Yondr says fans are learning to love locking smartphones in bags

Many attendees at music and comedy venues know exactly what they mean when they hear the word “Yondr.” For some, the gray-green smartphone bag with magnetic closure is the harrowing bag that keeps their phone (and social accounts and recording apps) even after the live party is over. Others recognize the Yondr Bag as the best way for an artist to maintain control of their music or jokes without fear of it taking off or having their joke lines exposed and leaking onto the web – and they’re happy to watch a singer or comedian without the interference of the neighbor’s incessant phone use.

with the announcement of During the Yondr . Festival In rural Greene County, New York from June 24 to 26, the company founded in 2014 by Graham Dogoni has grown beyond its portfolio. It’s a camping event and concert for three days!!! and Sheer Mag where, as you might imagine, the public won’t be able to use their phones all weekend. (As always in Yondr-assisted gigs, phone spaces are available for unlocking, apart from shows.)

Yondr’s first big audition was a dozen shows by the baker in Chicago in 2015 with comedian Dave Chappelle and promoter Live Nation (at Thalia Hall of less than 1,000). He’s come a long way: Dugoni says that in April 2022, “Yondr will take care of about a million customers this month.”

Dugoni begins his conversation about creating Yondr by saying that if you look around at people “not just in entertainment but in education and in everyday life, there is a feeling that life is accelerating, and we are running on the treadmill faster just to stay in the same place. To me, that comes back To the emergence of technology…. and the cheapening of the value of important things.”

Yondr and Dugoni’s goal is to provide the perfect power to phone-free spaces and help entertainment and education companies achieve that end, but he says that doesn’t mean holding back time or pretending the latest cell phones and over-interacting social media don’t exist. “It’s a progressive step forward, by showing people that you can enter and experience certain spaces in ways that aren’t mediated by a screen or social media,” he says. “People can see something for themselves, live it, and decide for themselves whether they like it or not.”

Speaking of that focus and relying on one’s own eyes and opinions, Yondr’s website offers testimonials from stand-up comedians like Chappelle (“People actually watch the show; they’re in the moment and they’re more fun to talk to”) and Michael Che (“Focus and audiences are much better and more attentive.” It’s different. It’s night and day.”).

“The key moment for us is when I met Dave and his team,” says Dugoni of Chappelle. “At the time, I was going door to door, to schools and places to get out of my car, when all of a sudden the Chappelle team called me. He was the first artist to immediately understand what we were trying to do and what that meant for them… Same thing with Jack White is on the musical side. His decision to want to use Yondr in his performances, for that experience and sense of event, was just as important.”

Yondr bag and opening device
Courtesy Yondr

Do artists like Chappelle or Wyatt come to Dugoni and look strictly for focused, engaging attention from the audience, or do they look to not take off their live or YouTube-d shows, thereby reducing sales of their official recorded productions or revealing key elements of their shows?

“It really depends on the artist, and their perspective, but I can say that in the past eight years, the number one reason we hear from artists, and why they want to use our product, is to maintain the atmosphere and experience the show,” says Dugoni. “The nature of walking into a room without phones – and where everyone is on the same page about it – is a very different experience than when the public is concerned about how to document it or tell friends they are there. It’s just a clearer picture. Now, there is no doubt that In some of the shows we do, privacy is an important component, like protecting their material. I also know there are artists who want privacy for their fans – and they can be reassured that after drinking a lot of beer, they won’t show up on YouTube.”

Going back to the number of artists or venues Yondr covers, Dugoni doesn’t provide exact numbers, but states that he has relationships with “every major venue in the country. Yondr can accommodate 17,000-seat arenas such as the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and Thalia” Hall in Chicago (which seats about 800) and the Philadelphia Tower Theater which holds about 3,200 audience members.

“I can also say that this month, April 2022, we will be offering more shows and seats than ever before,” Dogoni says. “We’re going to do a million seats this month, and it’s growing really fast. We’re still trying to figure out if it’s the people who have come back from the pandemic, or maybe there are more shows than usual, but either way, we’re hearing, separately, from artists and venues that wants to use Yondr all-time. And that’s growing, too.”

Bags are also used with the film industry, often in pre-industry shows. To keep pace with the growth in entertainment users, there is Yondr’s extension into schools and curricula: “Really, that’s the other half of our work, teachers and parents are becoming more and more aware of what staring in front of a screen is going to do to students.”

And there’s the transition to Yondr to become a host of events, which is where the phone-free music festival, Over Yondr, comes in.

The idea of ​​holding what might be a crowd of millennials and under there to see the raging villain of Sheer Mag, the mysterious metal of Kississippi or the brittle funk!!! Being away from their phones for three days in a rural setting is daunting. This, however, is the point Dogoni hopes to make. “We’ve been planning this for a while and will be planning it again going forward, in part because it’s fun for us and our team – creating the kind of space we enjoy – and it resonates with young people,” he says.

“I think these audiences understand that three days of camping and listening to music without phones is a lot of fun. We’re already planning on doing more of our own shows, separate from the perfect festival as well, because it’s something we believe in. It’s a way to create a complete Yondr experience for people.”

When asked how long Dogone can go without a phone, the Yondr founder stated that he hasn’t had a smartphone for more than six years, and that not having an immediate phone connection isn’t a big deal. “It’s not too difficult for me,” he says. “You will get used to it. And when you do, life experiences open up so much more.”



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