Wilbur Soot, 26-year-old twitch streamer, singer, and songwriter, has had a distinct love for music and theater  since a young age. Lovejoy, the band Soot formed, felt the vast effects of Soot’s previously curated fanbase. When Soot first started streaming on a platform called Twitch, he did not have a large following. It was Soot’s arrival on the Dream SMP, a Minecraft survival server, that helped gain what his fanbase is now. Currently, Soot averages 26 and half thousand viewers per twitch stream, this placed him as one of the most popular streamers on the platform (StreamCharts) . Many would say it is thanks to his success on the DreamSMP. However, Soot would also soon start producing music. “In 2020, Wilbur released three comedy songs…” (Wikitubia Wilbur Soot) These songs were primarily played by Soot’s fans, but soon he began obtaining fans found through social media platforms, where many people spread his music. 

When Lovejoy was first formed, they acquired listeners almost immediately. Along with their debut EP, Are You Alright?, they had 100,000 subscribers by the end of that day, many of which came from Wilbur Soot’s pre-existing fans (Wikitubia Lovejoy). Are You Alright? quickly became popular. The band’s fanbase was growing at an unexpected rate, the millions who had followed Soot now discovering his latest project.

However, Lovejoy would still remain relatively unknown among those who would never follow Wilbur Soot or any of the other band members, Ash Kabosu, Joe Goldsmith, and Mark Boardman, in the first place. Despite passing millions of views, their music was not progressing as far as they had hoped. But of course, Lovejoy was not a famous band only because of Soot’s involvement. They created music that was fun and easy to listen to. This was when the band released its newest EP, Pebble Brain. The short album follows a quick-paced theme of music. It was almost entirely a play on words, vague, and for some, hard to understand. Regardless, the EP contained songs that would surpass millions of plays and would reach the top of “Spotify’s “Viral Hits” playlist.” (Shin, 2021) . Lovejoy, at this point, was obtaining fans who were just starting to hear of them. Pebble Brain would be a very successful EP, and because of that success, Are You Alright? would begin to gain more traction as well. 

Soon after, the band members found opportunities to begin a tour. With their rise in fame and fans, tickets sold out almost immediately after they had gone on sale. Each venue would comfortably “hold seven hundred people,” so it is easy to tell that Lovejoy fans were excited to see their favorite band finally perform for the first time (Shaw, 2022). 

Lovejoy is a new band. Nevertheless, they built themselves a fanbase swiftly. Soot was involved in the curation of the fanbase, of course, but it is also thanks to the band’s collective musical ability that they have come so far in so little time.