Fame, fury, and flannel: How 39-year-old critic kingpin Anthony Fantano governs his YouTube empire

Since launching his flagship YouTube channel “The Needle Drop” in 2009, Fantano has built a massive audience: With more than 3 million YouTube subscribers and millions more across Instagram, Twitch, TikTok, and X, with thousands of paying Patreon supporters to boot, Fantano has become one of the most prolific and influential independent voices in music discourse. His popularity is paying off: While he won’t disclose how much money he makes, Fantano’s business has grown to support two full-time employees and several other part-time freelancers, who support Fantano getting ideas out of his head and content out the door. Analytics platform VidIQ estimates Fantano makes up to $42,000 per month on YouTube alone.

Building upon his successful college-radio show and evolving it into a multi-platform online business over the past 18 years, Fantano oversees the direction of the content but also juggles relationships with his audience, which hangs on his words and opinions, and brands that want to work with him. One of his greatest challenges is reconciling the demands of making a living with his own commitment to independence, which has long underpinned his credibility as a reviewer. Over the years, Fantano has turned down lucrative sponsorships and paid promotional deals, including offers to review or react to artists’ work for a fee, because accepting them could compromise his ability to deliver unfiltered opinions.

In this conversation with Fortune, Fantano discusses how he structures his day in order to keep pace with a constant flood of new music and news; how he balances audience engagement across YouTube, short-form platforms, and live streaming; and why his minimalist, hint-driven approach to titles and thumbnails works for him—even in a YouTube landscape obsessed with maximalism. Speaking to Fortune, he can’t quite define how he does it all, except to say he’s in constant motion: “I don’t really think I have the ability to just spend an entire day focusing on one thing.”

He also opens up about the pressures, risks, and unexpected business opportunities that have come with his unconventional career, from dealing with online threats to being tapped for a surreal Fortnite campaign.

Here’s our full interview, edited for clarity and length.

Anthony Fantano

FORTUNE: You are the self-proclaimed internet’s busiest music nerd. Can you walk me through what that actually looks like and describe a typical day for you? How do you stay organized?

FANTANO: I mostly just try to come up with a to-do list of everything that I need to get done over the course of the day. Then I will throw different bits of highlighter on it to indicate what stuff needs to get done first, or what stuff can be done together. I break it down either in terms of priority or in terms of efficiency, things that can be finished at the same time, and just try to knock it down from there.

This morning I just tried to shoot a bunch of stuff for TikTok and Instagram. Before I hopped on this call, I was about to lock into a listening session for a review I have to get done. It’s just shooting footage, sending it to my editors and collaborators, and trying to get out as much content as I can and just stay fast and reacting to everything going on all the time. There’s always new songs to talk about, new articles, new happenings, new viral occurrences, new albums; that’s just a constant mosh pit every week and just keeping up with it.

I don’t really think I have the ability to just spend an entire day focusing on one thing. There are some things that are so big and so high priority that I need to lock in and push other stuff to the side because there’s a lot riding on it. 

FORTUNE: How much do you collaborate with your team on what to prioritize, and how much of it is you calling the shots based on your own instincts?

FANTANO: Ultimately, I have final say on everything. But my editors and people I work with, like my main editor for my Fantano channel, or the guy I work with for a lot of my short-form content, they will jump up and make me aware of stuff happening on social media, or stuff they’ve come across themselves, as far as topics or news items or goings-on in the music world that may have slipped by me. They’ve both been working with me for so long, they understand what makes sense to talk about for me or for my audience. Usually nine times out of 10, whatever topic they’re drawing my attention to, it’s something I would have talked about otherwise if I had come across it myself.

FORTUNE: Speaking of platforms, you’re on YouTube, 3 million subscribers there; you’re on Instagram, 1.2 million; you’re on Twitch, Twitter; you have 9,200 subscribers on Patreon. Which of these platforms would you say holds the most value for you as a creator?

FANTANO: Literally in terms of paying my bills, it’s YouTube. All the other platforms do help in terms of monetization and bringing in eyes and ears, but YouTube continues to be the main driver. YouTube started as what initially allowed me to make this my career.

