Hello friends,

It’s Coachella Weekend 2, or “Couchella” as it’s now known in my household.

The livestream experience of the festival on YouTube has gotten incredibly good, and I really enjoy throwing it on in the evenings to catch some performances - even though I’ve graduated to “Unc” status and only know about 25% of the acts now.

The biggest name this year is Justin Bieber.

Love him or hate him, he is the defining pop star of the internet/youtube era.

In case you missed it, I wanted to take a moment to give him his flowers for his set.

See - since Beychella and Lady Gaga have rocked the stage with their incredibly intricate, choreographed “performances”, many expect main stage headliners to act a certain way.

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with going the “spectacle” route - with costume changes, elaborate sets, 100+ dancers, etc. - the experience is very much 1 way traffic, if you will. The performer performs, the audience listens.

The Biebs flipped the script.

First - he had a computer screen projected with a livestream - a genius interactive play that showcased the thousands of comments from at-home viewers flooding in throughout the set. He even encouraged fans to request songs through the livestream chat.

Second - he literally played his songs on Youtube and sang along to them, particularly focusing on the nostalgic hits from his early days that put him on the map. It was a genius move, and anyone criticizing it as “lazy” has completely missed the point.

In essence, fans got to experience what it would be like to go home with him after a party and have him shoot the shit and, basically, perform karaoke. That’s so incredibly more unique than seeing a live show. We all got to have an after-party with a pop icon.

This type of interactive experience is the definition of Human-Proof.

Banter, vulnerability, character, humanity, reciprocation….all wrapped into one.

I expect this trend to continue in the face of automation.

The robots could never!

RP WEEKLY!!!!!