While everyone is looking for the next big thing, many people think you have to invent or “come up with the idea” for technology to make the big hit, but in reality you don’t have to invent the next big thing, just master it.

For example take a look at a rap/hip-hop artist known as T-Pain.

Basically T-Pain was one of a ton of middle of the road rappers until he mastered the software program know an Auto-Tune.

Autotune was described in Time Magazine as “Photoshop for the human voice. Auto-Tune doesn’t make it possible for just anyone to sing like a pro, but used as its creator intended, it can transform a wavering performance into something technically flawless. “Right now, if you listen to pop, everything is in perfect pitch, perfect time and perfect tune.”

“””Auto-Tune’s inventor is a man named Andy Hildebrand, who invested it in 1996.

In 1998, Cher was regarded to be the first to use the software in her hit “believe”.

“””The program’s retune speed, which adjusts the singer’s voice, can be set from zero to 400. “If you set it to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds,” says Hildebrand. “But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch instantaneously”–eliminating the natural transition between notes and making the singer sound jumpy and automated. “I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that,” he says.

“”In 2003, T-Pain accidentally stumbled onto the Cher effect while Auto-Tuning some of his vocals. “It just worked for my voice,” says T-Pain in his natural Tallahassee drawl. “And there wasn’t anyone else doing it.”

So T-Pain became the first to master the software and the entire hip-hop music world came to him to teach them how to do it, which he was more than happy to do for co-writing credit and producer credits.

“””I know Auto-Tune better than anyone,” says T-Pain. “And even I’m just figuring out all the ways you can use it to change the mood of a record.”

For the last couple of years,  almost every major hip-hop artist has worked with T-Pain, leading to plenty of top 100 songs and a huge payday.

Basically,  T-Pain has become a mulit-millionaire, many times over,  because he learned to master a technology he did not invent.

Something to keep in mind while your looking for the next big thing.