The past few months have been universally difficult. It’s important to find things to keep your spirits up. One great thing that’s come out of the pandemic and subsequent quarantine is a huge increase in live stream musical performances.
Some artists were already performing live on Instagram or YouTube, but for others, this is a fairly new side of technology. The Plain White T’s were new to the live streaming game a few months ago, but now lead singer Tom Higgenson is a seasoned pro.
Higgenson began quarantine with a few live streams promoting his record label, Humans Were Here. He invited the label’s artists (Darren Vorel of the band TLB; Fairview; and Jessica Jarrell) to chat with him, answering questions from viewers and generally just catching up. They performed songs live and generally just broke up the monotony many people faced at the beginning of quarantine.
The Plain White T’s then had a band-wide chat of this type, with Higgenson inviting the members one by one to join him on the live stream. Fans were able to ask questions and see a little bit into the lives of the band (for instance, bassist Mike Retondo invited his dog and his son to be on camera with him).
Realizing the power and popularity of these live streams, Tom then decided to move over to Facebook for his live streams. He started streaming on a schedule – Wednesday evenings at 8PM EST. Facebook offers additional viewers (the numbers doubled and even tripled on the band’s Facebook page versus when Tom was going live from his own personal Instagram), as well as more ways for fans to be a part of the show. They use a Facebook bot to allow fans to vote for what songs they want to hear at each week’s set and to set up notifications just before the show starts.
The increased popularity of Tom’s short five-song virtual concerts meant that he had a larger platform, and he made the choice to use it for good. Shortly after the industry-wide “Black Out Tuesday” movement that sparked the use of black square images all across Instagram, Tom took a week off from his performances, utilizing the phrase, 'The show must be paused'.
"As much as I believe music to be the best healer, there was no room for any distractions the first week of protests. Those voices needed to be heard, not mine," Higgenson says of his decision to remain silent that week.
Seven days later, Tom was back with five new songs to play, and a challenge for viewers. He asked for donations to the ACLU, stating he would match donations up to $500. Viewers donated a final total of $685, meaning over $1000 got donated to the ACLU. "They are always standing up against injustice, so it seemed like the perfect cause to get behind," he says.
In these times of uncertainty, it’s nice to have a weekly event to look forward to. And knowing that the performer’s beliefs align with the beliefs of the viewers is just a pretty great bonus.
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