Sting, Mantua, and startups

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea, oh
Another lonely day with no one here but me, oh

It starts like this, with “Message in a bottle” and the thunderous applause of six thousand spectators, Sting’s concert last night in Piazza Sordello in Mantua. Two hours of sounds, rhythms, and words. Those well-known ones from the Police’s ’80s hits, and those slightly less sung, instead, the heritage of the long and colorful musical career of the English artist.

A square divided between young people, fifty-year-olds or so like us, and the less young, Sting’s peers. Generations united by their love for the artist and his works, generations united in singing the lyrics of “Roxanne” and “Englishman in New York“. Generations also united by the high rate of heat-related illnesses, some suffocating thirty-six degrees Celsius and humidity that posed difficulties for many early Stingers.

Mantua, then, is a small gem nestled in the lowlands. Piazza Sordello, as well, is another small gem set in the historic center of Mantua.

Unfortunately, for almost the entire duration of the concert, smartphones were raised to the sky, as is “normal”, to capture a particular scene, record an excerpt of a song, take a photo, or go live on one of the social media platforms. Here, as at our children’s concerts, it becomes an intergenerational issue.

Yes, it is an issue because I firmly believe that capturing everything to review later, to say “I was there“, takes away much of the magic of watching, listening, and being present. There, in that moment (aside from avoiding little discomfort in the upper limbs, but that’s not relevant to Luchè fans).

So why not limit the recordings, the snapshots, to those truly personal moments? The selfie with friends, the framing of a particular scene, the euphoria of the moment. And instead, let the professionals who provide concert services handle the high-quality recordings. Then, feed all the recorded material, from both us and the service, to an artificial intelligence algorithm to create a video, for example, a mix of high-quality content and our personalized footage.

Would you be willing to pay a few extra euros to the concert organizer for this service? How much, in your opinion?