FORTUNE: You have such a keen eye for what clicks with people, not just in your content itself, but how you frame it. What sorts of recommendations do you have for somebody trying to create content for YouTube?

FANTANO: I come from a college radio background, punk scene background, NPR radio background, so I’m very much a DIYer and a minimalist. If you can come up with an effective way to communicate something that’s simple, I would just go with the simple choice. If the same thing can be communicated in a direct way, that’s probably the way I’m going to go about it. Sometimes, there are examples I see of other people’s work where they really went in on the thumbnail, and it’s super ambitious and eye-grabbing. But there’s just something that I prefer about the way that I go about it. 

What I’ve done effectively through my pathway is a bit of inside baseball. If you’re a longtime viewer, if you’re invested, you see something I’m wearing or something about the thumbnail that’s a bit subtler, that tells people, ‘I have to watch this because he’s hinting in this direction.’ Even something as simple as the expression on my face. I’ve seen viral tweets pop off where people literally just post a thumbnail and say, ‘What the hell is this guy saying now? Look at the look on his face!’

FORTUNE: Have you ever received death threats?

FANTANO: Oh, yeah. I have had to get in contact with law enforcement in the past over threats. Years ago somebody made an attempt at swatting me as well. So there’s definitely been examples of that sort of thing, and it’s left me a little spooked. It’s definitely put me in a place where I would never, for example, be going somewhere and live-posting Instagram stories like, ‘I’m here, this is where I am!’ out of concern: What if some crazy guy shows up or tries to make a situation of it? Even if I had a much more positive social media following and was beloved on every corner of the internet, I still wouldn’t be posting like that, just out of fear or concern that something weird could happen as a result of putting your location out there. 

With that being said, I feel very safe and chill and accepted everywhere I go. Between my YouTube channels and all of my social media pages, especially on short-form because it seems to be so much bigger of an exposure point these days, I’m viewed by tens of millions of people every month. It’s really ballooned over the past five years. It used to be maybe 10 years ago I would only be confronted with the idea that I was quote-unquote famous and people knew me if I went to a concert, an artist I reviewed, or a record store, or other places where music fans would be hanging out. But these days, I get recognized regularly at the grocery store.

Anthony Fantano

FORTUNE: You’ve reviewed thousands of albums, some of them very harshly. Has this tough criticism impacted your business relationships or your revenue opportunities at all? And do you weigh these sorts of factors when reviewing an album?

FANTANO: Yes, it has most definitely affected it. I’m friends with a lot of different content creators and influencers. But often, their content doesn’t really involve them being overtly critical of the thing they’re talking about; or, if they are being critical, maybe it’s not something people tend to take as personally as their favorite song or artist. 

In terms of music, even stuff that is more mediocre tends to be loved by at least somebody. It’s much more subjective at the end of the day. As a result of that, I guess in terms of the sort of person you would pay to endorse a product, it makes me maybe slightly less viable, because I am a little more polarizing or controversial. 

There are a lot of people who disagree with me. However, far more people just merely accept me as somebody who’s going to have his own opinion. The vast majority of people who watch my content just understand it for what it is and don’t take it personally. You might see posts about me or discourse regarding me where there is a lot of negativity and hate. People say I have the worst takes imaginable, or a very punchable face. There’s an intensity to the fandom. Sometimes that will just be a couple of dozen—or, if something goes super viral, maybe a few hundred—people who voice extreme distaste. While that can definitely be disheartening, and it certainly doesn’t feel great, I have to put that in perspective with the fact that many of my videos have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people watching silently and respectfully. 

FORTUNE: Major artists regularly engage with your reviews, sometimes positively, sometimes not. What is the most unexpected business or personal opportunity that’s arisen directly from a review that you’ve done?

FANTANO: The way people perceive me has led to some brands and opportunities and crossovers maybe not being so viable because to some I’m perceived as a bit of a ‘hot potato.’ This has led to some situations where I am called on to involve myself in some unlikely crossovers. 

