Make Your Own Rules cover art

Make Your Own Rules

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

Preview

Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Make Your Own Rules

By: Andrew Huang
Narrated by: Andrew Huang
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.
Cancel

About this listen

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
Business Aspects Music Inspiring

What listeners say about Make Your Own Rules

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing read

What a joy to listen to this book. Totally recommend for all musicians and artists. Thanks and well done Andrew

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good - but a little disappointing

I have followed Andrew's music and career for about a decade. I have learned so much from their videos in that time. I think his music, process and sharing of both have shaped me as a composer, producer and musician more than anyone else. So, I was a little disappointed that this book wasn't really amazing for me.

Don't get me wrong - there's a lot I liked. Hearing detailed stories of Andrew's history, the personal life events occurring during periods of his career that I know deeply from the public-facing content and the insight into the processes, frameworks and mentalities that guide his art were all great.

I was let down by a lot of the advice in here - which loses much of its potency by trying to appeal broadly to art in general rather than by focussing on music specifically. Also, while I understand that it's kind of the point of a book like this, Andrew's musings on what it means to be an artist and how to be authentic felt trite and cliched. And despite the ethos of all artists regardless of size being equals - it felt kind of disconnected from early career life. It's weird to hear Andrew bragging about turning down 50k commissions to balance his personal life, and spending a day in deadmau5's mansion while giving advice that is intended to be taken as useful for anyone of any career stage. It feels very cynical to say it - but it feels like generic self-help stock. The ratio of stock to meat and veg was unfortunately disappointing. But maybe I'm too cynical for my own good.

There's a specific thing that happens all the way through that frustrated me. Often when Andrew would mention a colleague or their projects he would do so in vague terms. I wish he would have just said their names. Maybe the nondisclosure is for privacy, or because those people didn't want to have their information shared. Surely it wasn't gatekeeping - which would seem very out of character. A lot of the time I liked the sound of something Andrew described - but without a name I won't be able to find it.

I read this on audio, so I have some specific thoughts related to that. First, Andrew is sound artist. A true pioneer and experimenter. I appreciate that they read this themself, and added some music and sound effects. But they were disappointing. A couple of song segments (from recently released singles, or back catalog from periods of his career relevant to given chapters) mark new chapters, and some sound effects that grow stale with repetition mark asides, or signal the actionable advice sections of the book. But that's it. Andrew could very easily have scored this audiobook with music, could have added foley and sound effects to augment his story telling. I kind of expected this to be a true multi-media artwork. Unfortunately - just an audiobook.

Also, while I think publishing an audiobook is great for accessibility (and I wouldn't have read it otherwise) - it makes taking and applying the actionable advice harder. I can't just flip back to a page and re-read the suggestion to go and do it. I can't just look at a diagram - I have to go to the website and download it. Just a little bit of a barrier in this format. Obviously not Andrew's fault, but it means that for me - I won't be going back to action a lot of the advice. I'm ok with that.

At the end of the day - I still really liked Make Your Own Rules. Andrew is a hero of mine, and hearing his life story and gaining new perspectives on his life, and his artistic process was enjoyable. It often made me want to do better, to make more and be more creative. It also often made me feel self-conscious, disappointed and frustrated. It made my perception of myself as an artist stronger at times, but also fed self-doubt. I wish I could have loved this - and walked away more self assured. At the end I'm glad for the story and maybe some of the advice will affect me and my art. Probably some will. But really I'm just going to do my own thing. Maybe that was the point of this all along?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Probably my favourite audiobook of 2024

I was actually expecting a book more focused on instruction.
I’m a YouTube creator myself… I was surprised to find that it was more story, but that wasn’t a bad thing.
Andrew did an amazing job of weaving between story and instruction. Very relatable on the human level for even those who aren’t YouTubers.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.