Google Play and musician Elizabeth Rose create 'Playing With Fire' interactive music video
As someone born in the 1980's, I grew up with MTV. Quite frankly, before I bought my first cassette or CD, I got my music fix by watching these classic music videos. While MTV has since moved away from music videos, websites like YouTube have stepped in to fill the void.
Even though music videos have evolved with innovative cinematography and cool effects, they are still largely the same old thing -- a mix of audio and video. Today, Google Play announces a collaboration with musician Elizabeth Rose to create something more appropriate for tech-focused millennials -- an interactive music video.
"Aussie artist Elizabeth Rose loves it when fans remix and play with her music. So, to celebrate the launch of her new single 'Playing With Fire', we got together with her to explore 'what if fans could actually play with Playing with Fire, as well?' The idea for a mobile interactive music video was born. The song is about the crazy range of emotions you feel in a relationship. By tapping, swiping and tilting your phone during the video, you can mess with her emotions, make her cry and even slice her in half", says Sophie Hirst, Google Play Marketing Manager, Google Australia.
If you want to try it out, you can do so here. The interactive video will not work on all devices, however. While it worked on an Android smartphone, it failed to work on my iPad. It did, however, work on my Ubuntu laptop running Chromium browser -- nice!
The experience works best with touch and accelerator, as it uses tapping, swiping and rotation. With that said, my laptop does not have a touch screen nor accelerator, so the video let me interact with my mouse -- clicking worked well too.
Regardless of how I interacted, it was a blast. I actually rather like the song, although I doubt I am the target demographic. Hopefully Google does not stop here, and works with more musicians, as interacting with the media definitely enhances it, making it much more fun.
What do you think of this interactive music video? Tell me in the comments.