Em Beihold’s Live2 Story

The story of Em Beihold at Live2 is perhaps one of the deepest and most pivotal early day stories to the core of the brand itself. In the earliest days of the brand in 2020, when it was truly just McClain, a camera, and access to the internet… he came across this girl wearing a red polka dot shirt, playing a song with a unique, gripping story that stopped McClain in his tracks. At the time, there was no real business plan for this thing called “Live2", but McClain had already discovered he was able to help artists get heard. Having never met in person, McClain and Em hatched a small plan to create videos about a song release through the Live2 TikTok page that Em would then respond to… somehow that worked and “City of Angels” was born. Over the next year, the two didn’t really get to know each other any better… that all changed when the foundation of Live2 in many ways was shaken in April of 2021. As McClain was picking up the pieces of broken childhood friendships (and largely alone in Los Angeles), he got a message from Em saying she had another song to build a story around. The two finally met in person and bonded over healing their personal problems while simultaneously building the world around this song called “Groundhog Day.” The song went on to be her biggest yet by quite a large margin, and to date was the largest independent release McClain had ever helped craft from the ground up with an artist. This was the first music video that Live2 Films ever technically did as Zay Mirigian was called up to direct his first music video for the company (This set was the first time that Em and Zade ever really met and at the time of writing this they have been dating for almost two years… fun fact). This newfound success would quickly become the onset of learning a tough lesson for McClain that the bigger vision of Live2 would be an upstream battle. Over the course of the next few months, many more elements of Em’s team fell into place, certainly all great people with great intentions, but unfortunately that marked the end of Live2’s potential to partner on the music… however, the duo was not quite finished yet as they agreed to run one more campaign around a little song called “Numb Little Bug.” This campaign ended up becoming the most successful world building Live2 had done and resulted in the song recieving over 100,000 pre-saves. The song was released in early 2022 with Republic Records and to date has gone platinum with over 300,000,000 streams. This song put Live2 on the map, and opened the doors for many opportunities for the brand moving forward.

“My friendship with Em has been one of the most pivotal and eye opening experiences that one can possibly have. Over the last few years I have learned so much with Em. We became friends when we both needed a friend, and looking back I think we would both tell you that becoming friends changed our lives. Live2 would not exist today if it were not for Em. Thankfully, even though the business of music is a rollercoaster as success soars and wanes, Em and I have managed to stay close friends. I am hopeful that our friendship can last a lifetime as the music has just been the excuse for an incredible friendship and something to bond over!”

-A note from McClain