanna and Drake’s song, “What’s My Name,” only two days after being uploaded.

Staples students also take advantage of this simple way to get recognized by the music big shots.

Here are the channels of four Staples students who hope their YouTube videos get noticed.

Jamie Yarmoff ‘12

Yarmoff has one video on her channel and covers “Your Beat” by Megan Pasley. Yarmoff sings and plays piano. She says she posted the video “for fun,” and plans on uploading a new video within the next couple of weeks. Yarmoff she realizes that YouTube is a great medium for artists to expose their music to people.

“Even if musicians don’t sign record deals, they can get hundreds, thousands, even millions of views.”

Eva Hendricks ‘11

Although Hendricks started uploading her music to YouTube as a way to send her original compositions to friends, she has received hundreds of other views. “I like the idea that it enables me to get some feedback from the viewers,” she said. For Hendricks, posting on YouTube is satisfying because “it’s something that I completely created by myself, so when you get positive feedback it’s especially gratifying.”

Ellen Kempner ‘12

Kempner first uploaded her music to YouTube to “see what kind of feedback her new songs would get.” Kempner receives many comments on her videos and reads each one. Her favorite comment was from a man asking for the chords to one of her songs. “It’s a really weird, but nice thought that people would want to play my music.” Although Kempner’s music is also available on iTunes, she believes that posting on YouTube is a great supplement. “People find my music on Youtube, and then buy it on iTunes.”

Rachel Shapiro ‘13

Shapiro’s YouTube channel features covers of other artists, and ones she has written herself.

All videos consist of both singing and playing the guitar, although Shapiro she also plays piano.

Shapiro believes YouTube and other social media sites to be “a key tool for artists.” Regarding her own music on Youtube, Shapiro is realistic.

“I really just hoped that teenagers and kids would see it and enjoy it like they do to artists who are well known,” Shapiro said.