Alicia Keys Latest Artist To Enforce No Cell Phone Policy at Concerts (slashgear.com)

Shane McGlaun, reporting for SlashGear:It appears that artists of all sorts are getting very serious about keeping fans from using smartphones while they are at their concerts or events. The latest musician to ban cell phones at her events is Alicia Keys. Fans aren't forced to give up their smartphones at the door to be locked up in some locker or box until the show is over. Rather, fans are handed a special pouch that is locked up with their smartphone inside the fan keeps that pouch with them during the event, but they can't get to the device to call, take photos, or shoot video. If they need to use their device during the show the users can go back to the door and a worker passes a disc about the size of a bagel over the bag to unlock it and the fan can step outside to use their smartphone.

Comments

This seems dangerous

[Anonymous Coward]

What if there's an emergency?

Re:This seems dangerous

[Anonymous Coward]

Then the venue has a fully staffed security crew

Heh heh heh

which is specifically trained

HAHAHAH Stop it, stop it you're killing me here!

These guys are strict

OMFG I think I'm going to die laughing right now, have you ever BEEN to a concert?

Re:This seems dangerous

[Yvan256]

But if your phone is in a bag, how can you know if it's an emergency or not?

Re:This seems dangerous

[Anonymous Coward]

And before the age of cellphones, your father died of a stroke in the hospital while you were still at a concert.

Re:This seems dangerous

[Anonymous Coward]

And what precisely would you be able to do if your father was dying of a stroke while you were in a venue, particularly a stadium? Teleport to his side?

Face it, just because it is possible to be in phone contact during an emergency doesn't really mean that you have to be or that it will even help.

Re:This seems dangerous

[MightyYar]

60,000 people calling 911 at once is probably not the best way to handle an emergency anyway.

Re:This seems dangerous

[bws111]

They are specifically trained. Not to do anything medical, but to get on their radios and say 'medical emergency in section 123'. Then, as if by magic, the ON SITE EMS team shows up and deals with it.

Re:This seems dangerous

[twotacocombo]

I guess people will have to survive just like those dark times before cell phones were invented.

Well, technically, the majority of people who lived before cell phones were invented have not survived at all.

As long as it's for the right reason

[Jfetjunky]

Banning cell phones so you don't have to try to look around people who insist on holding their phones over their heads. Or banning cell phones because you don't want an amateur video of your concert on youtube. Given my jaded view of the music industry, I'd bet on the latter. However, I've always wondered what the people who insist on taking photos and videos of everything they see do with those. Are they the modern day equivalent of those who used to corner people with their slide projectors while they begrudgingly sat and pretended to care? Enjoy your life, quit pretending everybody else wants to experience every second of it too.

Re:As long as it's for the right reason

[dgatwood]

I'm okay with banning the use of cell phones to record the show, but that should be done with bouncers, not by locking up people's cell phones so that they are unavailable if an emergency should arise. Locking up the phones in bags represents a public safety concern, and thus should not be taken lightly.

Re:As long as it's for the right reason

[PCM2]

Wait until you go to a show and somebody's doing all this with an iPad.

Liability?

[dgatwood]

I'm just waiting for the first time that the inability to make a 911 call quickly from one of these shows (heart attack, stroke, active shooter, etc.) results in someone's unnecessary death. After one lawsuit erases the benefits of the entire tour, the insurance companies will start levying huge surcharges for any shows that ban cellphones, and all this nonsense will take care of itself.

Re:Liability?

[PraiseBob]

You do realize that cell phones didn't always exist, and people still managed to survive? I'm sure concert survival rates won't drop drastically because of a potential 2 hour gap where your cellphone doesn't work.

Re:Liability?

[dgatwood]

Do you think that making a 9-1-1 or 1-1-2 phone call is even possible over the din of the band and the crowd?

Yes. Modern cell phones are quite good at noise rejection; there are real advantages from having your mouth an inch from the main mic and multiple microphones elsewhere on the device. Besides, all that 911 needs to know is that there's a medical emergency. They can tell the location from GPS even if they can't tell it from the noise level.

Leave making emergency calls to the emergency crew which is present

In a heart attack situation, you have five minutes to restore blood flow, or the person is dead. So you have one minute to step quickly out of the row and run up the stairs to the nearest security person, plus the time for them to get somewhere quiet enough that they can call it in. That burns precious minutes, so unless they have medical staff at the event, the victim is probably screwed.

Mind you, most large events should have medical staff on the premises, and at a bare minimum, event security will have to either help get the patient out (preferred) or get the medical personnel to the patient (slower), so you should be making your phone call while you run for event security, but you're still statistically better off doing both, because you can't know with certainty that they do have a medical staff, and they probably won't have an ambulance standing ready unless you're at a football game.

Re:Liability?

[reanjr]

We didn't used to have anesthesia and clean medical facilities, either, and people survived then, too.

Re:Liability?

[foradoxium]

this is a non-starter.

I worked as an usher for many years, I worked many many concerts. There are ushers on the sides of every section, with radios. There are security guards walking around the show and just outside the seating areas.

