She may not be the first to start the trend, but Justine Griffin has made her mark on the new era of live music streamers on social media platforms like Twitch, playing to an audience of over 30,000 followers, taking requests while improvising on a series of songs influenced by her love of film and pop music.
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Griffin said she's had to learn over time how to perform her music in different ways to continue generating income. "I'm learning a lot as I go, all the different ways you can make money as a musician and all the ways that people, including myself, didn't know you could do," Griffin said in a phone interview with Lifewire.
Griffin’s brother introduced her to the world of streaming, and after two years, she’s amassed a sizable fan base among music lovers through her unique improvisational style of music-making and her dedication to the power of performance art. This one-woman band is changing the world of streaming by showing that it’s not all about video games and chatting.
Griffin’s desire for a self-sufficient life began in her youth. She grew up in Spokane, Washington, with two hardworking parents who owned a local printing business. She said that watching her parents run a business where they were their own bosses gave her the opportunity for a life without bosses and the monotonous structure that comes with wage labor.