Katy Perry embraces the new. Hey, she hit the big time trying something new — you may remember, she kissed a girl — and became the most followed of all Twitter users. Back in March Perry acknowledged that Meerkat and Periscope were the hot new technologies on the scene, and that she’d just as soon open her arms to the broadcast apps as shake her fists at them.
Things change. Performers have to get used to it. Sometimes you have to change the way you measure an audience — be it from album sales and downloads to (now) streaming, or from applause to mobile recordings. Performers who hear less applause because one hand is holding an iPhone aimed at a performer has to understand that there’s a new reality, and a new way to appreciate performances. “When you see a phone,” Perry says, “that is like the new applause.”
