Interchanging Idioms

Symphonies are becoming increasingly aware that the average age of their patrons and ticket buyers are aging, with no real increase in getting a younger generation of symphony goers to replace them. Why??? It comes down to how we communicate with this younger generation. If your concert hall does not have people under the age of 35, it is because of the culture you have established. They do not feel comfortable in your hall and until they do, they have no desire to attend your concerts.  This is, of course, a generalization, but overall, people under the age of 35 have a few things in common that we need to be aware of in order to effectively market to them. There are roughly 79 million Millennials in the United States—25 percent of the population. The Millennials exceed the number of Baby Boomers (often their parents) by about 3 million. They have been through two recessions: one at the beginning of the millennium, another in the great recession caused by the mortgage c...

repost from: advisories.com While great performers and performances will always be central to why people attend live arts events, experts like Lou Spisto (with nearly three decades of experience in the arts world) believe that social media is becoming an important player for audience engagement and possible growth in overall attendance. Social media’s influence seems to be everywhere and the 2014 Academy Awards may be the boldest example of this to date. Ellen DeGeneres, the host of the show and already a top figure on Twitter, broke new ground with the “impromptu” tweet of her “selfie” that included some of the world’s most well-known celebrities. It generated more than 3 million retweets. She easily surpassed the previous record holder, President Obama, who had under a million. Although this may be an extreme example of the power of social media and a “live” event, does it auger well for the performing arts? Can social media make the opera, ballet symphony orchestra or theater ...

Musicians lead busy lives, particularly classical musicians. It takes hours and hours (and hours) of practice to hone our craft, to really be at the top of our game. Add to that many classical musicians juggle multiple jobs, from teaching students, to random gigs and large ensemble rehearsals just to make ends meet. Time is at a premium for many of them, so when do they have the chance to be a fan? When are they suppose to spend time on Facebook and Twitter talking about what their ensemble is up to? However, many musicians are on Facebook and Twitter, thousands of them! They are talking about their lives just like everyone else. The root for their favorite teams, share recipes, post pictures of their travels - but seldom do they talk about the organization they play for. Knowing a lot musicians, connecting with them on Facebook and Twitter, and talking to them on (and off) line, I believe there is a culture in the American orchestra that stifles musicians from sharing their passion ...

I often rant about the need for more musicians to Tweet and Post about their involvement with the orchestras they play. I may be changing my tune Post after post I have railed at the musicians who don't talk about what they're doing in terms of orchestra performance. I have gone on and on about how more musicians need to be vocal about classical music, because if we don't who will? And yet, looking back on my own tweets and Facebook posts over the past year I'm not sure I can honestly maintain that diatribe. For nearly a year I have been the Music Director for TwtrSymphony. The organization was started because of my need for an orchestra and the wealth of musician friends on social media. However, managing an orchestra and the 60+ musicians we have 'on staff' is a great deal of work - so much so, it has impacted my ability to communicate over social media. I have not held conversations with a number of the friends I grew very accustomed to chatting with regul...

Honestly, this isn't a new trick. Several orchestras are already doing this. Other orchestras could learn to leverage this technique to build new audiences via social media Both Facebook and Twitter are about engagement. However, what most orchestras currently do with their social media is to talk 'at' their audience and not with them. By changing the way they post and tweet, by devoting a bit more time for their social media campaigns, orchestras could find a wealth of new patrons for their concert halls. They will certainly expand their existing fan base. The key to this technique is re-posting/sharing what classical music fans are already posting. Facebook It is possible to post on other people's timeline as a person, but not as a page. When someone posts something to an orchestra's page, it doesn't show up in the main feed unless the administrator(s) actually shares the post. If orchestras would encourage their fans and musicians to start posting on the...

Jo Johnson, Digital Marketing Manager for the London Symphony Orchestra, replied to my previous post: Classical Music continues to lag behind in social media My reply was too lengthy to put into a comment field. Jo - Thank you for you Excellent Reply! The London Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony and San Francisco Symphony are some of the shinning examples of organizations that are succeeding with out-reach into Social Media. You really are out there engaging. Yes, orchestra musicians may not be as engaged in social media as their 'pop' counter parts. But we live in a world where people question the value of the arts. Here in the US, orchestras are finding an attitude of "why should we support classical music, when pop music doesn't?" I am not trying to argue the value of classical music (I am very much a member of that choir). However, if those of us involved do not beat our own drum, how can we honestly expect other's to do it for us? A s...

