Alicia Keys Not Allowing Phones at Concerts

This is the greatest idea ever. There is nothing worse than when the person in front of you decides to take out their phone and record LITERALLY THE ENTIRE SHOW, and when you go to move you realize there are 1,000 other people doing the same thing. It's a shame that shows have come to this, but I am 1,000% all for this service.

 

"There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated." Nice one.
And I really like this idea, nice to be taken back to the pre-iphone concert days. But people are gonna be pissed as hell for a while if this becomes the norm.

 

love the idea of people not recording but the pouch actually locking seems like it would be an issue in the event of an emergency

 

Exactly my thought... imagine if they would have had this at the Bataclan last fall...

 

“If you haven’t been to a phone-free show, you just don’t know what you’re missing,” he says. “There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated.”

THIS IS HOW LIFE SHOULD ALWAYS BE.

 

yet somehow people handled emergencies without cell phones all the way up to about 2004. i'm sure it would take awhile, but we could get to that point again.

 

Precisely my thoughts.

This is reductive to a fault. We also got through a lot of medical emergencies before modern medicine... but holy shit has it helped. Sorry friend, but your view being free of mini-LED displays at a million shows doesn't have shit on the one show where someone doesn't have a phone to alert those who can help in a state of emergency. Another point is Modern Baseball's recent text hotline for showgoers who feel as though they're in the presence of a predator. Your enjoyment is simply much less important than someones safety.

 

Really on the fence about this. There are a whole lot of different types of shows; I recognize that bigger artists who put a lot of time, money, and effort into creating larger-than-life shows might want to keep that experience private for fans who pay and attend events, but there are also plenty more small acts that benefit from fans tweeting/recording/posting/etc in the moment. I don't think that "no one records anything and everyone lives in the moment" is a solution that would work for every show, because I don't think that recording is necessarily a problem at every show.

Also, that's not even touching the safety implications. Of course it's possible to handle emergencies without smartphones, but why would you not use a tool that's physically in your pocket to try and mitigate issues while they're happening? That's the opposite of progress.

Theater comes to mind here, too. When people are in assigned seats, it's so easy for ushers and staff to enforce no-recording policies. That changes a lot when you've got GA or standing room only shows.

 

Call me an old man if you want, but seeing everyone watching the show through their cell phones - and me seeing through the cell phones of people in front of me I'd rather not be looking at - has really taken away from the concert experience. I've seen people with their freaking tablets at shows recording the whole thing in front of me. I think this idea is amazing, personally (though most of my younger friends would feel exactly the opposite).

 

Hate to tell you this, but driving to the show you're going to see is infinitely more dangerous than actually being there. Like, it's not even close. Not saying you don't have a point. Though now that I think of it, can we also do these locks when people try to drive a car?? Now THAT'S an idea.

 

It's an okay concept in theory. I think if the artists asked respectfully for everyone to put away their phones, most, not all for sure, but most people would listen. Of course this doesn't address the issue of things getting leaked they didn't want to but it would make the show environment much more the way they want it.

 

People using their phones at shows has never bothered me and I've been to lots and lots of shows

 

I'm for limiting use of phones, BUT it'd be hard to meet up with friends if someone's lagging behind or whatever if you're at the gig and are physically incapable of using said phone because it's in a locked pouch

 

Yeah I don't like this idea for practical reasons such as meeting people, but phones at concerts are so shitty. I just like the method used by Frank Turner (and many more artists) where he simply asks you not to live through your phone and explains why, then moves on.

 

It's sad that this is such a necessity now. Yonder pouches won't save you from the asshat who bring his Surface/Ipad to record the show though.

Just take 1 photo/1 video for snapchat or instagram or whatever and then put you're fucking phone away for the show. No one will ever watch those videos you took with your phone of the whole song.

 

That's exactly what the "Phone-Access Zone" is for if I am understanding their diagram correctly.

 

I wish people could just be respectful and not use their phones during shows if asked but that wont happen. For people talking about this causing problems meeting up with friends, you just have to walk outside of the show area and unlock it so that wouldn't be a problem. But it sucks that it's at the point where people will have to be searched to see if they have a phone on them. And who pays for it the artist or venue, or probably just pushed into another fee for the fans? I can see people unlocking them and walking away with the cases. Also it says they'd have a lot of unlocking stations but i wonder if it would still take a long time to just to leave the the bigger venues when the show ends.

 

This is why I enjoy shows with mosh pits.

As far as the safety thing, you are in a crowd of people. I've been to shows where people have been hurt crowd surfing, passed out due to exhaustion, and even been bleeding and because we are in such a big crowd managed to get them help by the magical power of vocal instructions being passed through a crowd which often gets the attention of the musical acts who stop the show and help facilitate emergency or security personal to the area of need. Cell phones have never expedited the process, except for when the medical individuals arrive to the scene and make the determination of if they will need to call in additional support or an ambulance.

The only places where I know people needed their cellphones for security reasons was outside of the venue.

If leaked material is her concern though this is a losing battle as people could bring in recorders which are minuscule and easy to hide if they wanted. Which an individual trying to gain viewership for giving the first insight to new material being played would definitely do. Guess this means no cellphone or digital cameras. Might there be a ban on disposable cameras?

 

How about everyone agrees to photo pit rules: first 3 songs, take all the pics/videos you want? Within those first 3 songs, you'll get the most energy from the artist, not to mention a new single and possible fan favorite to record. After that, put the phone away for the rest of the set. That seems fair to me.

 

Because no one will follow those rules. That is the whole point of the necessity of this system: artists try to tell the crowd to put the phones away, and one song later they're all back out again. People are selfish assholes and don't listen to anything because they "paid to be there, it's their right"

 

As someone who never records a show beyond maybe a clip or two to post afterwards, I loathe the idea of sealing up phones like this. People should be able to enjoy a show however they want. I think viewing it through the entirety of their phone is a stupid idea but if they're paying customers they should be able to do what they want. If you want to make a personal plea not to record it then that's fine but for an artist/venue to personal expend a lot of money on these bags just so you can deny something to your customers and fans seems really bizarre and foolish.

 

I think everyone should be allowed to feel safe at a show and I have to imagine that a phone helps with that. If a friend gets separated from their group, for example, or if they are at the show alone, a phone can provide a sense of security. Really though, what specifically comes to mind (because this happens so often) is a dude is being a creep to some girl but now she knows she has no way of contacting friends or other help.

 

Until venues can guarantee the personal safety of every single person in attendance, they shouldn't be allowed to do this. I'm all for not watching shows through cellphone screens. I don't even take pictures during shows anymore, just because it's less valuable to me to do that than to get an unspoiled, in-the-moment experience. But yeah, I'm not going into a concert venue without a way to contact my wife or my parents if I need to. Sorry.

 

That infrared device idea is also terrible, not only for the obvious reasons that were stated, but because there's a much better solution if they even wanted to create something to deter phone use at concerts.