Posted by Ann Bernard

YouTube announced on Monday it launched a Symphony Orchestra.  This is both an interesting twist for YouTube and to the classical music world.

Here is an excerpt from the Washington Post:
The YouTube Symphony Orchestra revolves around two main goals: the creation of a mash-up performance of a symphony from video submissions; and second, a live performance of the same symphony (written for the occasion by composer Tan Dun) at Carnegie Hall on April 15, 2009, with about 150 players selected on the basis of their YouTube video submissions.

In short, YouTube is offering a new twist on the familiar formula of how to get to Carnegie Hall: Practice, practice, upload.

The idea, launched by two YouTube employees at an offsite retreat about a year ago, is being greeted enthusiastically by the classical music world, which Tim Lee, one of the project's initiators, tactfully described as "hungry for innovation."

Classical artists and administrators at the New York news conference Monday visibly basked in the glow of what, in their world, is the equivalent of being noticed by the cool kids at recess. Besides Carnegie Hall, YouTube's partners on the project include Michael Tilson Thomas (who will conduct the Carnegie Hall performance), the London Symphony Orchestra (whose players have already posted 24 master-class videos on the YouTube site) and the pianist Lang Lang.

Read the entire story

Who Will Actually Benefit?!?
The obvious benefactors are the classical artists who participate…this is an opportunity of a lifetime for those who will be selected to play a New York’s Carnegie Hall in April. What about Youtube and the classical music world?

Will YouTube benefit and will the Classical Music World Benefit?!?!
Lets start with who picked up the story...we have The Washington Post, The New York Entertainment Magazine, The National and plenty of other art type publications along with a few bloggers across the web.  The only stand out per se are Venture Beat and About.com.  Particuarly Venture Beat where you won't find too many stories related to classical music.

So who does those stories really benefit?  I'd say so far it benefits YouTube quite nicely.  The story is posted offline and online across publications and talked about by people who normally aren’t likely to include YouTube in their conversations.  People who more than likely don't pay that many visits to YouTube.

When and will the benefits kick in for the Classical Music World? Is there a glow to bask in?
Will people who have had no prior interest in classical music go to the http://www.youtube.com/symphony?? Let me say it “outloud” - YouTube dot com backslash symphony.

Go to YouTube.com – see anything there announcing the contest or the symphony area of YouTube?  Yea, I didn’t see it either.

How do you think this will benefit the Classical Music World?  What are your predictions? When the cool kids in school paid attention to the less cool kids...how did that ever pan out??

Filed in performing arts

Comments: 2

Posted by Ann Bernard

…and what else? What’s it call? You know, come on…oh yea, Interact.  Entice me, feed my curiosity and interact with me. 

It’s doesn’t matter what aspects of the entertainment industry we talk about; doing the following three things – enticing fans, feeding their curiosities and interacting with them will lead to greater interest in your offerings and people attending shows, concerts and events. 

The internet, social media and utilization of web technologies make enticing fans, feeding their curiosities and interacting with them EASIER. It just takes a little bit of creativity and understanding of the tools that are available.

Social Media for Performing Arts: The Metropolitan Opera
Possibly one of the best organizations that’s making use of social media and strong overall marketing/promoting of their upcoming season is The Metropolitan Opera. 

Entice:  To entice a potential client/new fan is to share the experience, in this case of the opera, with them.  The Metropolitan Opera entices various audiences by offering broadcasts of their operas over a variety of mediums…to include radio and live in HD.

The Met’s new online subscription service features 13 HD videos, 37 historic TV performances, and 120 radio broadcasts delivered on demand. They certainly figured out how to deliver content to their audience when and how they want it.

Other enticing factors on The Metropolitan Opera website include a well stock picture gallery, some previews and audio highlights.  Visual and auditory features are key to sharing the experience and enticing people.

Really wish there were more previews.

Feed My Curiosity:  The Metropolitan Opera website is full of interviews, commentaries, and blog posts.  The comments are turned off on the blog posts which is very unfortunate. I also think they would do well to have more video interviews.

Visitors can definitely find the information they’re looking for and learn a lot.  If you can’t find what you’re looking for…you can always Ask Figaro!

I love this feature.  Let’s face it, operas aren’t the easiest things to understand so getting help from an expert on the topic is an excellent addition to the site, which by the way, also falls into the interact category. 

Interact:  Another interaction feature offered is the Ask Figaro Quiz “a highly un-scientific personality test to find the right opera for you!”

The Metropolitan Opera could do a little better with the interact portion of their website…they definitely could engage with their audience more by asking questions of their audience, looking for feedback and member reviews.  Adding a forum to their website would probably go a very long way to allow opera fans to interact together while participating as well. 

Parting Thoughts – What’s Completely Missing
The Metropolitan Opera is doing a pretty good job on their domain…however, there isn’t a whole lot of ways to spread the data on their domain to outside sources. 

No way to share the Metropolitan Opera trailer of Madam Butterfly or any other videos on the site.

And I have to note again – the comments are off on the blog, which is a prime method for people to interact with them.

It really isn’t that hard nor is it expensive to get involved in leveraging web technology and tools to entice, feed curiosities and interact with people.  It’s also not about doing perfectly, but at least getting started in engaging with your audience.

Filed in performing arts

Comments: 0