At the UC Irvine ANTrepreneur Center, we are excited to highlight entrepreneurs and share their personal experiences, achievements, and brilliant insights. We invite you to join us as we celebrate these ANTrepreneurs and get inspired by their stories. 

In today’s increasingly online world, the doors are open for anyone to share their thoughts, opinions, and creations with the public. However, this can also mean that creators who want to stand out can struggle to make an impact. This is why it’s so exciting to hear success stories of creators who “go viral” or carve out their own place in the digital frontier.

For KMR Live, a group of three college students who came together to create music; starting their TikTok and amassing a following wasn’t their initial goal. However, with over 100K followers and 100 million organic views combined on all their platforms, the trio—consisting of Michael Simonian (Computer Engineering student at UC Irvine), Rayan Gandhi (Business Economics student at UCLA), and Rishi Shah (Energy Commerce and Data Science student at Texas Tech)—have cemented a spot for themselves in the world of music production.

To learn more about their creative process and their journey to social media success, Ryan Foland, Director of the UC Irvine ANTrepreneur Center, recently sat down with the KMR team for an illuminating interview. 

Ryan: Ahoy guys; thank you for meeting with me! Let’s kick this off by talking about your backstory. What sparked your initial interest in music production and content creation?

KMR: Our journey into music production and content creation started with our love for music and how it’s made. We’d spend hours experimenting on free platforms like Soundtrap and GarageBand and later moved onto a software called FL Studio. Ultimately, us hanging out after school and making beats quickly grew into a passion and opportunity.

Music became our escape and our way of expressing ourselves. As we learned and improved, we saw social media as a powerful way to share that passion, connect with like-minded creators, inspire others, and build a community that loves music as much as we do. Our main goal was to turn the technical side of production into something fun and relatable, showing that music is all about connection and creativity.

Ryan: What was the moment or idea that led to you starting your journey on social media together? Was it a planned strategy or something that just took off unexpectedly?

KMR: It was a mix of planning and being spontaneous. We would spend hours together every week just making music and having fun, and we figured that we might as well livestream what we were doing. So, we decided to start posting to see if we could reach a community of like-minded producers. 

While there was strategy behind our growth, we always had the mindset that planning was the same as wishing. It was only when we started posting consistently that we saw our initial growth.

Ryan: Growing a following to over 110K followers in a year is impressive. How did you achieve such rapid growth? 

KMR: Our goal for every video was for it to have three main characteristics: entertainment, shock value, and creativity. This ensured our content resonated with a broad audience while staying fun and engaging. We also made a conscious effort to showcase our personalities, that way our viewers could feel like they were there in the room with us.

Along with this, we would invite multiple friends to participate in our videos to create the energy of a real studio session for the viewer. This made our videos unique, and it really defined who we were in this niche. We hosted beat competitions, reacted to viewers’ music, and built an interactive, collaborative atmosphere where everyone felt like they were a part of the journey.

Finally, we prioritized consistency. We kept our videos short since we knew our audience enjoyed that form of content, and received the best response. By staying true to our passion for music and our community, we were able to grow rapidly and authentically.

Ryan: Did you face any challenges while growing your social media presence? And, if so, how did you overcome them?

KMR: It may sound cliché, but our biggest hurdle was not giving up. Social media’s rapid growth and instant gratification makes it hard to stay motivated when the growth slows down. There were many times when figuring out what content performed the best felt like a gamble. We would input the same amount of time and energy into all of our videos with no guarantee of reward. After shifting our focus towards self-improvement and away from viewers and followers, we found much more motivation and passion in our work.

Ryan: I know many creators also struggle with uncertainty, especially because social media is constantly evolving. What trends or changes do you foresee in the world of social media, and how are you preparing to adapt?

KMR: We have always felt it was unrealistic to try and predict future trends. The transition from long-form content to short-form content was unpredictable, but we believed it would be the best way to reach our audience. KMR has taught us how to adapt to new environments around us. Overall, we’re just going to keep focusing on making the best content for our viewers, no matter the shape or form, and keep adapting with new trends in the future.

Ryan: As you reflect on your journey, what are some key lessons you’ve learned that could benefit others trying to grow their social media presence?

KMR: The best piece of advice we can give is to trust your intuition and don’t give into negative criticism. For every person who disapproved of what we were doing, there was someone else who felt inspired to chase their own dreams. Don’t let others distract you from achieving what you want—not everyone has to see your vision. Surround yourself with like-minded people who align with your goals.

Another big part is to commit to something you are passionate about. If you create content that you think will make you more money, you will rapidly kill your passion. While the thought of making money may sound exciting, hard work and passion is what attracts money. The best way to grow your social media presence is to direct your focus away from monetary success and towards improving your craft.

It’s also helpful to remind yourself that you are your only competition. Focus only on competing against yourself, rather than competing against others. Make it your everyday mission to be any percent better than what you were the day before.

Ryan: What advice would you give to startup founders or entrepreneurs who want to leverage social media to build a community, promote their products, or simply have fun?

KMR: Actually focus on creating relatable content that resonates with your viewers. In order to build a community, you must understand who your target audience is and why they should engage with your content.

Additionally, if you want to leverage social media effectively, you need to understand the purpose and necessity behind what you want to create. Find what is missing in your field, and find ways to be unique and fill those gaps.

Lastly, enjoy the process of what you are doing. Content is supposed to be fun for the viewers and the creators. We have been able to grow a large community because we genuinely enjoy what we create, which helps us produce quality content and not get burnt out over time.

Ryan: For someone starting from scratch, what are the first three things they should focus on to grow their social media?

KMR: 

  1. Focus less on copying trends and prioritize creating trends.
  2. Stay consistent in all aspects of your work.
  3. Keep your content simple and create a story for your brand.

    Ryan: Great advice! I would like to thank you for sitting down with me and sharing your insights with the ANTrepreneur community. I know they will appreciate your story and suggestions. Let’s close this out by looking to the future; what’s next for you? Do you have any new goals, projects, or plans in mind for your social media journey or beyond?

KMR: Thanks for having us! In the short term, we’re excited to expand further into the world of music and learn how to DJ. In the long term, we have plans for new business ideas, such as starting a record label or pursuing artist management, depending on how far we can grow KMR. 

We really just want to provide value in the music space and leave an impact. With our current experience and degrees we’re pursuing, we even hope to eventually create a music-tech company that addresses the challenges artists in the music space face. All in all, our goal is to keep using social media as a place to inspire others, teach them how to make music, collaborate, and find ways to positively change music forever.

Follow KMR Live on all their platforms to keep up with their journey.

Three young men celebrating 100K followers milestone for KMR Live, holding a cake with "100K KMR" written on it, in a casual home studio setup.

The KMR Live team celebrates hitting 100K followers with a custom cake in their home studio, marking a major milestone in their social media journey.

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