Video - Austin Mahone Might Have Just Hit the Big Time with His “How to Love” Cover by Lil Wayne

Austin Mahone

Okay, we’ve been watching Austin Mahone for the last year - watching him slowly improve his covers and voice quality over time.

While we we’re impressed in the early days, he seemed a bit timid and a bit unwilling to totally let himself get lost in a song. He seemed a bit shy.

But a couple of months ago, Mahone started using either reverb, compression, or a delay with his video recordings and it stepped up his game by a mile.

A big fat Texas style mile…

There was a HUGE improvement over his earlier videos.

And tonight, Austin Mahone just released his latest cover which is “How to Love” by Lil Wayne – a song that’s been covered by a lot of singers including Justin Bieber.

And we got to say that Austin’s version just blew us away. In fact, we think that his version of “How to Love” may very well be the video that finally gets him noticed.

For those of you who aren’t musicians, “How to Love” is a very hard and somewhat technical song to play and sing.

It is NOT for the timid and shy – and he NAILED it.

Austin Mahone has grown up. He has improved. He now seems able to quickly learn any song he wants, and compile a very professional sounding video with just the right amount of effects to make it sound great.

That may not sound impressive until you realize he is NOT in a $10 million dollar digital studio with sound technicians and guru mixers.

He does it in his bedroom!

You have to listen to it to see what we mean….



As much as we hate to admit it, we like Austin’s version better than Lil Wayne’s.

Now, that brings us to Justin Bieber…

Justin also covered the song and it WAS in a $10 million dollar studio. While Justin’s version was powerful, we think Mahone’s was almost as good but in a more pleasurable, romantic, and “pure acoustic” way – without all the HIV drama and hip/hop rap that’s in Lil Wayne’s music video.

Anyway, we think that this cover is the one that some producer for Ellen, L.A. Reid, or some other Indy label or A/R person is going to hear – AND THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE NOTICE AND COME KNOCKING.

Did you hear that Austin?

You better sit down and take a deep breath because it may be awhile before you have a chance to rest those tired feet once they find you.

Get ready – we think you just recorded the video that’s going to make you famous.

We hope we’re right. We first wrote about Austin in in July when we we’re blown away by the fan following he had accumulated via social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and his Blog.

Related: Meet Austin Mahone – Social Media Genius or the Next Justin Bieber? – Video

Mahone seems to be hitting on all the right cylinders, and doing everything right in the social media world. He has a great voice and the ability to pick up various music styles quickly.

We’re afraid the only thing left to happen now is for his fans to help get him noticed by an important person or music label so he can get famous and start recording his own music.

Austin on the beach

Personally, we can’t wait.

And we know about 500,000 other people who will be beating down the doors of the record store to buy his first album.

Hear that L.A. Reid? Hear That Ellen? Hear that music industry people? Hear that A/R scouts?

We’re just saying – you better snap this kid up because he is going to leave you in the dust if you don’t get him a deal fast.

And Austin, when you hit it big - please don’t forget about us small, yet humble blogs that helped get your story out.

Congrats. You have come a long way.

Follow @InfoStar on Twitter – We are Mahomies now.

Photos - Austin Mahone Shirtless Pictures and Video

Okay Austin Mahone fans, we heard you.

For months you have been asking for a page of shirtless Austin Mahone pictures so we figured we would put one up for you die hard super fans and Mahomies.

We even added an extra video of Austin on the beach surfing and acting like a goof!

We searched the world and assembled what we thought were the best photos of Austin Mahone shirtless while at the beach, at the pool, or just hanging out around town having fun.

For those of you who don’t know that much about Austin, here is a little background on him with thoughts about his music, YouTube Channel, and social media strategy:

Video - Meet Austin Mahone: Social Media Genius or the Next Justin Bieber?

Now that you know who he is, you should know that Mahone is poised to be the next big thing on the teen music scene.

In fact, as of August 2012 Austin had signed a record deal with Chase Universal Republic Records that shoud put between $3 and $4 million dollars in his pocket!

Related: BIG NEWS - Austin Mahone signs record deal!!!

