Want to party with Rita Ora? Want to get so close and personal with Newton Faulkner that you can feel his prickly, orange beard on your face? You might want to float your eyes over Sony's way then as it’s providing a way for you to get a little more intimate with musicians. Xperia Access, as it's known, will be set up as a hub on Sony's Xperia Facebook page, providing a host of behind the scenes videos, interviews and exclusive performances with some of Sony's artists. In case that doesn't get your celebrity juices flowing, Sony will also be running competitions to see artists like Rita Ora perform in Sony Music's Derry Street office.
Still not good enough? How about being able to win the opportunity to visit artists in the studio during recording sessions? In a launch video, dreadlocked folk singer Newton Faulkner suggested that one winner will be able join him in studio for a brew and, if they can hold a good humming note, will even get to perform on his next album. The videos and competitions will be available through a Facebook hub and Vevo channel. They'll be open to the general public too, not just the few of you’ve who've bought an Xperia device recently. In fact there's surprisingly little to do with Sony's new Xperia Z smart phone or tablet, which is particularly odd, given that the whole thing comes bearing the Xperia name, rather than just Sony's.
"The smartphone will feature, but it's not about pushing the product in people's faces." Sony explained to me. Expect the odd celeb to be texting on the Z, but let's hope that whopping great ads don’t get in the way of the music. It also didn't want to elaborate further on exactly which artists would be involved. It did indicate however that the focus will be more on up and coming artists, rather than big, established names. Along with Ora and Faulkner, piano-boy Tom Odell will be on board, but you'll apparently have to wait and see who else will feature.
Xperia Access is, for now, a summer-only thing, running from 10 June, to 12 September. "Summer is all about the music," explained Sony, who tentatively hinted that festival access might feature among the prizes. It said it didn’t have any plans as yet for Access to run after August, but if it proves to be popular then you can bet your last penny that Sony won’t can the idea in the Autumn. If you're keen to get involved then head on over to Sony's Facebook page to see what's what. While you're there, pop on over to our own star-studded Facebook page to let me know what you think.