We asked some of our readers to share their experiences with music and discovered this interesting story shared by 16-year-old Divij. Read on! 

Ever since I was a kid, music always had an immense impact on my life, whether it was school assemblies, family get-togethers, or simply car journeys with the radio playing. From Imagine Dragons to Chris Brown and Drake, music artists have had a massive influence in my life. I started listening to hip-hop music in particular when ‘King Kunta’ by Kendrick Lamar played on the radio. It instantly became my favourite. After my first listen, I played it on repeat at home and the next day, knew every single bar to the song. That’s when my music obsession began. I was in many ‘rap groups’ and ‘bands’ with my friends from primary school, and the memories and amusement I get from thinking about old times is priceless. 

I always knew I loved music, and music would eventually be a big part of my life, but I never knew where to start. Ever since I was 4 years old, becoming a professional cricketer was the only thing on my mind. When I moved to India a couple years back, that goal went from the only thing on my mind, to one of the things in my mind. Music started taking over. 

I started writing songs daily, but noticed most of my music was becoming repetitive (not to be surprised, I was a 13-year-old with not much to write about.) I soon realised that this won’t work for long and that I needed to improve myself, whether it’s flow, delivery or even writing, I need more experience. For about 2 years,I spent my time trying different styles and experimenting with my music. Finally, in January 2020 I believed I was ready.

I released my first song ‘2020’ talking about my goals and dreams for the year 2020 (thanks to a particular virus all of those dreams were shattered soon enough!) I began with an audience of 50 listeners, just friends and family, realising quickly that I was lacking in one department of my music: Marketing. In my opinion, marketing your music is as, if not more, important as actually releasing your music, because no matter how good a song is, if no one is listening to it, it doesn’t make your hard work worthwhile. 

So, I quickly changed my focus to trying to build a fanbase, with an active audience wanting more music from me. Over the past year, I’ve been doing exactly that, releasing 6 songs with a combined total streams of 800,000, and aspirations for many more in the future. 

My overall journey taught me one thing: Believing in yourself is the most crucial thing in order for you to succeed in anything. If I had not taken a chance on music, I would not be here right now, writing this article and having people read this. I’m very grateful to everyone who’s supported me throughout my journey and I can assure you this is not the last you will hear of King Div.

This article originally appeared in the Music edition of The Plus magazine.