While more and more orchestras and classical music artists venture into the social media space, they lag behind other industry artists in leveraging their fan base. This has less to do with use and more with how their fans respond. If you follow classical music artists on Twitter and Facebook, you'll get the feeling they are keeping up with the times. Numerous orchestras posts daily on Facebook and several times a day on Twitter. Compare that with how often Justin Bieber or Miley Cirus post on either and you'll see classical music artists are far more active. So, why aren't classical music artists getting the millions of fans of their pop counterparts? It has to do with fan leveraging. Pop music fans tend to share posts, re-tweet and are far more fanatical about spreading the word for their idols. Miley has only three posts on Facebook this past week. But, each post was shared by her fans a minimum of 64 times. One post was shared over 648 times. Justin Bieber is a bit...

Music is by its very nature a social art form. Therefore it only makes sense that music would do so well with social media I look around a some of the big names on Twitter and realize music has an huge influence on our community. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Shakira have over 200 million fans combined. Granted there are probably a fair number of these fans who follow more than just one (if not all) of the above noted names in the music industry. Still, their combined reach is estimated at over a billion people. IF you could get all seven of these 'stars' to tweet about the same thing you'd be reaching nearly a sixth of the world population. Wow, the power of music! Seven of the top ten Twitter feeds are directly related to music. Twelve of the top Fifteen Facebook pages are music personalities. That shows the importance our society (and as a result social media) places on music. If music is this important to us, and the...

With the explosion of social media and the desire for arts organizations to jump on the band wagon, hiring a social media consultant/expert seems to be the order of the day. How do you know if you're actually hiring an expert? I was reading a blog post the other day from a self-proclaimed orchestra expert. Granted the information this 'expert' writes about in terms of orchestra administration, budgeting, and contract negotiations seems to be spot on. {I'm not an expert in these topics so I have no way to certify if the advice is correct or not.} However, this person also claims to know social media and is quite outspoken at how poorly orchestras are using social media, particularly Twitter. I do understand Social Media, Twitter specifically, and find the advice this expert offers to be wrong in numerous ways. Don't just take my word on what's right and wrong. If you're an arts organization, do some research into the person you want to hire as a consultant. ...

An invitation to join an online discussion: Engaging a younger audience in the concert hall Greg Sandow wrote an excellent article back in 2008 "Age of the audience" which discusses how the classical music audience is aging. He posted "A wild time" today about the classical music crisis, fact or fiction. Industry professional all over the country are exploring options to stem the tide of an aging audience and dwindling ticket sales. I have invited some of my colleges to join me on Google Hangout to openly discuss this issue, and present ways we can change the trend. There is no date set, as invitations have just been sent out. Watch this space for when the discussion will take place. You can also send your questions and suggestions to me via twitter @Chipmichael .

A line from the film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992) comes to mind: " Does the word "duh" mean anything to you? " Yes, unabashedly my promotion of classical music is very self-serving. Not only am I a passionate admirer of classical music, but I am a composer who writes for orchestras and classical chamber ensembles. The better the classical industry does, the more likely I am to get my pieces played. There is no doubt that some of my passionate promotion of the art form has a personal agenda. However, I often tweet or post on Facebook concerts or conversations from orchestras I have no personal stake in. Many of the musicians I converse with over social media are not currently performing my music nor do they have plans to do so in the foreseeable future. Very little of what I write about on this blog is even indirectly related to potential future income. Most of it is just "getting the word out" --a very important task in my opinion. Yest...

Creating a desire for people to attend and support classical music organizations I just finished reading Michael Kaiser's " The Art of the Turnaround --creating and maintaining healthy arts organizations ." It's a wonderful read for anyone interested in promoting the arts. As a composer, my interest lies with Symphony Orchestra's, but Michael's experience is applicable to any arts organization. One of the big messages is the concept that arts organizations need to create a sense of interest in the public and supporters. IF an organization looks to be creating something worthy, then people will want to support it. Michael gives case studies of the organizations he's worked with and how he created a sense of value for each. This value is important. People want to feel as though the money they are giving is going to something worthwhile, whether it's for the purchase of a ticket, or in a donation. If the organization is elitist, or exclusionary, yo...

