American music critic Anthony Fantano is well-known for his YouTube channel and website called “The Needle Drop.” In 2007, he began posting text reviews to his blog. In 2009, he switched to posting video reviews on YouTube. He critiques music in a variety of genres, such as “rock, pop, electronic, metal, hip-hop, and experimental music,” as well as albums and songs. He was awarded a partnership with YouTube when he had only about 1500 subscribers, despite the fact that his channel today has over 1 million members. He took first place in YouTube’s “On The Rise” competition in September 2011. At the “MTV O Music Awards” the following month, he was given the “Beyond the Blog” award. Only three albums have received a perfect score from Fantano, who uses a numerical grading scale from 0 to 10: “The Money Store” by Death Grips, “To Be Kind” by Swans, and “To Pimp a Butterfly” by Kendrick Lamar. He also has a second YouTube channel called “thatistheplan,” which he initially used to publish vlogs and other videos, but later began to use to post critiques of well-known internet memes.
The Epic Ascent to Stardom
Anthony Fantano was exposed to a variety of musical genres after beginning his work as the music director for the student radio station at Southern Connecticut State University. He started writing about music in the early 2000s after being encouraged by a buddy. However, he began by casually blogging about his musical experiences online rather than writing reviews. He was paying off his student loan during this period by working at the pizza shop from his high school. He was able to secure a podcast show at WNPR called “The Needle Drop” with the aid of a professor. He established the same-named website in 2007 to post written critiques of songs and albums. Although he started his first YouTube channel, “thatistheplan,” in 2007, he didn’t begin experimenting with video reviews for music until 2009.
In 2010, his review of Flying Lotus’ “Cosmogramma” album began to appear in YouTube’s “Featured Videos” section with similar videos. He was interviewed at SXSW at the beginning of 2011 and was mentioned in a piece in “The Guardian.” He drew fire in 2012 when he was required to write an article for Connecticut Public Radio to go along with a playlist titled “50 Failed First Impressions” that had been assembled by an editor. He was inspired by this occurrence to pursue a solo career as a music critic. As he gained popularity, he decided to leave his previous occupations and pursue “The Needle Drop” full-time.
Around 2014, as his fame grew, he realized the importance of properly archiving his many reviews and engaged a web designer to set up his website. One of his initial significant expenditures in building a career as a music journalist was this one.
What Sets Anthony Apart?
Anthony Fantano calls himself “the Internet’s Busiest Music Nerd,” but he is unquestionably one of the web’s most interesting music critics. He asserts that evaluating music on a video platform enables an entirely new level of engagement between the reviewer and the audience because the public can see the reviewer’s facial expressions, which fosters an impression of authenticity. He acknowledges that reviews of music are frequently “snarky,” but claims that being able to identify the “nerdy music enthusiast” behind the insulting comment helps to shatter the stereotype and forge a connection between the critic and the listener.
The majority of his videos are hosted by him, although he also frequently features his wife Dominique and his alter ego Cal Chuchesta, an Italian man with a mustache. Cal is a particularly memorable figure because of his terrible musical taste. He was referred to be Fantano’s awkward roommate. Fantano produced a video on April 1st, 2015, declaring Cal dead. His supporters then began to joke that Fantano must have burned Cal to death. But he later brought Cal back to life and released his mixtape, “The New Calassic,” which was inspired by Iggy Azalea’s debut album.
Individual Life of Anthony Fantano
On October 28, 1985, in Connecticut, New England, Anthony Fantano was born. He was a little child when his parents split up. He received a lot of jeers as a teenager because he was fairly overweight. Later, he started exercising and eating strictly vegan. He grew up wanting to be a cartoonist since he was a fan of “The Simpsons.” He studied political science, broadcast communication, and journalism at Southern Connecticut State University. He was also the SCSU radio station’s music director.
He dated Dominique, an African-American woman, for many years before getting married to her. She occasionally makes an appearance on his YouTube channel to share some of her favorite tunes.
Anthony Fantano’s Net Worth
According to sources, Anthony’s channel has 500,000 views every day on average. The calculations indicate that this equates to a $700,000 yearly income.
Let’s not forget that Anthony also makes money through his connection to YouTube. For every thousand views that are monetized, he earns between $2 and $7. Anthony Fantano has a $1 million net worth as of this writing.