Sean Kingston Takes Audience Participation to a New Level | BlackNewsTribune.com
Marion Cunningham
2 min read
By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com
Reggae fusion singer Sean Kingston wants you to flex your skills with him at his next performance…sort of. The “Beautiful Girls” crooner’s sophomore album, “Tomorrow”, is set to hit stores September 22nd and he wants his fans to get on the action. Packaged with the CD will be a special image that Kingston fans can hold up to their webcams to have a virtual karaoke session with the artist.
Dubbed as “augmented reality”, wannabe singers can record themselves performing to Kingston’s hit single, “Fire Burning”, teaming up with an animated version of the artist named Lil Sean. And if they’re really feeling creative, the karaoke heads can also choreograph Lil Sean’s dance moves. When the video is done, Lil Sean will be placed into a pre-recorded video. His superimposed image will have a 3-D quality seeming to jump off the screen. Users can then posts their masterpieces onto SeanKingston.com or any social networking site. Videos posted to Kingston’s site will be voted on as fan favorites.
According to Reuters, the artist is excited about the venture. “It’s going to be dope,” says 19-year-old Kingston, whose music merges reggae with hip-hop, R&B, rock, pop, electro and other genres. “No one has done this before. It’s different and I think it’s going to blow up.”
While we’ll have to wait and see whether this marketing venture has that fiyah. It’s great to see record companies thinking outside the box to reengage fans, who thanks to the digital age are happy to cherry pick songs instead of investing in a whole album. Kingston has also utilized YouTube in his viral marketing campaign, launching a “Fire Burning” dance contest where the winner was awarded an autographed pair of Yum sneakers.
In addition to the special image included in the CD booklet, fans will also receive 3-D glasses that can be used to watch their Lil Sean video and other 3-D effects throughout Kingston’s website.
BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective. They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.
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