IT’S amazing to think how quickly things are changing. The technological revolution is speeding past quicker than Lewis Hamilton at full throttle. I remember when arranging a shindig with mates you had to ring their landline, have a polite conversation with their mother before you got to speak to them. Now all you have to do is set up a WhatsApp group and a plan can be formulated in seconds.

The music business has probably seen one of the biggest changes. Not just in terms of accessibility, by having access to thousands of albums in your pocket, but how you make it big. No longer are hopefuls with stars in their eyes at the mercy of record companies. If you can sing, your destiny lies in your laptop.

I was recently chatting to Samantha Harvey on my radio show. Samantha has been celebrating after her debut single, Forgive forget, reached number three in the ITunes chart and has proved popular throughout the world. Samantha hasn’t spent years touring the clubs building up a fan base or bombarding record companies with demos. Instead she plonked herself on her mother’s bathroom floor with an iPhone and sang a few of her favourite songs, the bathroom being the perfect place for natural reverb. After uploading onto You Tube she built up a huge following. Hundreds of thousands of people were waiting excitedly for her next upload from the bathroom floor.

As you can imagine the record companies came breaking down the door looking to sign this new artist with an already established following. They knew they’d be quids in with her first single. Samantha was having none of it. She released Forgive forget independently shunning the power and might of a record label.

“I wanted to have full control over my own song and the way I looked,” she told me.

“I just wanted to be real to myself because that’s what I’ve been like all the way through. That’s why people have followed me because I’ve never changed and I don’t want to change the way I am.”

Samantha has this personal connection with her audience. She lets the fans into her life. She lives on her phone, sharing every detail on social media, interacting with fans and following them back.

“I spend all of my time replying to everybody. Sometime I realise that I haven’t put my phone down for a whole day. But it’s been worth it though because my single has been a big hit in the charts.”

Samantha’s story is an inspiration to anyone who wants to work in the music business professionally. If you have a talent, there is an accessible route to success. But a word of warning, If you are planning on uploading videos of you warbling in the bathroom, make sure the décor is up to scratch.

According to Samantha “It used to annoy my Mum the amount of comments we got about a wonky tile in the bathroom. Shut up and listen to the singing!”