It was brought to my attention over the weekend that Sony Music posted some info over on their Facebook page regarding the Ricky Martin concert series and GetGlue. Verbatim:
"Did you know Ricky Martin is the very first artist to work with Get Glue on check-ins via QR codes? Fans at Ricky's American Airlines Arena show in Miami tomorrow night will get a very exclusive Get Glue sticker by scanning the QR code at the concert! Read more about it here: http://bit.ly/dYQoSU"
(URL:
http://www.facebook.com/sonymusicglobal )
And then after some people (myself included) posted complaints that it was unfair to people who couldn't make it to the concert:
"Hi guys - Ricky has 3 stickers available, and only 1 of them is location based. So fans can still enjoy 2 exclusive stickers as part of the promotion."
While I haven't been to the concert (and I am not likely to be able to, considering none of the tour dates are going to be close to my neck of the woods), nor do I know anyone who will be going to the concert, this still irritates me because apparently the QR code at the concert is the only link to check-in and earn the MAS sticker.
Now it's bad enough that we didn't hear one peep out of GG that they were partnering with Sony to do something at the concerts (and we had to hear it from Sony instead... after the concert series started... and via their Facebook page, no less), but considering they are actually making this sticker available
only at the concerts then they just shot the legs out from under any fan who has the misfortune to not be able to make it to the show, be it due to distance, time, or cost of the tickets (which range from $50 and up). Way to cater only to people in large cities with moderate-to-large amounts of disposable income, GetGlue and Sony. Elitism much?
It also irritates me that GetGlue, in their usual fashion, didn't say one word about how this sticker was going to be made available. Up to this point every "on tour" style sticker was made available to everyone through a simple check-in, possibly requiring a phrase. Now someone will actually have to go hunting around the venue for a QR code to scan? That'd probably be the last thing on my mind while I'm at a concert,
especially if I didn't know I needed to be looking for one. There is no indication
anywhere on GetGlue of where or how to find this code to check-in.
Finally, there's the issue of the possibility of cheating to get the sticker. If all that's required to earn it is to zap the QR code and use it to check-in then it would be dead easy for someone to take a picture of the QR code and either post it on the Internet as-is or take the URL it provides and post that for all the world to see.
GetGlue and Sony earn a huge NOT COOL, MAN on this one. One of the unique things about GetGlue was that you could earn the stickers revolving around the media without having to worry about whether you were in a specific location at a specific time (you just had to worry about the time). With the advent of this they have basically taken a step towards being just another Foursquare clone, complete with people who will probably further cheat the already semi-broken system to earn location-specific stickers while the rest of the users will be left scratching their heads and wondering how somone in an overseas country earned a sticker that was only available in Florida at the time.
Bad form, GetGlue. Bad form.