Nobody is going to call 911 in an emergency on their cellphone...Have you tried talking on your cellphone during a show? Neither the caller or the 911 operator would *not* hear a word said. You would call 911..the operator would get on say something and you'd say "sorry, can't hear you...hold on while I leave my seat, walk down the stairs and to a more quiet place."

It would be foolish for someone to try and handle it themselves, if your friend was having a medical emergency you would kill them. There is medical staff standing which includes an ambulance. You spending 10 minutes trying to get through and talk to a 911 operator would simply kill your friend. In fact, I bet if you told the operator that you were at a concert they would tell you to immediately hang up and talk to security.

Re:Liability?

[TroII]

There are already ambulances and police on site at any event of this size. Insurance requires it, the fire code likely requires it, common sense dictates it, and the artists usually have it in their contract (even if they're only thinking of themselves). Trying to get help sent from the outside will likely take longer than finding someone in a position of authority at the venue.

Re:Liability?

[Githaron]

You do realize that cell phones didn't always exist, and people still managed to survive?

What is your point? A lot of things didn't used to exist and yet enough people to survived their non-existence to continue to life of the species. That doesn't mean it is smart to get rid of all those things.

Re:Liability

[Anonymous Coward]

The same people who have always been responsible: The on-site security. They don't need access to a phone, they just need to grab one of the guys or gals RIGHT THERE.

We went to concerts before everyone had phones you know...

Re:Liability

[arth1]

So who is liable if there is an emergency and nobody in the crowd is able to access a phone to actually report it?

If anything, I believe emergency response times were better before everybody had a cell phone and 500 people called the emergency number at the same time.
The guards presumably still have working phones.

No shit

[Sycraft-fu]

And before someone starts complaining about "But we didn't used to have cellphones!" no we didn't, now we do: It's called progress. One thing that has helped emergency response times quite a bit in high income nations is the proliferation of mobile phones. When something happens emergency services can be notified in seconds, and get the response rolling that much faster.

Happened when I was in a car accident. I was dazed for maybe 20-30 seconds, then got my phone out and called for help. They had fire responders on scene in under 2 minutes, police 30 seconds later and EMS in about 4. In that case, it didn't matter, everyone was fine other than bruises, but had there been something serious, it is much more likely it could have been dealt with. The only reason the response was so fast was that it was in a populated area, and that I was able to call for help almost immediately.

To me it seems like the concert issue is one of acceptable behaviour, not the phones themselves. It is using them in inappropriate ways. Well the answer there isn't "take them away" or "lock them up" it is to let people know what is and isn't allowed, and to enforce that by removing people if necessary. People can learn, it turns out, and most can understand what rules apply to what social situation and obey them. There are those that can't and you have to deal with them, but you do it on an individual basis not by something like this.

Re:Or, you know..

[mrchaotica]

Or, you know, go to concerts performed by musicians who aren't threatened by modern technology. Weird Al, for example, encourages people to wave them in the air like people used to do with lighters during his "We All Have Cellphones" song.

Re:Or, you know..

[Rinikusu]

I came to see the band, not your fucking cell phone that you insist and holding over your head, blocking my goddamned view.

Saw one of my favorite bands recently. The girl behind us actually had the temerity to ask us to "keep it down" because she was recording the band on her cell phone. At a rock concert.

Re: So no more crappy cell phone videos

[Anonymous Coward]

The constitution doesn't grant you a right to use your cell phone and be an annoying dickhole (thank god). You agree to pay to see a performer, and part of that agreement is their requirements for you to attend. If you don't like that agreement, don't attend.

Re:Or, you know..

[ScentCone]

Let me guess. You're one of the people who likes to stare at your full-brightness-enabled phone during movies and other performances, without bothering to think that it's as much or more the other paying customers you're pissing off, not the performing artist(s). Has it occurred to you that the person on stage might be wanting their paying customers to be able to enjoy the performance without people like you wrecking everyone's dark-adjusted vision and providing a bright visual distraction that, because of perspective, is larger than the person on the stage that everyone's just spent a bunch of money to see? I know, you really just don't care, because it's all about you. I wonder if there's anything the person sitting in front of YOU might be able to do that would make you wish they'd stop? Maybe, shining a flashlight in your face the whole time? Or is that, like, so cool, man!

Re: So no more crappy cell phone videos

[Dunbal]

The constitution doesn't grant you a right to use your cell phone

You're right. You know why? Because governments cannot grant rights. You are born with the right to absolutely anything you can imagine. The only thing any law can do is TAKE RIGHTS AWAY. The constitution doesn't have you grant you any right.

Re: So no more crappy cell phone videos

[rudy_wayne]

I'd simply refuse to enter and request compensation (full purchase refund, parking expenses). If not, take the ticket merchant or responsible venue coordinatator to court and also request compensation for lost personal time. This type of information should be made clear before the purchase is made.

I've grown tired of organizations and individuals encroaching on what I consider others' basic rights for their own personal interests. If you're a live performer, cell phones are not hurting your business.

And it's exactly because of assholes like you that going anywhere, movie, concert, etc., had become unbearable. Fuck you and your fucking phone.