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Incongruity at its finest: the Celebration video in 240p.


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In these times where the quality of the image has evolved enormously and where Full HD or 4k is what predominates in almost everything we see, both on the internet, on television and in the movies, it is really embarrassing to see that the video Celebration, which gives its name to this new 2023 tour, so awaited by the whole world and whose tickets sell out in the blink of an eye, remains in 240p quality on Madonna's official Youtube account.

Watching a video in that prehistoric and outdated quality is torture for anyone's eyes. Everything looks so blurry and we can barely make out the figures and facial expressions of everyone in the video. Celebration is certainly not one of Madonna's best videos (because in it Madonna only appears dancing accompanied by some dancers who try to be funny all the time) but it has definitely become the cover letter of one of the most anticipated tours in all of the planet not only because of sharing the same name but because of the unexpectedly gained relevance. That is why it was to be expected that it would be one of the first videos to be updated in Full HD or 4K quality. However, the incompetence and lack of vision of the team that works for Madonna would be to blame for the sad abandonment in which this beautiful video is currently found.

What do you think could be the reason for this inexcusable oversight? Sometimes I doubt the professionalism of the team that has worked for Madonna in recent years and I think that the solution would be a good purge and only keep the best and most competent and end once and for all with this current of incompetence and incoherence that we see demonstrated in the latest launches and products and recover the perfection that characterized the Madonna brand so much since its inception and that has been so missed in recent years.

Some screenshots of the Celebration video on Youtube that demonstrate the lousy quality of a video that should be treated in a totally different way as it represents what the new 2023 tour will be:

celebrationnnnnnnnnnn.thumb.png.72f66c877d6aaacb28e4b9d2cbf55004.png

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13 minutes ago, chaosmen1984mk said:

represents what the new 2023 tour will be

This video have nothing to do with promotion visuals for Celebration tour tho, the title of the tour and song have nothing to do with each other, it's like saying that single from 2009 is promoting her upcoming tour lol When it comes to quality I can agree. 

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1 hour ago, Prayer said:

What probably happened back in 2009 was: the video was premiered on iTunes, if I remember well, as part of a promo deal. It was available for free on iTunes USA for a week I think. So Warner or whoever uploaded the video to Madonna's channel probably used the iTunes video or the low quality video they provided to iTunes and that was it. iTunes didn't have Full HD videos back then, quality was quite low.

As far as I know, they send "masters" (probably 480p in this case) and the sites adjust the resolution, bitrate and quality. They don't send the "final" resolution available on the sites. The 240p was an anomaly in 2009. 1080p videos were available at the time in youtube. Something strange happened with Celebration. You are probably right in your theory: they taken the video from iTunes.

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You would think someone at Warners or Live Nation would have replaced it though with a higher res copy given the upcoming tour name even if the tour is not in support of the Celebration album itself and something totally separate  - is bound to come up in people's searches online this year about the tour and was her last hit single in the UK that was a hit in the charts

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I love Celebration (the song) as well.  I prefer the album version.  As for the video, I like it for what it is.  It seems fitting.  I agree the quality of it is atrocious though. But as some stated, it was a weird time where people were still transitioning from SD to HD.   If anything I'm more bothered that LAP video hasn't been upgraded yet.  One of her biggest and iconic videos and it's still in SD.  The same goes for LAV and Vogue while lesser known videos like Get Together and Cherish got treatment beforehand.   

I'm one to think that the tour is actually somewhat in support for the Celebration compilation. After all, that is the last album both Madonna and Warner parted ways on.  Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I'm inclined to think that they could re-issue the compilation, possibly with a few more inclusions if not a new song or two.  It would make total sense to do so than rather do a whole new compilation at this time.  And it seems this is the Greatest Hits most go to, to listen to her biggest hits.

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The possible reason why this is still in 240p and why it was uploaded at 240p was mainly due to the video being hyperlinked into the website especially since they (and many others) started to reformat their sites to be mobile compatible. I believe the video played automatically when you land to the site and running it in HD video using mobile data would be expensive and you'd have long loading times navigating through the website. The celebration banner was in their youtube page so they were promoting this heavily online.

 

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image.thumb.png.249e5ecfe43c14ca653311dbd21e41b3.png

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If the Celebration "remaster" turns out to be as bad as the 4 Minutes "4K remaster", then I don't want it:

78wx4MS.png

By the way, I think it's obvious by now that Madonna's team is lazy or incompetent or both:

  • cheap promo for "Finally Enough Love"
  • cheap, unimaginative design for "Celebration Tour" (The wannabe designer must have gone through all the effects in GIMP 2 and then discovered the warp effect...)
  • pathetic products for the Anniversaries (Where are the Deluxe Editions? What am I supposed to do with an overpriced hologram album sleeve that doesn't even have a print on the back?)
  • some "remastered" music videos on Madonna's YouTube channel *cought* 4 Minutes *cought* look like they were upscaled by a 3 dollar AI Upscale software from eBay. If that's the level, I could upscale all Madonna videos from SD to 4K in 3 days... (Also Madonna's label should have access to all ProRes masters, VOB masters and whatever. So it shouldn't be difficult for them to find a suitable source for a remaster.)
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On 5/15/2023 at 1:11 PM, proxy said:

This video have nothing to do with promotion visuals for Celebration tour tho, the title of the tour and song have nothing to do with each other, it's like saying that single from 2009 is promoting her upcoming tour lol When it comes to quality I can agree. 

It is true that the music video and the tour have nothing to do with it, but I think that by sharing the same name, they are somehow creating a relationship between the two, since many people, when searching for information about this event, will type on their keyboard: "Madonna ” + “celebration” and this video will appear as one of the top results. Then these people out of curiosity will click on the video link and what they will see is an unpleasant visual spectacle due to the poor resolution of the music video.

I think that the exact same thing would happen if the tour had been given another name like the Ray of light Tour, The Living for love Tour, the Hanky Panky Tour, etc.: The song or video in question would gain unexpected relevance. That is why I don't know if this decision was intentional or simply a lack of vision from Madonna's team, since it is not good for the image of an artist to be represented by a music video with such... obsolete quality.

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On 5/15/2023 at 1:33 PM, proxy said:

And let's not forget this version, in my opinion more fun & in better quality. 

 

Thank you for reminding me of the existence of this video that I had completely lost from my radar, perhaps because it was an alternative version and did not have much exposure at the time. It would be spectacular if Madonna repeated the formula this 2023 and summoned her fans again to make another video with similar characteristics. What a pity that only the Italian and Spanish fans were the lucky ones to have this beautiful opportunity to remain forever in Madonna's musical history. And I agree: this version is much more fun than the official version. We can literally see Madonna fandom at its best.😂

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On 5/16/2023 at 12:18 AM, Confessions Lightside said:

If the Celebration "remaster" turns out to be as bad as the 4 Minutes "4K remaster", then I don't want it:

78wx4MS.png

By the way, I think it's obvious by now that Madonna's team is lazy or incompetent or both:

  • cheap promo for "Finally Enough Love"
  • cheap, unimaginative design for "Celebration Tour" (The wannabe designer must have gone through all the effects in GIMP 2 and then discovered the warp effect...)
  • pathetic products for the Anniversaries (Where are the Deluxe Editions? What am I supposed to do with an overpriced hologram album sleeve that doesn't even have a print on the back?)
  • some "remastered" music videos on Madonna's YouTube channel *cought* 4 Minutes *cought* look like they were upscaled by a 3 dollar AI Upscale software from eBay. If that's the level, I could upscale all Madonna videos from SD to 4K in 3 days... (Also Madonna's label should have access to all ProRes masters, VOB masters and whatever. So it shouldn't be difficult for them to find a suitable source for a remaster.)

If one of the requirements that is requested in the curriculum vitae of all applicants who want to work or be part of Madonna's team is to be a fan of her, I think that the story would be another.

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