A MUSIC lover who released R&B mixes online is hoping to become a full-time DJ after his videos received more than a million views on YouTube.

Paul Jones is better known by his alias DJ Xclusive.

The 36-year-old moved to Swindon from Uganda in 2000 before heading off to New York City in 2004 for 12 years.

After recently returning from America, he’s set his sights on turning his lifelong love of music by turning it into a career by entertaining hundreds of thousands of people with his mega-mixes.

He said: “When I was in college, I volunteered to help DJ at parties because I always had a good selection of music. Later, I played around Swindon, in the Brunel Rooms and Lava Lounge, and I really wanted to find a way to reach bigger crowds and share my passion with them.

“In 2015, I made a hip-hop mixtape and I tried putting it on YouTube.

“Then I made a different mixtape with slow jams on and it was really popular so I kept making more and the numbers kept blowing up, I never thought they’d get this many views.”

An R&B mix of hit songs uploaded in April this year has been viewed more than 1.1 million times and another one which Paul made and uploaded just two weeks ago has already been viewed more than 600,000 times. He has a steadily-growing fanbase of 22,000 subscribers and comments under the videos are largely positive, which is rather unusual for a YouTube comments section.

Translating online success into a financially-viable full-time job won’t be easy but Paul is determined to give it a good go.

He added: “I was looking for something that people of all ages, races and backgrounds could listen to and R&B is universal.

“The mixes sound better when I’m playing them live in my DJ sets but I love being able to reach so many people online, too.

“People comment saying I’m helping them through their day and that inspires me.

“I’ve always had music around me, it’s my life, I’ve been inspired by DJ Khaled, Tim Westwood, Trevor Nelson and a local DJ called DJ Paul Caroll.”

He was first dubbed DJ Xclusive during his years in Brooklyn and kept the name when he returned to the UK.

Paul said: “I’m learning new things all the time, trying to expand my audience and keep my options open.

“I think I’m moving in the right direction.”

Check out his work by visiting facebook.com/xclusivemusic7 or his XclusiveMusic YouTube channel.