Make Your Own Rules

Stories and Hard-Earned Advice from a Creator in the Digital Age

By: Andrew Huang

Narrated by: Andrew Huang

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

USA TODAY Bestseller

YouTube sensation Andrew Huang offers practical tips and hard-won advice for creatives seeking financial stability while staying authentic.

How does a musician with acute hearing loss, a refusal to perform live, and no industry connections carve a path to millions of followers and lucrative royalty checks? In Make Your Own Rules, Andrew Huang shares stories from his two decades as a music industry misfit and offers advice on both the artistic and business sides of working as a creator in our digital era.

Beginning with auctioning his songwriting skills on eBay as a teenager, Andrew continuously found new ways to thrive in a music career over the last twenty-plus years. His storied career and hard-won wisdom can help aspiring digital creatives find success as well. Organized by sections on building your creative foundations, growing an audience in the digital age, making money, and staying true to yourself, Make Your Own Rules pairs personal anecdotes with concrete advice applicable to any freelance digital creator. You’ll learn how Andrew became an early adopter of sharing music online—for free!—and how he leveraged social media to grow an organic following and amass millions of song streams and video views. Additional chapters provide insight into his designing an online course and music production tools that have been used by tens of thousands of people, and how he created revenue streams for himself that didn’t exist previously.

With open-minded perseverance, Andrew made up his own rules for life. His unlikely journey will inspire creators to find opportunity, financial stability, and fun in their pursuits.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Andrew Huang (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Great general proccess advice

There was a lot more to this book than I was expecting at first. I had assumed it would be only about the music industry or how Andrew does YouTube (like so many series/books/etc. are) l, but he goes through his background and gives great insight on what he does and why. The background and step by step life processes make the advice much more meaningful and generalized. I can easily see how to apply not the specific rules Andrew has for himself, but how to make and follow my own rules and how those rules can bring personal success no matter how I view success to be.

Andrew Huang the GOAT

Love Mr. Huang. The book is a beautiful extension of himself. Give this a read, important for any artist.

The authenticity of our journey isn't set in stone

As a musician myself I really respect and resonate with Andrew. I've watched so many of his videos. and to hear his story through and have him give us nuggets of wisdom along the way was very inspiring; not only to try things that work for you but to explore more avenues.

You need to hear this, I need to hear this.

Eye opening insights from a massively creative individual with no quit. Personally there have been so many golden nuggets and it's so inspiring to hear Andrew's journey. I plan on revisiting this book many times. I love that he reads the audiobook.

The struggles we all go through, that you think you only go through are all here and more. Hearing how he worked through these and how you can is just so refreshing.

Thank you Andrew!

Insightful, relevant and actionable

Andrew’s journey combined with the lessons learned along the way were inspiring, insightful, and in some ways surprising. It was refreshingly open, authentic and vulnerable. He was open about how luck has sometimes seemed to play a role in his success, but also how much hard work, practice, planning and thought are essential as well. I’m older than Andrew but I also appreciate his discussion about how important mindset can be. Very enjoyable listen!

Left me inspired

Well written and full of insight! Andrew really wrote this to help share what he’s learned from his success making a life doing what he loves

Sound concepts. Pun intended. =]

What a great book and having the author (Andrew) read it, made the concepts and info that much more genuine and intriguing. =]

The only creative book that gives actionable insights into the digital age of music/content creation

I’ve followed Andrew since 2013 and have always been curious of his creative process; from the outside it has always had a distinctly unique flavor to it. I work as a content creator/freelance producer and this one of the only books I’ve ever read where the topics felt like they were talking directly to me.

I was encouraged in what I was doing right, given direction in the things I could be doing better, and was excited to start making music shortly after finishing it.

I listened to it while doodling in a black paper notebook with gold metallic markers for nearly 3.5 hours and it felt like 20 minutes. It has successfully replaced “steal like an artist” as the book I recommend to people wanting to take their art creation seriously.

Banger from beginning to end

The book in general is freaking awesome, layer in transitions and overall performance from Andrew. Even better. I recently found Andrew's work when I hit a low point in my current career path, and it was originally through his channel that I got back into music. I've gotten to know the quality of the other products he's put out over the last year, and this falls in line with the rest. I can't recommend this book (physical and audio) enough. From the story, the transitions, the prompts, it all just works to make for an overall amazing experience that I have and will continue to recommend to everyone. Buy it now, Thank Andrew later.

True Artist Transparency & Authenticity

If you’re an artist, you’re probably familiar with the mental gymnastics we deal on a daily basis- in today’s world of tech, social media, and competition, it’s even harder to fathom the balance of our art’s worth meets our personal why’s to keep going. I’ve been a distant fan of this author so was curious to peer into his perspective. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I am familiar with his caliber of content and on camera personality, but was truly blown away by the amount of transparency and authenticity. Not kidding this has to be one of my favorite audiobooks for artists thus far- Why? Because to me, it goes deeper than sharing another artist journey as it dives into complete timeline of events by explaining every step along the way so no stone is unturned and shares the complete thought process all throughout of the emotional rollercoaster that comes with pursuing art for a living. Without giving anything away, I felt like it answered a lot of my doubts of pursuing music production as a fellow music producer and really answered well the importance of “making your own rules.” Dare I say, this book brought some inspiration back, but most importantly has also given me courage to embrace my own authenticity.