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BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhen Myles Smith reflects on his journey – from an 11-year-old kid playing guitar and piano to a charting artist – he feels he’s continuously exceeded his own expectations.<\/p>\n This year, the 26-year-old from Luton has had a top five single, played Glastonbury, smashed past one billion streams and just been named BBC Introducing’s Artist of the Year.<\/p>\n “I guess it\u2019s taken a long time. But I finally feel comfortable in my own skin and I feel proud of the music,” he says.<\/p>\n When Myles speaks to BBC Newsbeat, he is in Montreal, one of the stops on his North America tour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “What I think this year’s taught me is that expectations are there for comfort. But very rarely are they exactly what we imagine.<\/p>\n “My expectations when I started 2024 was not in a year to have played over 100 shows or the billion streams.”<\/p>\n Myles says he will never take the opportunity for people around the globe to choose to listen to his music for granted.<\/p>\n His breakout hit, Stargazing, has achieved worldwide acclaim, been platinum-certified and even featured on former US President Barack Obama’s summer playlist.<\/p>\n “For me it was just about prioritising writing music that comes straight from the heart and trying not to filter too much of that brain to mouth barrier.<\/p>\n “I just wanted to write something that was simple, but something that we all experience and feel at some point in life.<\/p>\n “I feel like doing that, it resonated with so many more people around the world,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The song, which he says was made in about 15 minutes, has also found a home on TikTok.<\/p>\n And Myles is well aware of how important the platform is to artists looking to break through.<\/p>\n In 2020, during the coronavirus lockdown, Myles began posting covers, with his acoustic version of The Neighbourhood\u2019s Sweater Weather going viral in 2022.<\/p>\n “Social media in general is so significant to an artist\u2019s journey,” he says.<\/p>\n “Some people may feel that the onus to do social media is a pressure that isn’t needed.<\/p>\n “And others may see it as an opportunity to really sort of find a community at a global scale.”<\/p>\n Myles sees it as the latter.<\/p>\n “We have the autonomy and control to be able to market ourselves how we desire and in ways which are most authentic to us.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But there has been some criticism that TikTok\u2019s influence is changing the way<\/a> music sounds, with impacts on song lengths and styles.<\/p>\n “I think that the idea that TikTok somehow diminishes the quality of music or somehow you have to fit the music within parameters is a myth for me personally.<\/p>\n “It’s given me more freedom than ever to do what I want. And how I want to do it.<\/p>\n “Times change all the time. One time you were cutting records on vinyl next it was on CD, then MP3 and digital\u2026 it’s about moving with the times,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Myles accepts the “privilege” of being able to reach so many online and on tour, he feels it\u2019s important to highlight the “other side”.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Myles](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/bc41\/live\/e154e5b0-9ea3-11ef-9260-19e6a950e830.jpg.webp\")
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