backstagewife-blog

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Fangirls ✨

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Being able to watch a friend’s view from a concert on Snapchat is cool and all, but have you ever wished you could tune in for longer than 10 seconds? And wouldn’t it take away some of those feelings of FOMO if you had a better seat? Like front of house or right in the barricade where the lead singer jumped into the crowd?

Now you can.

Snapchat’s newest feature, Crowd Surf can edit together snaps based on geolocation and timestamps in such a way that the audio plays almost uninterrupted. 

Goodbye All Access laminate, hello couch tour!

Crowd Surf was tested last weekend at Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco during Lorde’s performance of “Green Light”. The new technology took video from multiple Snapchatters to show the performance from the front row, the middle of audience and the side of the stage without the jarring jumps from one part of the song to another. In other words, viewers could still sing along.

Check it out for yourself...

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Welcome to 13 consecutive shows at The Garden!

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4th of July Weekend at Red Rocks! \mm/

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Is Chance a one-of-a-kind musical revolutionary, a visionary who is pointing the way toward a new future for the music industry that doesn’t rely on record companies, commercial radio airplay and traditional metrics for success?

Let’s hope so… in an industry of quick fixes, quick cash and cookie cutter business models, Chance the Rapper holds his career intentions and brand strategy close to his vest, giving himself a unique level of independence you don’t often see in the music industry. This “independence [not only] gives them the freedom to pick and choose with whom they [him and manager, Patrick Corcoran] work”, but it gives him the freedom to authentically create and in doing so build a community, not just a fad following. And with a community, you can profit. Big time.

But isn’t authenticity what we want from artists? Someone one who produces works of pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality or for profitable again? I would hope most fan would say yes. Then why do our favorite bands and artists continue to allow this ‘dead industry’ to drive their careers? Answer: money.

Chance isn’t revolutionary. Others before him have kept it in-house and focused on the music. There was the Grateful Dead who despite relatively little popular radio airtime, enjoyed a cult–like following from a fan base that numbered in the millions. They were followed by top touring artist, Phish doesn’t sell music, they sell live music, an experience. Like Chance, both the Grateful Dead and Phish bootstrapped their businesses rather than seeking support from industry players like record labels, talent agencies, and concert promoters. And that’s what makes all the difference. (If fact I could probably devote and entire blog post, hell, a 25-page dissertation drawing parallels between Chance the Rapper and leading jam band artists.)

Photo by Dave Vann © Phish 2013

What sets these artists and Chance apart is they’ve challenged the norm, like all great change agents have. They empower. In this article, Kot quotes Joe Shanahan, owner of Metro in Chicago, “There’s a sense that it’s not just about him, but ‘us’ … he’s part of a community.” I’d argue he’s helped build a community.

So is Chance a one-of-a-kind? No. There have been plenty of artists before him whose decision to break the music industry’s norm has lead to their success. Is he a “visionary who is pointing the way toward a new future for [today’s] music industry that doesn’t rely on record companies, commercial radio airplay and traditional metrics for success”? Let’s hope so. What’s unique about Chance the Rapper is he’s building a community within a mainstream audience, his reach is widespread across races and economic demographics and it’s only going to continue growing. (I mean, hell, even my 62 year old mother knows who Chance the Rapper is.) And that has lead to commercial success.  He can truly reach and influence (thus profit from) the public masses in a way all artists aspire to succeed.

So to answer Kot’s question, is this model sustainable? Fuck yeah. Artists before Chance the Rapper have already done it in niche communities, but Chance may have the ability to drive this new model to mainstream adoption.