Lindsey Stirling

Confirmed 139,584

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About

Lindsey Stirling is a violinist and composer who is well known on YouTube for her choreographed violin performances. Her videos include original compositions as well as covers of music from video game soundtracks including The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda. She has also released a number of videos in collaboration with other YouTube musicians.

Online History

Stirling started her YouTube channel on May 20th, 2007, using the handle Lindseystomp^[1] in reference to her first band's name, Stomp On Melvin.^[8] Her first video featured a live performance of an original composition titled "Violin Rock" (shown below, left). In August 2011, she uploaded a cover of "Party Rock Anthem", in which she performs a shuffle-influenced dance while playing the violin. As of May 2013, this video has been viewed more than 13.4 million times.

On February 23rd, 2012, Stirling uploaded a music video for original composition, in which she plays over a dubstep beat while exploring an ice castle. It gained more than 11 million views in less than two months and has been viewed nearly 58 million times as of May 2013.

As of May 2013, Stirling's main YouTube channel has more than 2.2 million subscribers and 301 million total views, averaging approximately 139,000 views per day. Additionally, her official Facebook^[5] page has more than 930,000 likes, her Twitter^[4] account has nearly 150,000 followers, and her music has nearly 2.5 million plays on Last.fm.^[10]

Management Deal

In February 2013, Lady Gaga‘s manager Troy Carter discovered Stirling’s YouTube channel and flew out to attend one of her sold-out shows in Orlando, Florida. Impressed with her performance and sizable fanbase without mainstream radio support, Carter offered Stirling a contract with his artist management company and by April, it was reported that Stirling had signed a management deal with Atom Factory, which will work with Stirling to further grow her online fanbase, instead of trying to shift her to a major record label. In a statement released on April 22nd^[19], Stirling said that she felt “creatively alive” after meeting with them and had no plans to leave YouTube.^[20]

Notable Videos

Stirling's videos have been discussed on Metafilter^[11], tech site Neeks and Gerds^[12], the Huffington Post^[13], Squidoo^[15] and the Mary Sue.^[16] She also was invited to perform at the TEDx Berkeley^[14] in February 2012.

Personal Life

Lindsey Stirling (born September 21st, 1986) began playing violin when she was six years old.^[7] At age 16, Stirling joined the power-pop band Stomp on Melvin^[8] with her friends Brandon, Adam, Jeff, and Randy. She attended Brigham Young University, where she studied therapeutic recreation.^[9] In high school, Stirling sent a video to the Ellen DeGeneres show to see if she could perform on the show and a producer called her back suggesting that she learn how to play hip hop. After seeing her videos on YouTube, a producer from the competition reality show America's Got Talent^[2] invited Stirling to come audition for the fifth season.^[3] Stirling was part of the Judges' Favorites group, competing in the August 3rd, 2010 episode, however, she did not advance past the quarter-finals.

[This video has been removed]

Stirling also tries to keep active with her fans and in September 2012, she launched a separate YouTube vlog channel^[17] for behind-the-scenes videos from her tour, video shoots, and press events. She also posts collaborations and fan covers on this channel. She also maintains an Instagram account^[18] for her personal photos, where she has nearly 50,000 followers.