A very weird and interesting one I had recently was I was paid to be involved with a promo for Fortnite. They made up this really weird scenario where T-Pain had a beef with a character in the game who is a pickle, who was also a rapper, and they were dropping diss tracks back and forth. I was asked to shoot a couple of clips of me talking about it as if I was talking about it on my YouTube channel. This kind of makes sense; in that context, nobody’s going to say, “Why would I?’ That’s not going to sour anybody’s view of the product because I’m involved. The whole point of the campaign was storytelling, and what better way to tell the story that something serious is happening in music than to get the face of music discourse in the social media age to comment on it? Because whether or not people agree with me, they understand that if something of importance is happening in music, I’m probably talking about it. It’s literally my brand, that’s literally my job. 

I’m absolutely positive there are brands that might not necessarily see me as the go-to to promote something because my face, my opinions, my takes may drive some negativity in some comment sections. I get a lot of emails, and I see a lot of people in the music space these days who take these opportunities. They essentially say, ‘Hey, will you talk about this artist and react to their content? We’ll pay you this amount of money.’ That’s a business model that has gotten very popular as of late: being paid to react to songs, being paid to interview certain artists on your page because maybe it’ll make them look cool, or there’s this organic interest in what they do that is essentially being astroturfed by paying for it, obviously. As nice as it would be to take some of those checks because it would make paying some bills easier, you can’t pay me this money and expect to get a fair critique or an honest critique. It’s important that I stay true to my actual opinions and stay objective in the sense that I’m actually saying what I actually feel, and what I’m saying is not being guided by a paycheck. As a result of that, I can’t be taking on these sorts of opportunities. 

FORTUNE: How do you protect yourself from getting burnt out?

FANTANO: I think it’s just effectively delegating as much as I possibly can, not taking on too much, knowing what I can and what I should pass off to other people. I can delegate all of the editing and some of the conceptual things, but when it comes to the opinions, there’s literally nobody to pass that off to. The closest I get to that is Giggens, another guy who works with me, who co-hosts my New Music Friday streams. But for the most part, when it comes to actually shooting and formulating my actual thoughts on the music and all that, yes, I have to do that on my own. 

I’m also just doing my best to take care of myself. I find that if I’m not eating right and exercising and taking some downtime, and not stressing myself out with other aspects of my life, it makes it easier to get done what I have to get done.

FORTUNE: As your star has risen, has your success changed your attitude towards money and investing—and if so, how?

FANTANO: It’s definitely given me the opportunity to plan for my retirement. Although that’s not something I like to think about often day-to-day. My mother is an accountant by trade. At one point, the business was getting so big that we thought we needed to hire a CPA, which we did. She put us in contact with a fiduciary who handles the 401k situation I have going on for me and also my editor for the Fantano channel. For awhile, we had a 401k situation going on for me personally and for the business. Giggens, who I referred to earlier, is now my second full-time employee this year; my editor for the Fantano channel is technically full-time.

But frankly, I’m not really somebody who likes to ball out like that. I didn’t really come from a whole lot of money, and I’m the first person in my family to actually make some actual money like that. I do my best to live within my means as much as possible, and save as much as I possibly can, and just make a lot of responsible financial decisions. I feel like that comes with the territory of having an accountant mom.

FORTUNE: “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans talks a lot about how he doesn’t eat hot wings when he’s off the clock. I’m wondering if that’s the case for you, too. When you’re not working, do you listen to music? And if so, what do you listen to?

FANTANO: Oh yeah, most definitely I do. As of late, I have been listening to a lot of tracks, just repeating over and over from the new Clipse album because I genuinely enjoy it. I have been playing a lot of that as of late. I don’t know what my year-end wrap-up is going to look like yet, but as far as my most recent plays, I’ve been listening to a lot of the new Open Mike Eagle album because I finally had to get a review of that in, but casually, I’ve been going back to the new Viagra Boys record too. Also, Vampire Weekend, Remi Wolf, Paul Simon, Tears for Fears, TLC, Gorillaz, Talk Talk. I’m listening to music quite often. I do try to give myself some breathers in between intense listening sessions, and I’ll put on a political podcast or something. I’m casually a fan of the Pokemon TCG, so sometimes I’ll be watching some people who are into that on YouTube. But I’m most definitely spending casual hours listening to music, too.