I was employed by VIACOM when it was suing a startup called YOUTUBE. Half the company (by which I mean more like 5 or 10 percent of the company, concentrated on the corporate and legal floors) considered YouTube a lawless enemy of intellectual property, while the other half (by which I mean pretty much everybody) was actively using YouTube to promote Viacom content and watch music videos. It was certainly easier to watch them there than on any of Viacom's own music sites. As lawless enemies go, YouTube turned out to be a great resource. (REDEF's JASON HIRSCHHORN was MTV NETWORKS' chief digital officer and he pushed for working with YouTube rather than suing, on the theory that short-form video + MTV + youth = duh. But I digress. And I weep.) I assume this corporate dissonance was not unique to Viacom. I was reminded of it as I read two stories that showed up almost simultaneously on ROLLINGSTONE.com (h/t DIFFUSER's MARTIN KIELTY, who made the connection: "As Artists Try to Ban Phones, Directors Design Shows for Them"). In one of them, JACK WHITE talks about his no-cellphone policy at concerts, which he enforces with YONDR's phone-locking pouches. "And everyone has been just gangbusters happy about it... and so many other bands have been calling us and saying, 'How are you guys doing that? We’re thinking about doing that too.'" In the other story, RAY WINKER, whose STUFISH ENTERTAINMENT ARCHITECTS has designed shows for BEYONCÉ & JAY-Z, U2, MADONNA and others, says he always does so with INSTAGRAM and SNAPCHAT in mind. "The show," Winker explains, "starts the moment the first person takes a picture of it." Winker's clients not only want fans taking photos and video throughout the show, they want them sharing them in real time. So. There's no inherent contradiction in the idea that some artists are cool with phones and some aren't. It's a free world (last time I checked, anyway). Different strokes/folks. As an easily distracted fan with a short attention span, I love the idea of darkness and radio silence. I have lots of friends, as do you, who just want to watch concerts in peace. But I also love to use Instagram to share and document moments. I'm my own contradiction. Will we settle on a standard? Do we need to? What might a standard look like? As much as I like being trapped, submarine-like, in an experience for a couple hours, I know that promoters need to promote and publicists need to publicize and the internet needs to internet. Is there any chance banning phones—and photos and videos—becomes the default? Or will it always be the exception, never the rule?... SONOS IPO pricing... EVENTBRITE IPO'ing too... JAY-Z and PHILADELPHIA MAYOR JIM KENNEY work it out... Owner of SESAC and HARRY FOX AGENCY throws a wrench into MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT debate. But how big a wrench is it?... RYUICHI SAKAMOTO loved the food at the Manhattan restaurants KAJITSU and KOKAGE but hated the music. So the YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA founder offered to make playlists for them, at no charge. Love this BEN RATLIFF story on sound design for restaurants, which I read while still mourning the late great food critic JONATHAN GOLD. "I tend to be hyperaware of music in restaurant," Gold once wrote. "It represents what the restaurant thinks of itself even more accurately than the art on the walls or the shape of the plates"... Why did the BEATLE cross the road (again)?... Shoutout to everyone who lost their jobs in TRONC's massacre of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS on Monday; among them were music writers AMY ROWE and SPENCER DUKOFF... Best wishes to JESSE CAMP... RIP DAN CLEARY.