Last night No Doubt played their only live European concert this year. The event was attended by more than 2,000 invited guests and 250 journalists and bloggers from across Europe.
The gig was not largesse from the Galliano-feted Gwen Stefani and her band, but the result of a deal between HP and the Universal Music Group to launch HP Connected Music, ‘a new way to enjoy some of the world’s most popular music artists’.
Over the next few months HP are planning a series of private events with other major Universal Music artists across Europe and the HP Connected Music platform on Windows 8 will be the stage to bring the audience (so to speak).
While we may have been here before with Nokia’s ill-fated deal with Universal to deliver music, the HP deal looks interesting. Apparently the HP design team is rolling out laptops and notebooks that do not scrimp on sound quality, something that would be a huge improvement on current audio timbre.
HP certainly didn’t scrimp on its hospitality either. It’s expensive to fly in 250 ‘influencers’ and put them up in a more-than-reasonable hotel and Gwen Stefani doesn’t come cheap either.
As for No Doubt? Well, I had work to do and emails to answer so I gave it a miss. However, for the random fan who was the recipient of my black VIP bracelet outside the venue, this deal between HP and Universal probably made his day.
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
