For the independent singer/songwriter, promoting his second album hit an online snag — suspension.

By Nalea J. Ko, Reporter
Published June 18, 2010

If David Choi needed any reassurance that his YouTube fans loyally follow his video uploads then it likely came after the suspension of his channel.

Soon after his channel was suspended May 31, fans posted comments on Twitter and YouTube to defend Choi.

The outpouring of support prompted the creation of a petition and "RIP David Choi's Music YouTube Channel" Facebook page.

One might think Choi was a political prisoner or deceased with the flurry of "Free David Choi Music" tribute videos, tweets and wallpaper circulating online after news broke about his troubles with YouTube.

About a week later the 24-year-old returned to YouTube with a new video for his 300,000-plus subscribers.

"I'm just kind of getting back into the swing of things. It's been crazy [laughs]," Choi said July 7, after the suspension was lifted from his account.

The suspension, Choi said, came because he did a cover of "What Wonderful World." Covering other artists' songs, in addition to creating his own music, is something Choi said he did since his first YouTube post.

Singing cover songs like Katy Perry's "California Gurls" and Lady GaGa's "Telephone," Choi said he had to be careful because "technically you're not supposed to do covers."

"I do a lot of covers," said Choi, who is Korean American. One of the cover songs got a strike on YouTube, he added.

"Three strikes on YouTube and you're out. I just had to get the publishers to retract the strikes."

YouTubers must agree that content submitted online, "will not contain third party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third party proprietary rights."

Many other artists who were discovered on YouTube like Justin Bieber have sung other musicians' songs as well.

Other YouTubers also cover Choi's songs, which makes him feel honored, he said.

The freezing of his YouTube account came at a time when the independent artist needed his channel to promote his sophomore album "By My Side," which was released May 18.

"I mean it sucks that my channel got suspended right after my release," he said. "It's one of the most important times."

Being an independent artist without a label, Choi relies on websites like YouTube to publicize his music.

"I do everything myself," Choi explained. "I don't have a big corporation behind me or anything doing things for me. So it's a lot of work."

The benefit to being an independent artist without a label, Choi said, is having more control of his work.

Choi said he never wanted to be a musician, but it happened because of YouTube.

"Before I got the music bug I played video games all day. I was one of those people who was addicted to StarCraft," he said.

Prior to joining YouTube in 2006, his talents were recognized in 2004 when he took the grand prize in David Bowie's Mash-up contest.

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