Last week, wearable tech innovators at Doppler Labs partnered with Brooklyn arts venue National Sawdust to debut technology that may change the way we listen to live music. The invitation-only event featured a line-up of acclaimed musicians curated by Michael Thurber, Doppler Labs’ Head of Music and bassist for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. But it wasn’t the performers that made this concert different from any other—it was the audience.
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Audience members were fitted out with the Here Active Listening System, which uses wireless earbuds and a smartphone to allow listeners to control their audio environment. With volume sliders and EQ controls, you can pump the bass or turn down the music if you're standing near a speaker. You can take curation of your listening experience to the next level, deciding not just what concerts to go to, but also how to hear the music once you're there. "Artists inherently give up so much creative control to sound engineers," writes Noah Kraft, Doppler’s CEO and co-founder, “which is why we’re working closely with some of the best musicians in the world to ensure our tech is part of the creative process and in service of their art."The Here Active Listening System got its start with Kickstarter funding, and Doppler Labs is making only 10,000 of them, distributing most to funders and people in the music industry. So don’t expect to see a lot of them in the audiences of the shows you go to anytime soon. (Don't be too crestfallen though—there is waitlist for those who who'd like to get their hands on one before the device hits mass retail.) Still, it's very invention raises countless fascinating issues for art and music fans. It’s been said before that ours is an incredibly individualistic age—with more access to a larger amount of art and entertainment than any previous generation had at its disposal, we’ve lost many of our shared cultural consumption habits. 55 years ago we could be pretty much certain that almost everyone in the country had seen last night’s episode of I Love Lucy, because there were only two other channels anyone could have possibly be watching. Now, even when we’re consuming the exact same performance, it’s possible that each of us could be hearing something entirely different. It’s amazing that one day every audience member can serve as producer of her own music experience, but what will that cost us in terms of shared experiences with the arts?
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