Fun with [Classical] Numbers

Classical recording sales vs. views of a new music blog.

This might seem like comparing apples and oranges. But you can do that if what you're really interested in is the makeup of the fruit salad.

The Apple

As Anne Midgette revealed in a Washington Post article,

The dirty secret of the Billboard classical charts is that album sales figures are so low, the charts are almost meaningless. Sales of 200 or 300 units are enough to land an album in the top 10. [Hilary] Hahn's No. 1 recording, after the sales spike resulting from her appearance on Conan, bolstered by blogs and press, sold 1,000 copies.

The article goes on to talk about how even the most heavily-promoted new classical recordings only sell a few hundred copies a week (including downloads).

Is this the end of classical music?

Well, I used to work for a classical record label, and even before the Internet became factor sales were around this same level for most of our titles. It was how the disc sold over the course of several years that mattered (and that's the point the article makes, too). So no, probably not.

The Orange

Composer Robert Ian Winstin recently set himself a daunting task: compose, rehearse, record and post a new piece of classical music every day in the month of February. The project, "28 in Twenty-eight" proved successful in many ways. Winstin did indeed write twenty-eight works, and it attracted an audience as well.

Most of the music was for solo piano (Winstin's a concert pianist as well as a conductor), some were chamber works, and there were even some vocal compositions.

Over 20,000 people visited the blog (and presumably listened to the music), and over 12,000 downloaded the sheet music of the compositions Winstin also made available.


Here's one of the works Winstin composed as part of the project.


Fruit Salad

So let's mix our apples and oranges. Just looking at the raw numbers, it seems more people downloaded Winstin's music then purchased Hilary Hahn's latest major label recording.

So what does that mean?

Well, Winstin's blog was open to all, and the sheet music are free downloads. Hahn's Bach performances are available for sale at fine record stores and download sites. So one could say free trumps paid. But that's not really true. If Winstin charged $.99 for each download, it would be a fairer comparison. What would the numbers be then?

I'm not sure, but in one sense it doesn't matter. If modern music -- and you can't get much more modern than last month -- is such an anathema to listeners as some believe, there shouldn't have been any downloads at all.

Are these really two different audiences? I think so.

Which lead me to this thought. The classical music industry traditionally markets to one of those audiences and virtually ignores the other. But -- just looking at those apples-to-orange numbers -- which one represents a healthier future for classical music?

- Ralph

Classical C'Ville

I have to admit, this isn't quite the post I thought I'd be writing.

Last Wednesday I attended a Steve Reich concert at James Madison University. This past Saturday, I went to a concert by the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra. As I remarked in a previous post, I was one of the oldest audience members in the Wednesday night concert, and I fully expected to be one of the youngest for the symphony's.

I was thankfully wrong. The Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra, perhaps because of its ties with the University of Virginia, attracts an interesting mix of people. There were certainly enough blue-hairs there, but there appeared to be just as many middle-aged folks and twenty-something students as well.

Three rows down from me an older gentleman snoozed through the Brahms First Piano Concerto, while just to the right of him a young man in his twenties sat on the edge of his seat, intently following the by-play between soloist and orchestra.

The symphony played very well -- especially for a group made up of professional, student and amateur players. The brass, wind, and percussion sections were especially strong, and the string section had a good ensemble sound.

Maestro Kate Tamarkin directed the orchestra with a surprising economy of gesture while delivering plenty of drama musically. I actually felt the audience jump when, with a crash, the orchestra launched into the finale of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite." And pianist Andrew Armstrong looked like he was having fun as he and the orchestra romped through the Brahms concerto.

The audience loved it. At least in Charlottesville, Virginia, classical music isn't exclusively the domain of the very old.

Mozart wrote the Overture to the "Magic Flute" when he was 35;, Stravinsky the "Firebird" at age 28, and Brahms was 26 when his first piano concerto premiered. There were plenty of folks in that general age group Saturday to hear and enjoy their creative efforts.

Which is precisely how it should be.

- Ralph

Vindicated -- again

Denon gave a presentation for their new products this past week that Ken and I were able to attend. One of their showcase items was their new DVD player, the DVD2930C. To demonstrate the quality of the signal, they did an A/B comparison. They connected the 2930C and a Blu-ray player to the same receiver, feeding into the same flat-panel display. They then flipped back and forth between the two sources, showing the same scene from the same movie, "The Fifth Element" -- a perennial favorite for video demos.

The challenge for the audience was to determine which was the Blu-ray and which was the DVD. After moving back and forth a few times, most of the A/V professionals in the room could tell the difference.

Denon made their point. With a top-notch DVD player, you can come very, very close to the picture quality and detail of Blu-ray. And they helped make the point we made back in our 9/11/06 post, "'Better' Best Be Better". Pros couldn't immediately spot the difference between high-quality DVD output and Blu-ray. Is it any wonder that the average consumer can't see what all the fuss is about?