Ethan Hayes, a man who never thought he would be nominated for Grammy’s by 22. Growing up he knew he had a passion for music, and by his senior year he was creating “beats,” for songs by writing an initial melody and then, using computer programs like FL Studio, digitally layering in instruments like drums, pianos, guitars, and synthesizers. He was on the fast track, until COVID-19. But really, that’s when Ethan’s career started to rocket. He developed signature beats with his own style – operatic with grand melodies. He noticed that getting his music to be well-known was going to be hard, but slowly he started to sell his music to small unknown artists. After the rapper NBA Youngboy used one of his beats, more and more producers became interested. He created beats for Lil Baby and Lil Durk’s collab album The Voice of the Hero which ended up becoming a huge hit album in 2021. After an insane year that culminated with the 64th annual Grammy Awards, when Nas’s King’s Disease II, which included a beat produced by Hayes, Sony Music Publishing was impressed enough to sign him. A senior at Bryant University as an Entrepreneurship major, he is determined to ride his current success as far as it will take him.
Ethan’s determination to not give up is something that I think is necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. He obviously had a passion for music, and he learned more and more about how to make his music unique, and that’s when people started to notice him. It’s definitely very hard for musicians to become well-known, but I think that if Ethan keeps up the good work, he is on his way there!
This is such a cool and inspiring story. I like how you featured the ways that COVID actually allowed Ethan to differentiate his business and become successful. Good job!
Ethan is so cool! I can’t imagine being contacted by such famous people while still only being in college. I think his success is truly because of his confidence in his ability and many other young entrepreneurs need to be like that too. He didn’t let his age get in the way of his goals and I’d love to know where he ends up in the future.
Ethan seems awesome! I cannot imagine working with such famous artists at a young age by just doing something you love to do. He has such an amazing talent that he was able to harness. I cannot wait to see what other artists he will work with in the future!
Gaining popularity in any industry is hard, but the music industry is a really steep pyramid. The fact that he did it at such a young age is truly impressive. It will be interesting to see how he continues to progress over time.
The music industry is definitely a huge market, and a hard industry, to get into, and Ethan executed his goals perfectly and has gotten into many huge firms like the Voice. It’s cool that someone as young as him put in so much work and it ended up paying off.