You ever save money up and go to your favorite artist’s concert, you have the best seat to see the lead singer, and just as he walks out on stage, some guy three rows closer holds his cell phone up and is recording the whole concert. His wife next to him is doing the same thing. On his other side is his best friend that brought is 5-year-old daughter with big pink earphones on to protect her ears, up on his shoulders so she could experience the best view for her very first concert. You look around and see half the audience is holding their cellphones up as well.  

By the third song, the lead singer stops the show and makes a statement like, “My endearing fans I know you love my music, and you want to capture a moment of the show for you to listen to when you get home. But please put your phones away and enjoy our performance. We know it is hard to do both – listen, enjoy, and record our every moment.” Some artist will add, saying, “If you want to pull your phone out and take four or five pictures maybe a 30 second video, that’s fine.” The crowd cheers as if the lead singer just told them he was giving all their admission price back to them. 

As the music starts again, maybe a hundred phones go down and placed in the person pocket – except for your three new friends in front of you. At this point, after five beers, you want to throw your next beer at them. But then you change your mind, because with your luck you will hit the poor 5-year-old and ruin her first concert experience. 

In recent years, artist have stepped up and telling their fans to put their phones down and raise their hands and cheer. They feel they have spent all the time writing the lyrics, creating the score, planned out the tour route and got the trucks and buses to get them from place to place, you as an audience can sit or stand for an hour and half to hear what they have created live and in person. Last year during the Tool concert Maynard James Keenan vocalist at every concert made an announcement asking the fans to put their phones away. Within the past few weeks’ fellow vocalist Rob Zombie stopped his concert to tell the audience to put away their phone. Classic metal band Iron Maiden put an announcement on their webpage asking fans to put down their cell phones. Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe is a big believer in the connection between a band and its audience – so much so that he wishes fans would put away their phones and be totally present during concerts. Many other bands are following requesting their fans to put down their phones. 

I posted a question to my friends and asked them what they thought of phone use during a concert. I got lots of variety in replies from musicians, fans, and local band members to responses from across the U.S. Local musicians liked to see their fans capturing video of their performance because it is free promotion coming straight from the fans. Local musicians like to see the videos so they can see what they did during a performance and what they may want to change. Band members that are performing in bigger shows or some in different genres of music say they would prefer to have their fans not record their shows because they want the fans to enjoy the music and not miss a single word of their story they are telling. They should be present in the moment, not worrying if they captured the right angle – that one jump from the lead singer.  

Now, do I think the bands will win the battle between phones or no phones? I think it is a losing battle. Their fans want to walk away with something to remember when they get home, to help justify why they spend so much money to get into the concert. Can the fans be more respectful toward a band? I think they could do that and even realize they have enjoyed the moment. So, the next time you go to a concert, think about the people around you that spent the same money to see the same band, and they want to enjoy the concert as well and don’t want to have to dodge your cellphone in their view. Think about how much work went into getting that band to your favorite venue. Take a few pictures while at the concert, even take a short video, cherish those memories – but don’t be a hog and expect it is your duty to capture the whole show on your phone. As a concert photographer, I only have three songs to capture the whole concert, and then even we can sit back and enjoy the concert.