Musicians Whining About Fans With Mobile Phones
from the get-over-it dept
This past Friday night my favorite band was in town, so I went out to see them perform at a club in San Francisco. It was a fun time and they put on a great show (as they usually do) -- and it struck me early on that, even though the club was mobbed, and every once in a while I saw someone pull out a mobile phone to snap a photo or take a video, most people were just dancing and enjoying the show. Apparently, that's not necessarily the case everywhere. PicturePhoning alerts us to an article where a bunch of musicians are whining about fans in the audience with mobile phones. While they do make some interesting points about how fans these days are so focused on documenting their experiences that they might miss the actual experience, the whole "controversy" seems overblown. If the experience is good, the experience is good, and why should the musicians care how the fans experience it? And, as I can tell you from my experience on Friday night, when the experience is top notch, most people don't bother to pull out their mobile phones. So, perhaps rather than worrying about what the fans are doing, musicians should concentrate on putting on a better show.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: concerts, mobile phones, musicians
Reader Comments
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oh noes
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Re: oh noes
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Re: Re: oh noes
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Foul Copyright
eleete
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Re: Foul Copyright
Saw Muse play Wembley Stadium last summer, and there were posters up everyware saying 'Please do not record this show as we want to release it on DVD'. There were bag searches on the doors confiscating anything bigger then a mobile phone.
Of course plenty of reasonable quality video still made it onto youtube (along with lots of terrible quality video), but none of it came close to the professionally recorded and mastered DVD.
It makes you wonder why they botherd.
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Re: Re: Foul Copyright
Regardless, you bought tickets that likely had a clause attached saying that there would be no recording and that you will forfeit your ticket if you are caught violating it. Don't like it? Don't buy tickets to artists who don't allow it.
We gave people warnings and yet we'd still see them taking video 1 minute later so I don't feel sorry for anyone whining about how they don't want to play by the rules, especially if they get removed from the show.
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No, just stupid rules.
Nevermind that bootleg videos of a concert probably helped sales: if you were there and liked the show, maybe you bought a DVD. More likely, you wanted to be there but couldn't be, so you bought the DVD. And probably if you saw bootleg videos you decided you'd wished you were there and bough a professional video because the quality is so much better.
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Camera Phones
@eleete: I can't say I agree with you. I've seen a bunch of videos on youtube or elsewhere and the video that they produce is hardly decipherable. It's either too dark, grainy, and you can't hear the song above everyone else or the music is too loud for the receiver to handle.
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Re: Camera Phones
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Once everyone gets tired of bitching........
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Re: Once everyone gets tired of bitching........
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camera phones at concert
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No Cameras Allowed
I hate when I get photo passes to a show to get picture for our website and we're told no flash. However the people just on the other side of the barricade are flashing away with nothing happening.
Still to this day I don't know why many clubs/bands don't allow cameras at their shows. As a fan I just want some pictures to look back at years from now and go, "wow, that was a fun time." As a webzine I just want good pictures for our readers/fans who are fans of the bands we see. Nothing more, nothing less. Is that so wrong?
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Re: No Cameras Allowed
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eleete
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However, just as you can see stars at night, but can't read a book from their light, so too do the flashbulbs going off annoy the musicians while doing nothing illuminate the photo.
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After all, somebody *might* see a crappy YouTube phone cam clip of a band and say "wow ... they suck!" and not bother to go see them live :-)
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Re:
eleete
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Maybe those big bands don't want that, but us little guys don't mind the free advertising...
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I am afraid I disagree
They should start throwing people out of venues for doing it and the practice will quickly dwindle.
Unrelated, but...I went to see Iron Man the other day and the guy in front of me (one seat to the left) was surfing youtube.com or checking his text messages on his iphone throughout the movie. Every time my eyes was distracted. Who does that? Who goes to a movie and surfs youtube on their iphone, especially Iron Man. Just another reason why I don't want to go to theaters anymore.
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Re: I am afraid I disagree
Try being short, and you might understand why. ;)
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Re: Re: I am afraid I disagree
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Re: I am afraid I disagree
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constant phone pics = super annoying
take a picture, sure why not. take 1,000, and I (and everyone else behind you!) will think you're a stupid goon moron.
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cheap cameras vs. DSLR's
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A Sea of phone displays
Yeah, it's cool that modern tech is advancing so rapidly, and yeah, you can claim people have a right to use their toys if they feel like it, but I'd argue that such freedoms are predicated on the notion that people will also be c.o.n.s.i.d.e.r.a.t.e of the others around them who simply want to watch and listen. Just as the jerk who likes to use their speakerphone capability for a sales call while sitting in the coffee shop, or the schmuck who believes everyone should hear their music on the bus, I think you need to take into account the experience that the majority of people in that space can reasonably expect to have, and let them have it.
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Re: A Sea of phone displays
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On the other side...Artists should spend more time enhancing their shows so a) they put on a top notch show and b) they embrace technology and figure out ways to include instead of exclude!
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Great show and I will love those pics forever!
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Who was it?
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Silly audience Phones are for idiots
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Priorities
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Ruining the experience?
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Mike gets to take an evening off?
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The Fray hates people with cell-phone cameras
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