Smartphones have infiltrated just about every part of our day-to-day lives. Even the live concert experience is becoming a hotbed of smartphone usage. A Harris Poll study undertaken by Ticketfly reported that 31% of concert attendees between the ages of 18 to 34 use their phones during half the show. (One item of note: there’s lots of good stuff in this article from Music Connection – Dayton about the Ticketfly survey, focusing on where mobile is having an impact on concert goers in terms of marketing and social networking – but I’ll leave it up to you to read up on that.)
Two questions came to mind when I first read the survey results. Are concert goers losing out on the nuances of the experience by engaging with their phones more than keeping their eyes on stage? Or… have smartphones become the perfect vehicle for democratizing the concert experience and sharing it with the world?
U2 is definitely in the latter camp, having recently partnered with Meerkat to live stream fan-generated videos of its concerts. As this article states, “North American shows will be shot by a fan and streamed by that fan from a smartphone to the millions of fans following Meerkat and U2 on Twitter and Facebook. The video will also be shown on the huge video screen above the stage.”
AlI I can say is, whether you love or hate the video streamers in the crowd, those concert venues better put some thought into making sure coverage is rock solid (pun intended).
What do you think? Do smartphones add or detract from the concert experience?
By the Cel-Fi Team