With his release of the cover “How to Love” by Lil Wayne, Austin may well be on the brink of hitting it big.

Video - Austin Mahone Might Have Just Hit the Big Time with His “How to Love” Cover by Lil Wayne

Anyway, back to the pictures.

Video - Meet Austin Mahone – Social Media Genius or the Next Justin Bieber?

Have you ever heard of Austin Mahone?

I bet your kids have. And they either love him or hate him – but they have heard of him.

So, who is Austin Mahone? What’s his bio?

Mahone lives in San Antonia Texas and is a 15-year-old singer and musician known for looking like Justin Bieber and recording cover songs on YouTube.

So what? There are lots of kids uploading videos and singing covers these days right?

But Mahone and his fans are different.

His fans are known as Mahomies - and he has his own Blog, Facebook, YouTube, Dailybooth, Tumblr, Twitter, SoundCloud, Formspring, and Myspace accounts.

He records popular cover songs and posts them to YouTube and interacts with his fans on a daily basis and claims that Justin Bieber is his favorite artist.



And oh yea, Mahone LOOKS like Justin Bieber and his fans love him.

The thing that fascinates us about this young man is his savvy for working the social media to create a name for himself while building his own fan base from the ground up without a record label or marketing rep.

He has learned to do what many adults and big companies have failed to do – create a successful brand.

In addition to uploading covers he has hundreds of thousands of Facebook fans, dedicated fan sites, over 13 million YouTube views, and sells t-shirts, posters, wristbands, Stickers, and Necklaces.

Heck, he's even been know to run around shirtless just to tease his female fans.

This is the kind of interaction that defines social media.

His fans love him but he admits that he also has haters saying,

“Haterz don’t matter to me because they are just jealous and the hateful words that they say are garbage. That’s why I don't listen to hate. I am curious of what haterz have to say sometimes just because I'm a curious person. But their opinions of me don't matter to me, because I’m not trying to please them.

What is important are my fans. I love them so much and everything they do for me. Haterz can't hurt you unless you let them. And I just have one last thing to say.... Haterz gonna hate Mahomies gonna love.”

Austin’s success is a prime example of how social media can springboard you into fame, build a fan base, and possibly launch a music career if you’re good enough.

So how powerful can a homegrown fan base be to a young artist like Mahone?



One day last week his fans decided he should appear on the “Ellen Show” with Ellen DeGeneres, and in one magnificent push of social media network power trended the phrase “#MahoneOnEllen” on twitter for the day as a worldwide trending topic.

His fans also bombarded DeGeneres’s Twitter and Facebook account and called her studio’s switchboard requesting she book Austin as a guest.

Why is this significant?

Because it was Ellen DeGeneres and her “eleveneleven” record label that discovered 14-year-old Greyson Chance.

And with less effort than Austin, Greyson has been propelled into a celebrity status with his first album “Hold on ‘til the Night” due to release next week.

Related: Greyson Chance gives video tour of his home town - Video

That kind of power by your own fans is exactly what made Justin Bieber what he is today.

One thing that helps make Mahone a fan favorite is he covers songs that are popular in today’s young music culture ranging from Cody Simpson, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Ne-yo, Usher, Adele, Chris Brown, and Edwin McCain.



So take note big record labels.

The youth of today have developed the social media skills to find, fall in love, promote, and make famous the musical artists THEY want to see and listen to - not who YOU want them to listen to.

Not that there’s not any place for “big music”, but things are changing these days and kids have grown frustrated with the “business as usual” mentality shown by the music industry.

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention”, and our kids are inventing a new way to communicate and enjoy their favorite artists and musicians.

We hope some of the adults out there are listening because these kids can teach us a thing or two about what makes them tick – and they are showing us what it is they want to listen to and who they want to fall in love with as a fan.

After all, if Justin Bieber's pet cat "Spaz" can get his own @Justins_Cat twitter account - than anything is possible!

Related: Justin Bieber's pet cat Spaz joins Twitter

Time will tell if a shirtless Austin Mahone will become the next big teen idol or music sensation…

But shouldn’t we be listening to what they are trying to tell us?

Follow @InfoStar on Twitter - We follow back!