A Happy New Year 2011! Although only one week of the 2011 went by by now, I have got some very exciting news about innovative music projects. Let me briefly introduce one of them.
You might know an Academy Award-winning Japanese composer/pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto. He is also a member of Japanese electro-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra and said one of the most influencial musicians here in Japan. His pedigree shows he's been a great musician who seek the ways of releasing/showing/enjoying his own music in a very innovative manner.
So, "skmtSocial Project"(skmtsocial.com) is what I'd like to talk about today. Sakamoto is playing a double-header concert in Seoul, Korea named "Ryuichi Sakamoto Playing the Piano from Seoul/Korea 2011" at 4pm and 8pm, 9th January (Japan time). The main event of the project is to stream the two concerts live from his Ustream channel (www.ustream.tv/channel/skmts). He have already ustreamed his North American dates last year, which was hugely successful. But now he is about to take a step forward. For this time, his fans are encouraged to hold a public viewing (PV) of the Seoul concerts! You are expected to "tick" many check points in advance. Here is some of them:
- find a reasonable place for PV
- clarify your PV is non-profitable
- apply for PV approval from a Japanese copyright collection society JASRAC.
- invite your friends or people who want to share the PV experience with you via twitter or other ways.
There are also various live streaming programmes on Ustream including streaming reheasal sessions, sound check and some "backstage stories" things.
This is so interactive and innovative. Here is one of the good examples - the other day a staff member was ustreaming and testing how streaming pictures of different quality can be seen by viewsers. Viewers were responding via twitter to him about how the pictures were like and he was adjusting the setting of his video camera in real time, that I expected would be used for the live streaming. This example clearly shows the project team effectively use the social media such as Twitter and Ustream to communicate participating fans. Fans are required a bit of work to get themselves involved in. However, once they jump in the project, it feels like you are really participating in and making an very exciting project together.
Above: "Moriage goods" - a blog part showing where on the map PVs take place in Japan.
The main event takes place tomorrow. However, skmtSocial Project already proves people are still up for things that get you so excited even though you need a bit of work beforehand. Sakamoto obviously succeeded in increasing your fans' engagement in the project *and* the musician through the project.
Most of the PVs take place in Japan but there are some PVs overseas including in the US and Europe. Please check the map on skmtsocial.com or you can watch live streaming at www.ustream.tv/channel/skmts. Hashtag on twitter for the event is #skmts
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