Unwatched and unloved: Two-thirds of recorded footage from gigs is never played back

Here’s a stat you probably won’t find that surprising. You know the footage that so many of us record on our phones when we’re at gigs? Less than a third of it is ever watched back.

The research was conducted by Samsung. On average, UK gig-goers record 12 and a half minutes worth of video at every concert we attend. But only 31% of those recordings are ever watched back. The reasons are numerous: individuals feeling embarrassed at the sound at their own voice singing along account for 36% of those unwatched recordings, whilst 24% are down to grainy quality and 26% frustration with the poor lighting.

And the rest? Presumably filed on the mental backburner under ‘things to do’ and then quietly forgotten about. There must be hours upon hours of unwatched fan-filmed footage out there in the digital ether. Sadly Samsung haven’t estimated how many terabytes (or more) they all add up to in total. It might shock us all.

The Cardigans - Erase / Rewind “Director's Cut” - YouTube

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Despite this, the survey reveals that 77% of us still take videos when we’re at gigs. The main reason is to be able to relive the memory at a later date (46%) followed by wanting to share it with friends and family who weren’t there (24%).

Announcing the findings, Annika Bizon, Vice President of product and marketing at Samsung UK, said: “Live music is all about being in the moment, but our research shows many people still reach for their phones to capture memories they want to relive later.

"The challenge is that concerts are one of the toughest environments for filming – low lighting, constant movement and loud crowds can make it difficult to capture the atmosphere as you experienced it.”