I love when bands come up with new ways to bring their music to their fans. For people who are blind or visually impaired, listening to a music video is often just like listening to the track. The band X Ambassadors wants to change that. They went ahead and teamed up with Microsoft to create an "audio only" music video. It's aim? To allow those who can't see, with low vision and sighted fans to enjoy their latest single, Boom in a brand new way.
How? All through their new Boom app. According to Engadget.com, Through the "responsive three-dimensional audio experience" users can select from two soundscapes: Ithaca, New York, where two of the band members are from, or the Brooklyn neighborhood where the band used to rehearse. Users will hear field recordings from each location. As they move their phones around, Microsoft's Windows Sonic technology will use sensors to translate movement into the rotations of sound around the user.
The project was inspired by X Ambassadors keyboardist, Casey Harris who has been blind since birth. "I mentioned that most music videos, for me, were just like listening to the track," Harris said in a video about the project. "And we came to this idea of an AR, like augmented reality thing, but for audio instead of visuals, and that hadn't really been done before." Such a cool idea from a cool band. If all goes well and if it proves popular enough, you may see this same technology done for other artists and bands.
Check out the video below: