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Business News Live Business
Young people don’t care if other people enjoy gigs, research finds
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 29 November 2017
Over a quarter of young people think that photographing or filming live music events on mobile phones should be outright banned. This according to only slightly dubious research from ticketing company Skiddle.
A survey of 1200 Skiddle customers aged between sixteen and 30 found that 27% thought that using phones to record gigs shouldn’t be allowed at all.
Meanwhile, 37% of respondents said that people holding up phones to photograph or film the act performing was distracting, and 34% said that phones being waved around takes away from the experience. Not sure why this wasn’t 100% on both counts. Maybe they worded the question wrong.
It’s not clear if the 27% who were in favour of a ban felt that government should legislate, or if venues should just employ snipers to shoot phones out of people’s hands. It has to be one of the two. But still, only 27% people felt this strongly, and only a little more than a third were even bothered. What of the remaining soulless arseholes?
Of those not in favour of a ban, 52% said that they film or photograph shows in order to relive them later, because apparently they have no capacity to memorise things that happen to them. In addition, 24% said they like to share their experiences on social media, while 13% said buying a ticket to a show permitted them to do whatever the fuck they want with their phones. I’m not sure they always read the terms and conditions of their tickets in massive detail though.
“The issue of banning mobile phones at gigs is one that has been hotly debated in recent months and it’s certainly a subject which almost everyone has a strong opinion on”, says Skiddle’s Ben Sebborn. “We found the results of this survey particularly interesting because of the age of respondents. Typically banning filming and photography is an opinion most commonly associated with older generations – however this survey shows that many younger people agree that live music experiences are best enjoyed without handheld technology present”.
However, he went on: “Despite the issue been highlighted by artists, gig-goers and venues on an almost weekly basis, it does appear that an overwhelming majority think that filming and photography should be allowed at live music events, which shows any crackdown will result in a high proportion of unsatisfied music fans”.
Various artists have attempted to convince fans to watch gigs with their fucking eyes in recent years, with little effect on the general population. Recently, A Perfect Circle went as far as to eject people who were found to be photographing or filming shows on their recent US tour.
