The ex-Taking Heads musician, David
Byrne now opens his shows encouraging folk to take pictures, film and record
and share on YouTube, but to only post the good recordings. In his book ‘How
Music Works’ he describe that cathartic moment when he stopped trying to fight
concert recording and embraced them as a way of marketing the show and his
music.
The guardian reports this week on
concert pianists, Krystian Zimerman’s reaction to being filmed during a
performance. He was so annoyed over seeing a member of the audience filming
him perform he asked the audience member, "Would you please stop
that?" He shortly afterwards left
the stage and on returning told his audience that he had lost many recording
projects because of YouTube and that it was ‘destroying music.’
It’s ironic that this is reported in
the same week we have written about the increasing issues of privacy in our
increasingly Internet intrusive world. Is David Bryne’s world different to that
of the concert pianist, or the opera singer, or should we treat them all the
same? We would expect a certain decorum within the various concert halls, but
if that is being observed, then we have the core issue of recording and its
impact on artists.
The days of banning filming of rock
and pop concerts is fast disappearing and common sense has prevailed. YouTube,
is becoming for many, the most popular way of listening to music today. We first
created the MTV generation, which now have spawned the YouTube generation. Many
artists have realised that it can be a great way to promote their music and
concerts and have in the main embraced it. Go to any rock concert today and
before you have reached home we can guarantee there will be a posting on
YouTube.
Yes, we expect certain decorum within
a classical music concert and don’t expect people using flash cameras, standing
to record, or dancing in the aisles, but that is not the issue here. Today, and
certainly in a few months, we could see Google Glass being worn by the
audience. No more having to hold the smartphone in one hand whilst dancing in
the aisles. You can’t ban Google Glass and not smartphones. The person wearing Google
glass could be sitting quietly next to you in that classical concert and be
disturbing no one, as tomorrow they live stream the concert to YouTube. In fact
they will be less obtrusive than those with opera glasses.
We have to find new codes of
practice, separate the bootleg recordings which are made for profit from those
made by fans to share. Opera, classical, pop, folk, rock concerts are inherently
no different. They are based on people enjoying the music and sharing the
experience with friends and the sharing should be encouraged as it grows
awareness and introduces new people to the experience. Concerts and live shows
are more popular than ever and they are now filmed and posted more than ever
and some would suggest that there is a correlation there.
