tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32516736.post625296572435714856..comments2024-02-26T22:31:02.623-05:00Comments on Finding Beauty in Ephemera: Fun with [Classical] NumbersRalph Graveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14758413012114957573noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32516736.post-3874858688188411412010-03-05T09:31:44.959-05:002010-03-05T09:31:44.959-05:00Elissa:
Good questions, one and all. Let me clari...Elissa:<br /><br />Good questions, one and all. Let me clarify a little:<br /><br />Agreed, the new model for the music business is that recordings drive concert ticket sales. For classical, though, that's never really been the case. A country artist can have a song in heavy rotation on the radio (once every 2 hours) resulting in massive exposure and definitely an ad for the live show. Most classical stations will play the same track *no sooner than* three months apart, so the recording never really serves that function.<br /><br />What I'm looking at is old vs. new media in the framework of the classical genre, which has always worked a little differently than more popular forms of music.<br /><br />Robert Ian Winstin actually does quite well, professionally. He's been a professional composer for at least 25 years now, and has always been able to make a comfortable living from his music career.<br /><br />He has an active touring schedule, his record label ERM Media has yet to have a release that's not made back its investement and then some. (ermmedia.org) And his recordings have always been focused on living composers writing accessible music. <br /><br />The 28intwentyeight blog was just a side project. I suspect he'll be releasing the music on ERM. ERM is distributed by Naxos, the largest and most successful classical label in the world (and one of the most forward-looking when it comes to new media). You should shortly see these compositions on iTunes, featured in the Naxos podcast, and spread about online in other ways. I don't think Winstin needs to fool with banner ads, or continue to release his music for free to get his foot in the door -- he's been in the room for some time now!<br /><br />Here's what I was looking at though: the traditional venues for classical music - concert halls, radio stations, major record labels - continue to stay safely with the repertoire of the past. That audience is declining, and for the first time isn't being replenished by the next generation aging into the demographic.<br /><br />Experiments like Winstin's tell me that missing generation is interested in current musical trends, whatever the genre. If the classical audience were made up of the traditionalists, then Winstin's blog would have had perhaps a thousand or less views, and less than 500 downloads. But it didn't. So if this albeit highly specialized new music blog generated significant numbers, doesn't that suggest an even larger potential audience for a little more mainstream contemporary music?Ralph Graveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14758413012114957573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32516736.post-60308774446970197172010-03-05T07:33:06.877-05:002010-03-05T07:33:06.877-05:00Isn't the model in the music business these da...Isn't the model in the music business these days that the recording (and CD sales) could potentially sell so poorly that they work as a loss-leader for the real commercial business of selling tickets to live events? <br /><br />And I don't know that the dichotomy implied by the term 'classical' applies in this discussion: it's old media v new (rather than classical music v popular) that drives this particular conversation (and economic modelling).<br /><br />The challenge for composers like Robert Ian Winstin is how to derive any economic value from 20,000 views and 12,000 free downloads. In theory at least some of these views/downloads will translate into a new audience prepared to pay for Winstin's work, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case. And if there is no increased audience willing to pay for the music, Winstin's only long-term option is to continue creating and recording his music at his own expense without any hope of patronage (unless he has his blog carrying advertising, in which case his music is the 21st century equivalent of the 1950s soap operas - which is no criticism, but maybe isn't the healthy future of classical music we might at first have thought it was.....?).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com