How do you feel about filming and photos at gigs? There’s something so distant and sad about seeing a sheet of glowing iPhone screens above a crowd, and how shitty that must feel for the artists on stage, having their fans more interested in their digital copy of the show than the real thing.
Cue Yondr. This is the new tech project which locks your phone to stop you filming at shows. Instead of, you know, watching?
Jack White can be thanked for this latest trend in keeping fans’ hands off their phones and their eyes on the stage.
After feeling overwhelmingly frustrated with audiences prioritising their phones at his gigs over his performance, Jack White has called for Yondr to step in and for his fans to slip their phones into protective cases which locks them from use until the end of the set. With cautioned off areas for emergency calls, this could be the future of live music.
In response to the decision White has said “The way they react tells me what to do next… And if they’re not really there, I don’t know what to do next.”
Other fans of the invention include Dave Chappelle, Alicia Keys and Guns N Roses. Perhaps an alternative is to impart on audiences the importance of giving attention to the shows they are paying for.
Via Rolling Stone.
