2 min readAug 8, 2026 07:07 AM IST First published on: Aug 8, 2026 at 07:07 AM ISTAt a time when concert-goers are renting high-end phones just to record performances, K-pop band Cortis has made a radical appeal to its fans: Put your phone down. So serious is the band in its objection to fans using phones to capture its live performances — instead of actually experiencing them — that the phrase has become the name of its ongoing concert tour. Whether or not their followers heed the request, Cortis has reopened one of the most heated debates of the digital age: At what point does recording an experience become a refusal to live it?There is a case for making the most of a concert given how much ticket prices cost today. All the fans want to do is to relive those moments whenever they want besides sharing them on social media. Artists, too, are not oblivious to the power of virality; entire concerts are now designed to yield visuals with the potential to “break the internet”. So when the six-inch barrier of the smartphone screen goes up between the fan and the artist, the blame does not rest entirely on the former.AdvertisementBut when Cortis and others decry the use of phones at concerts, they’re lamenting a very particular kind of loss. The electric energy that can only exist between fan and artist during a live performance is impossible to record or replay, much less share for likes and reposts. Long after the concert is over, it can be retrieved from memory. For that, however, it needs to be experienced.