Snap collabs with Live Nation on concert UX

Future. Snap and Live Nation have partnered on a slate of AR features for music festivals that will make them both easier to navigate while also providing a new layer of entertainment. Both companies are looking to help concertgoers have a better user experience without necessarily looking at their phones. That means that the rollout of Snap’s new Spectacles (that can one day maybe be controlled by users’ brains) could make that ambition even more seamless.

“Playbill for the 21st century”
Snap and Live Nation have been jamming on the future of the concert experience. Fast Company reports that the companies have partnered on a slate of new lenses that will help concertgoers navigate chaotic festivals… and maybe even enhance them.

Some features include:

• A Map feature which renders each participating festival accurately in 3D with animated landmarks and detailed info about each stage (schedule, setlist, etc.).
• A compass tool called FriendFindAR to find your friends — who are also using Snapchat — in the crowd.
• It will also have unique AR lenses based on the iconography of each fest. For example, at the Electric Daisy Carnival, users were able to conjure “three-story high bioluminescent mushrooms” and “dragon-sized owls” in AR.
• And since Snap built all the underlying tech themselves for the features, the features should work smoothly even with a lot of cell activity in the area.

So far, Snap and Live Nation are partnering on over a dozen festivals… though which ones exactly are still under wraps.

Tech trip
Bringing together Live Nation (the biggest concert organizer in the world) and Snap (possibly the biggest AR company out there with its app’s AR lenses being used 6 billion times a day) could make some real noise… especially since the features announced last week are just the start of what’s capable.

Kevin Chernett, EVP of global content for Live Nation, says that people may soon be able to try on merch in AR and also buy it without having to wait in any physical lines, and that the companies are working with different artists to see how AR experiences can be incorporated into concerts. And with advertising skyrocketing on Snapchat, expect brands to also find innovative ways to get in on the action.