Apple Develops Anti Filming Concert Software

pgabriel · Jun 22, 2011

This reminds of a Whats Happening episode. "which doobie do you be?"

As a "live in the moment" sort of concertgoer (if not human being), people who compulsively film bands annoy me. There's nothing worse than having your view of the stage obscured by some yahoo's smart phone. There have been times where I've watched live music in the form of a shaky three-inch screen, while the song was being played, just because the jagoff in front of me wasn't confident in their ability to make memories with their own brains. Now, Daily Mail reports the Apple corporation has apparently heard my cries, and has patented software that would prevent iPhone users from filming concerts.

Of course, it's much more accurate to say that Apple heard the cries of the music industry, who are more concerned about lost revenues than with my irritation at the guy who can't BELIEVE Iron Maiden are opening with "Run To The Hills," man! The technology involves infrared sensors that deactivates the iPhone's camera function while allowing other applications to work, meaning you can still text your friends or tweet or Facebook or find other ways to put a digital buffer between yourself and visceral experience.

Frankly, I’m ambivalent about this news. I know many artists are not fans of looking out into a crowd and seeing a field of disembodied screens glowing back at them. A highlight of seeing legendary indie-punks The Clean in a rare live appearance last year, was hearing frontman David Kilgour deadpan "I've never seen so many telephones" early on in their set, prompting most of the sheepish crowd to pocket their devices and accept that the only time they, or anyone else, would get to watch the next song would be as it happened. Would it be neat to go look up videos of that performance now, and enjoy the shaky footage as a souvenir of a fondly-remembered show? Yeah, I guess so, but I'll survive.

Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell famously went ape at a well-meaning San Diego fan for filming a performance of their song "The Funeral" a few years ago. The fan was, unsurprisingly, taken quite aback.

I see both sides of the issue here. On one hand you have the fan, who wants to capture something created by an artist they love and then share it with other fans, perhaps even winning over a few new converts. And then you have the artist, forever struggling with creative control, who just wants to play a concert for people (rather than their cameras, or the internet) and isn't thrilled when a sea of screens go up when they get to "the hit." I wouldn't have flipped anybody off, but if you're playing in a club where you can see people's faces - or could, if they weren't half-obscured by a smart phone - that's got to be a bit depressing, y'know?

But now Apple's stepping up to the rescue, iPhone-abetted concert filming will be a thing of the past and Band of Horses fans and all other iPhone-toting concertgoers will have no choice but to respect the "sanctity of live performance." Right?

Not at all, actually, and that's part of what has me so ambivalent about this technology. Unless Band of Horses are playing a huge festival, or stadium, or arena equipped with one of Apple's Men in Black infrared thingys, they're still going to see the same percentage of blinking widgets reflexively, pathologically thrust in the air when they get to "the hit," or the untested new material, or the surprise cover for the fans who stuck it out until the encore.

There are, and have been for some time, two music industries and Apple continues to kowtow to the major label, big money, fans-and-artists-and-the-21st-century-be-damned side of things. Salty New Zealand punk rockers and self-righteous beardos aside, I can't imagine many bands today actually give a damn about their fans actively supporting technology that's mostly just going to frustrate a lot of people. The Daily Mail article points out that festivals like Glastonbury often sell compilation DVDs, and are concerned with fan-shot footage online cutting into their profit margin. I doubt you're going to find these camera scramblers anywhere smaller than Verizon Wireless - perhaps even the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilions of the world - which means things will almost certainly be business as usual at the club-type shows. Do you think Fitzgerald’s is going to fire up the ol’ smartphone fritzer before a B L A C K I E set?

Apple has a history of working with the music industry to change the way people consume and interact with music; it's just discouraging when they take steps towards limiting people's freedom to use their technology to enjoy their favorite bands, rather than expanding it.

I'm clearly not a fan of people filming at shows, and I agree with many of the sentiments Bridwell expressed about live performance existing in the moment (though it’s clearly a somewhat outdated view and a losing battle, and if I were him I wouldn't have been anywhere near as much of a jerk about it). I wouldn't shed a tear if I went to a show and didn't see a single phone held clumsily aloft in hopes of... whatever. But I'd much rather that be the crowd's decision, not that of the companies who have some cockamamie idea that eliminating all the crap-quality Coldplay footage from YouTube is going to help save a sinking ship.
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CrazyDave · Jun 22, 2011

yeah. Poor Rerun.

Coach AI · Jun 22, 2011

Kind of a good example of sensationalism in action. IIRC, this is part of a patent, but something like The National Enquirer took it and made a story out of it that other places are running with. Crazy

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