On the day Jordan Paul turned on Periscope while cleaning his apartment, the young creator had no idea that casually busting a move while picking up after himself would spark a dance revolution. Taking note of the positive reception of that particular early broadcast, Paul launched a nightly dance party on his channel, an event that has since pulled in viewers by the thousands and earned him over 1.5 million “hearts” (Periscope’s system of popularity measurement) in the process. While the Periscope platform and its first wave of creators are still emerging, Paul’s visibility suggests he could be part of a new generation of stars that have broken past the confines of the YouTube audience.
But, for those who may suggest there exists a divide between platforms and the creators who inhabit them, Paul, who began on YouTube, says it’s more just a matter of catching the audience at the right time.
“I was on YouTube for a while, just recording my life. I thought it was just a cool way to have everything on record. Once I decided to take on YouTube more seriously, my channel grew a little bit, but not in the way I wanted to,” Paul says. “I downloaded Periscope the day it came out. I’ve had it for a while before the dance party started. One day, I was in my apartment, and I saw it was dirty. I thought, ‘I’ll start my Periscope so someone can hold me accountable while I clean.’ I put music on, and as I was cleaning, I started dancing. People started suggesting songs. Then, the apartment was clean, and there were still people watching, so I said, ‘let’s have a dance party!’ People loved it. I decided to do it again more officially the next day. From there, it became every day. It took off. I’m better at Periscope. Having the audience there, being able to talk back and forth with them, I mean, it’s just like vlogging, but I get to talk to them directly in real time.”
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
That connection has definitely had an impact. With the audience for Paul’s dance party increasing on a daily basis, the inevitability of his pull for brand awareness has also caught the attention of those seeking to break into the Periscope market. While the platform currently has no developed monetization model for its creators as of yet, Paul’s visibility caught the eye of Ultimate Ears, an audio company that provided Paul with a mobile speaker so the dance party could travel outside his home.
“I tweeted out that I needed a speaker,” Paul says of the connection. “Ultimate Ears tweeted me back, and said ‘e-mail us.’ So I did, and they said, ‘We really like what you’re doing. What do you need?’ I told them what I was looking for…and they told me to look at their products and tell them which one I liked. I did, and they were like, ‘Cool, what’s your address?’ And they sent me one!”
With the dance party now mobile, Jordan Paul has been able to boogie at locations all around Los Angeles, from the Epoxy Creator House to the lamps outside LACMA. But, with viewership from all over the globe, the creator says his ultimate goal is take the dance party on tour.
“I want to go and make people smile all over the place,” he says. “You get to see the hearts, get to see them typing, but you don’t get to see it in person. I want to go on tour and go to different cities and have them dance with me.”
In part, that is exactly what Paul is poised to do. Set to travel to the Periscope Summit on September 22nd in NYC, Paul is flying to Texas and driving to New York, making stops in cities along the way.
“We’re stopping in Memphis, DC, Philly, and then we’re hitting New York. Since we’re doing the trip anyway, I told my audience I’ll be doing the dance party in those cities.”
Ultimately, Paul just wants to use his new found attention to spread a little happiness.
“Before I started the dance party, being a filmmaker, YouTuber, online person…it was kind of rough,” Paul says. “If you’re not pulling in numbers, it can be hard. The dance party, for me, brings the joy back. I get to have fun, but still get to make something. The dance party has definitely brought some joy to other people… and to myself. I want to tell people to do whatever they want, don’t let others stop you.”
