Sam Tsui knows a thing or two about the Internet. After starting his career by performing YouTube covers of popular songs, the young singer quickly developed a massive following across the web.

But now, Tsui is working on taking those digital fans and converting it into success away from the computer. With his latest release, Secret, and an arsenal full of his own original music, Tsui is ready to make the transition from YouTuber to pop star. In the singer's eyes, building a fan base through a platform like YouTube actually makes it easier to maintain devoted fans over the course of a career. 

“I’ve always been writing my own music and being a cover artist was never the endgame,” he explains between sucking the beans out of a bowl of edamame. “It was almost surprising that this little thing I was doing on the side became my entrance into this whole world. But I think one of the great things about having a digital following is that you have such a direct connection with your fans that you can put out content however you want to. It makes that connection so much closer that I think the transition is a lot smoother. You don’t have these casual fans who see one video and want to check you out every now and then, you’re cultivating this group of fans who are interested in me and my music, whether it’s covers or original music.”

Not only did Tsui’s fan base grow thanks to his cover songs, but re-working versions of pop hits also helped him as an artist. Even back in his college days when he was first starting out, Tsui would pull apart each track to see how he could put his own spin on it. By spending so much time looking deep into what other people do on their mega hits, Tsui saw what was missing from his own original material.

“As a musician, I think covering pop songs every week is actually a great way to be a student of pop music,” Tsui says while eyeballing another roll on the endless belt of sushi. “Dissecting pop songs, figuring out what makes them work, and learning how best to adjust them to my voice has improved my writing tenfold.”

While the recently married songwriter chooses a shrimp tempura roll off of the conveyor belt of Hollywood’s Blue C Sushi, he reflects back on his career. What started as a hobby has quickly evolved into a full-time job, and there’s never been anyone who could tell him exactly what to do (or not to do) to get to the next level. As one of the pioneers of the YouTube-based music industry, much of Tsui’s surprise transition into professional musician has been done by trial and error. 

“There was no way to have even dreamt of (creating a career through YouTube),” Tsui says, halfway through his second sushi roll. “There were no examples, because no one had done it before. That’s one of the cool and scary things about doing it, there is no rulebook. Artists like me are on the frontier of it, so there’s no one to tell you how to make a career out of it or how to use all this stuff.”

Of course, that’ll be different for the next generation of YouTubers. There are entire publicity firms and agencies dedicated to Internet stardom, and every week it seems as though someone else is moving from social media to a world tour. As Tsui recalls, the only famous ones on YouTube when he was starting his career were of the feline variety.

“It’s been awesome to watch the platforms that exist online come into their own as media that are taken seriously,” Tsui says. “When I started, I was in college. YouTube was around, but it was mostly home videos and cat videos. There’s still a lot of that, but now there’s so much high-quality content.”

From cat videos to cover songs, YouTube’s changed a lot in the handful of years since Tsui began putting his music online. With everyone from Beyonce to Kendrick Lamar just dropping albums and tracks whenever the mood strikes them, the music industry is slowly catching up to what YouTube-based musicians have done for years. Tsui will continue to drop original singles and albums on his own schedule, just as he did with covers through the first portion of his career. But now, he has a new challenge: bringing live performances of his new music to his global fan base.

“Secret is the first wave of a bunch of original stuff that’s coming out, and I’m really excited to share it,” Tsui says. “I definitely want to get back on the road to perform all of this music as well. At the end of the day, as great as it is to have everything digitally, trying my best to get out to as many of those people who follow me is the next step. In the Internet age, it’s easier said than done because they’re literally all over the world, but it’s so special to go and meet these people who have been watching your stuff for years. It may be the first time they’ve ever gotten to see you in person, but they already know every word.”