Mystery Guitar Man Creates and Innovates on YouTube

Here’s the deal: The group of creators colloquially known as YouTubers — who use YouTube not only as a distribution method, but as a way to engage their audience — is a group of creators I don’t write about nearly enough. So I’ve set myself a personal challenge: To spotlight five lesser-known creators who may be on their way to unseating current top subscribed account Nigahiga. Welcome to YouTuber Week, guys.

Joe Penna, known on YouTube as MysteryGuitarMan, isn’t really a newcomer to YouTube — his account dates back to June 2006 (his first video was uploaded on October 20 of that year) and prior to 2010 he’d definitely gotten some notice — YouTube even featured one of his videos on the home page in February 2009.

However, the Brazilian-born musician and creator only began crossing the million-view count regularly about six months ago, thanks in part to a collaboration with Rhett and Link. Currently, his main account is the 13th most subscribed channel of all time, with over 80 million upload views.

Watching his stuff, it’s not hard to see why he’s been able to attract almost one million subscribers.

One million subs and this is a “lesser known” creator to her?

Wow.

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  • lizlet

    Hi, there! So my focus in covering online video over the past several months (ie — the period of time during which MGM has really blown up) has been more on the scripted web series world; YouTuber Week is an effort to fix that while also sharing some of the talent in the space with those outside the YouTube community, which can be pretty insular. Just wanted to clarify that, and thank you for reading!

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    That's fine, but the guy has a million subs and gets his stuff pimped regularly by the likes of Charles Trippy, Shaycarl, and Natalie Tran. I'd hardly call him lesser-known. YouTube is pretty insular; no doubt, but it is odd to feel the need to highlight a guy who's so high up on the food chain.

    I'll keep reading, though. I like your stuff ;-)