When Fans Post Videos... Why Not Make A Virtual Concert Out Of It?

from the connecting-with-fans dept

A few years back, the Beastie Boys gave video cameras to a bunch of fans at a concert and then pieced together a video of that concert from all the footage. Other bands have done similar things more recently, and it's becoming increasingly popular for bands to tell fans to video tape them on mobile phones and to put the footage up on YouTube or other video hosting sites. While we do see some musicians, such as Prince, claim copyright over these fan videos, other musicians are trying to do things in a much more creative way. Nancy Baym points us to a Swedish musician named Moto Boy who went around to various videos sites, found all the videos fans had posted of his concerts, picked the best ones, and put them all together to create a "virtual concert" for fans (both new and old) to enjoy. This isn't just to call out this particular act -- as plenty of others have been doing similar things lately, but to show the contrast between this type of reaction -- embracing the fan effort and doing something useful with it -- compared to the "old" model of quickly claiming copyright infringement and demanding a takedown.
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Filed Under: fans, moto boy, videos, virtual concert


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  1. identicon
    mordred, 20 Aug 2008 @ 8:02am

    yet another reason why trying to control new developments loose to embracing them ^^

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2008 @ 10:38am

    Cell phone etiquette just does not seem to have sunk in yet. Personally, I get tired of looking at some guy's arm as he holds his cameraphone aloft, right in front of me. If they're doing video, there's no flash, but his arm is up there for a while. If it's a picture, there is often a flash - I've seen performers specifically ask not to be blinded by people's camera flashes. The jerks do it anyway. These are also the same folks who are screaming, "HEY TIM I'M AT THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS RIGHT NOW IT'S FREAKING AWESOME HERE LISTEN!!!"

    My solution: each venue has a photographer, with a decent camera and training. You line up at the venue on the way out and get 100MB of pictures. Club bouncers can yank the phones away from every idiot brandishing them. A couple of days later, for a small fee, you could be mailed a DVD of the performance. The fee would be split between the venue and the performer.

    I have yet to find a way how to make this practical.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Sierra Night Tide, 20 Aug 2008 @ 11:34am

    cell camera / video

    As you can see there is a negative side to the positive side. I think it’’s wonderful how musicians are incorporating fan pictures and video. It is a much better way to connect to new, current and old fans. I would definitely plug in to see a new or former favorite knowing they are working with fans and not against them. i.e Harry Potter law suite :(

    The fans are the ones who buy and support. Yes there are too many who abuse it but it is the ones who spend the money who will keep them going.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Ian Betteridge, 20 Aug 2008 @ 11:32pm

    Well yeah, that's sure cheaper than paying cameramen. I'm guessing that the "crowd" didn't get paid for their work, right?

    No wonder that businesses are waking up to the value of user generated content - the price to them is zero.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Mike (profile), 21 Aug 2008 @ 4:02am

    Re:

    Well yeah, that's sure cheaper than paying cameramen. I'm guessing that the "crowd" didn't get paid for their work, right?

    Well, it depends on how you count payment. I would think having a video of yours featured by the musician is plenty of payment for most.

    Also, these were fans who were videotaping the performances for their own reasons, not to get paid.

    What's wrong with that?

    No wonder that businesses are waking up to the value of user generated content - the price to them is zero.

    Which misses pretty much the entire point.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2010 @ 3:36pm

    Re:

    Don't go to concerts Dad....

    link to this | view in thread ]


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