Study: 73% of Young Concertgoers Do Not Think Phones Should be Banned at Shows

The use of cell phones at shows to take photos and film videos has been in the press a whole lot of late, with A Perfect Circle’s strict “no photos” policy resulting in over 60 people being booted from a recent show in Reading, PA (and unreported numbers of paid concertgoers being kicked out of other shows on the tour), and an ensuing public debate that’s seen APC’s Maynard, Billy Howerdel and In Flames frontman Anders Fridén weigh in, among others.

A timely study has just been completed by the ticketing outlet Skiddle [brought to our attention via Music Radar] that sheds some light on what music fans think, and the results aren’t favorable for bands with “no photos” policies. 73% of young concertgoers — defined as between the ages of 16 and 30 — do not think phones should be banned at gigs. Of the 27% who supported bans, 37% said that they found phones distracting, and 34% said that they take something away from the experience. Only 8% believe that filming and photography is disrespectful to the artist or band.

“Ban” is a harsh word, so I would’ve liked to have seen an additional question asked in the survey that attempted to ascertain whether people think phones are used too much at shows, even amongst the 73% that said they shouldn’t be outright banned. There’s plenty of middle ground between not being allowed to use your phone at all and spending entire sets with a phone in the sky, and this survey doesn’t reflect that. I, for example, don’t think phones should be banned, but I do think people use them too much and they’re a major annoyance.

Still, this much is clear from the survey: fans are not on the side of bands who want phones banned at shows. That’s going to be a losing PR battle for any band that chooses to fight it.

[via Ultimate Guitar]