DO ARTISTS GET THE IDEA OF LOSS LEADERS?:

The sound of success, on the Web: BSO, other orchestras go online to reach new audiences and save on costs (Geoff Edgers, June 9, 2007, Boston Globe)

The future of the Boston Symphony Orchestra may be upstairs at Symphony Hall, in a cramped room with a crumbling ceiling. That's where a crew of scruffy 20-something technicians filmed the first episode of the BSO's soon-to-launch Internet video program.

Working joysticks, they manipulated six cameras to record a May 18 Boston Pops concert, which will be posted on bso.org in August. Planning to broadcast concerts from the Pops, the BSO, and Tanglewood, the BSO is the first symphony in the country to launch such free online programming. With a subscriber base whose average age is 51, the BSO hopes the new videos will reach a younger crowd. [...]

"This is about not losing money," said Deborah Card, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which started its own music label this year. "This is about image, presence, and awareness."

In addition to video programming, the BSO is about to join the ranks of symphonies releasing CDs on their own labels and is considering making them available for download on its website. Mark Volpe, the BSO's managing director, said two discs recorded under music director James Levine will appear this year.

The BSO is also using the video-sharing site YouTube for the first time in its POPSearch talent contest, which culminates in a guest-starring spot at the Pops' July 4 concert on the Esplanade. Of this year's 238 POPSearch contestants, 112 submitted auditions through YouTube, and 43,505 votes were cast online in the first three weeks.

In another local example, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum launched a twice-a-week podcast last September featuring concerts recorded over the years in its Tapestry Room. The free podcasts have been downloaded more than 130,000 times, rising into the iTunes Top 40.

"These young people, they're not going to go into the concert hall, not quite yet," said Scott Nickrenz, Gardner Museum music director. "But I'm positive, once they hear this music -- this is good music -- they are going to start loading it onto their iPods and then take the next step, entering the music hall."

All of these institutions should have huge back catalogues of music that they're never going to sell much of, so why not get it out there on the web for free, get folks listening, and recreate your market?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 9, 2007 8:31 AM