General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

MyMusic

MyMusic is an American transmedia (story told across multiple media platforms) mockumentary sitcom created by Benny and Rafi Fine, known professionally as the Fine Brothers. It premiered on YouTube on April 15, 2012 and follows the employees of a fictional music news and production company whose staff are known only by the music genres they represent.¹^•² The series ran for two seasons, ending in January 2014, and was described by its creators as a "real time sitcom" because its story continued across YouTube videos, social media accounts, and a website between episodes.³

Key fact	Detail
Created by	Benny and Rafi Fine (the Fine Brothers), who have produced online content since 2004¹^•⁴
Run	Premiered April 15, 2012; season 1 ran 34 episodes to January 6, 2013, season 2 ran 24 episodes from August 20, 2013 to January 28, 2014²^•⁵
Funding	Part of YouTube's Original Channels Initiative, Google's program to support premium original content; the set was built at YouTube Space LA¹
Premise	A mockumentary about a music news company whose staff go by genre names such as Indie, Metal, Idol, Country, Dubstep, Techno, Hip Hop, and Scene¹
Main cast	Adam Busch (Indie), Grace Helbig (Idol), Jarrett Sleeper (Metal), Lee Newton (Country), Tania Gunadi (Techno), Jack Douglass (Intern 2), Lainey Lipson (Scene)²
Reach	Season 1 drew about 30 million views; more than 250,000 people followed the fictional characters on social networks⁶
Recognition	Nine Streamy Award nominations for its first season, the most of any show that year⁷

Spoilers

Premise and format

The show is framed as a behind-the-scenes documentary about MyMusic, an independent music news company reinventing itself after the blogging platform it depended on went bankrupt. The company partners with YouTube as one of its Original Channels and hires a new head of production, Metal, whose real name is Emmet Allan Klaga. The founder, Indie, has decreed that every employee be known only by the musical genre they represent, because "broad stereotypes are way easier to remember than names." Conformity to these stereotypes is strictly enforced, and being caught "posing" carries a penalty worse than unemployment.¹

Benny Fine said the mockumentary framing was a deliberate response to television mockumentaries such as The Office and Modern Family, which he criticized for never explaining within the narrative why a documentary crew is present. MyMusic instead treats its camera crew as part of the story and never breaks the fourth wall.⁸ He also cited the British sitcom The IT Crowd as an inspiration, requiring the show's writers to watch it for its combination of heightened but reality-based characters.⁶

The first season centered on the ensemble chafing under their one-dimensional roles: Metal fights to be seen as a loving father and capable businessman beneath his gruff exterior, Scene (a homage to Catherine Wayne's internet persona "Boxxy") is destabilized by an attack from 4chan, and Hip Hop undergoes an identity crisis that leads him to adopt a new persona. In the second season the more developed characters weigh leaving the company to pursue education, new careers, or fame.¹

Production and funding

MyMusic was accepted into YouTube's Original Channels Initiative alongside programs including SourceFed, Crash Course, and Cartoon Hangover. Google financed the show and gave the Fine Brothers use of YouTube Space LA to build the set. The Fine Brothers were already known for their Emmy Award-winning React series before pitching a weekly scripted series.¹

Episodes ran under ten minutes, and every few weeks the Fine Brothers packaged them into longer "sitcom episodes" for binge viewing; Benny Fine said these repackaged episodes each drew at least 100,000 views. Season 2 moved from the dedicated MyMusic channel to the brothers' main channel, which had about 5.6 million subscribers at the time, on the logic that a hub channel lets its staple shows build on each other.⁸^•⁶ Theme music was provided by Craig Benzine, the YouTuber known as WheezyWaiter.⁹

Transmedia extensions

The series extended well beyond its episodes. The Mosh, a weekly Q&A show, let fans talk with the crew; season 1 also included MyMusic News (brief news updates), MyMusic Presents (artist spotlights), and Scene's Tumblr Tuesday segment. In season 2 these were joined by the MyMusic website, with articles written in the characters' voices, hour-long MyMusic Podcast videos, and Gaming with Metal.¹

Each character maintained social media accounts, and more than 50 minor characters continued posting weekly updates after their cameo appearances. Metal's fictional former band, Jars of Vomit, has official music videos for its songs "Throat Punch" and "Apple Juice Factory." An in-narrative charity drive for Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit supporting public school music programs, was started by the character Country and raised just shy of $13,000 in a week through an Indiegogo campaign built around a livestreamed concert.¹

Cast and guest stars

The core cast paired established actors with YouTube personalities: Adam Busch of the band Men at Work as Indie, SourceFed's Lee Newton as Country, Grace Helbig as Idol, and Jack Douglass of jacksfilms as Intern 2, alongside Jarrett Sleeper as Metal, Tania Gunadi as Techno, Lainey Lipson as Scene, Mychal Thompson as Hip Hop, Chris Clowers as Dubstep, and Paul Butcher as Straightedge.²^•¹ Until the end of the first season, the videos did not promote the actors' identities, to preserve the conceit that the company was real.¹

Guest appearances by YouTube celebrities included Felicia Day as the Norwegian black-metal rocker Gorgol, Shane Dawson as the delivery man Chip, Freddie Wong as the deformed EDM performer DJ Elephant, Toby Turner as the devil, and Harley Morenstein as Jesus.¹

Reception and afterlife

The first season earned nine Streamy Award nominations, more than any other show that year, including Best Comedy, Best Direction, and Best Editing.⁷ Entertainment Weekly called the show "the future of TV and premium programming on YouTube," and Benny Fine described it as a case study for the future of the sitcom.¹⁰^•⁶ After the second season ended, both seasons were repackaged into longer-form sitcom episodes combining story arcs that had been split across weeks. A third season was not confirmed, and the team committed to maintaining the MyMusic website and social media accounts through an indefinite hiatus.¹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Comedy, drama, and general-genre web series › Premiered 1999 to 2016

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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