Numerous orchestras in the US are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Why? There are a plethora of theories as to why orchestras are going bankrupt:     Classical Music is dying     CEO's and VP's are paid too much     Musicians are paid too much     Ticket Prices are too high     People aren't giving as much as they used to     The Economy I would like to tackle each of these theories with an eye towards solving the problem. Classical Music is dying If you look at the big names in the music download industry, Sony and Universal, they both show huge profits in classical music downloads. A large portion of their bottom line is made up of people paying for and downloading classical music. If classical music was actually dying, we wouldn't see a growth in classical music downloads. CEO's and VP's are paid too much While I'm all for more balanced wages a...

TwtrSymphony is rapidly gaining a fan base by leveraging social media. Here's how: We can be found on  Twitter  (of course), also on  Facebook ,  Tumblr  and the web . Our  klout score  is at 45 and growing. Several major orchestras are following and socializing with us. Other industry professionals are checking us out and even some record companies have expressed interest in our project. We don't have sponsors yet, but we haven't released our first track either. Everyone is waiting to see what the results of our experiment will be. How have we gained the attention of all these people in the classical world? Social Media. But it's not only our own tweets, facebook and tumblr posts that are causing all the stir. The real momentum behind the project is our enthusiastic musicians. This blog, for example, posts an article about TwtrSymphony and the musicians mobilize. A TwtrSymphony article has three to four times as many hits in a single day as pretty...

There is a lot of work that goes into creating a symphony orchestra, particularly in terms of gaining an audience. Re-inventing the orchestra takes time too, but we're off to a good start thanks to the power of our musicians! TwtrSymphony started as a lark (pun intended) two months ago. What originally was as much a challenge, a dare, as an earnest idea is becoming something so much more. The blossoming of TwtrSymphony into the world is really due to the outstanding, enthusiastic musicians. We are followed by other orchestras, leading industry professionals and we are even speaking with potential sponsors all on the power of our social media network. While we approach performance in a very different way than other symphony orchestras, it is our extensive use of social media as a tool for connection which sets us apart.  Our goal is to have our first piece " Birds of a Feather" -- a symphony in four movements, out by mid-June.  This demanding schedule means music...

How about taking a quick survey? I am giving a presentation this Summer on how musicians feel about using Social Media. Follow the above link and let me know YOUR thoughts on it.

One of the problems with Social Media is all the "chatter" it creates --people talking about Kim Kardashian's relationship, Justin Beeber's recent exploits and Lady Gaga's latest outfit. Certainly there is a lot of noise that just doesn't interest classical music organizations or the people that attend their events. But is there "good" information out there in the Twitter-world that would serve these organizations? Who should Classical Music Organizations follow on Twitter? Certainly it makes sense for Symphony Orchestras to follow the major performing artists and/or conductors, particularly those coming to perform with them. Opera houses should be following the various artists who lends their voices to Twitter as well as the stage. But, like classical music organizations, major artists are as often promoting their own events as providing new and interesting information to the classical music world.  So, don't limit your followers to just ...

Effective use of social media can launch you into whole new markets as an artist As musicians we think of our first job of being consummate performers, working our craft until we are the best we can be. However, in this modern age of media, marketing and ADHD attention-spans, we also have to spend time making sure our name is out there, we're making new contacts, gaining new fans/audience, and in the forefront of other artists who might want to work with us. Twitter and Facebook are great mediums for this, as they allow you to connect with people without having to even be in the same city. But are you effective in how you use Facebook and Twitter? Here are some simple suggestions you can easily put into daily practice that can dramatically change your reach as an artist. Follow those who follow you Take a look at the list of followers you have. Are you following them? If not, why not? They may not be talking about subjects you're interested in, but if they...

Classical Music Organizations need to find new audiences, to reach out to people who aren't currently attending their concerts Social Media is a great way to connect to people outside your current circle of influence. Facebook and Twitter are especially effective at this because tweets can be re-tweeted, reaching into areas of exposure you never imagined. However, in order to get the most of these "tools" effective use is important. Most arts organizations have a facebook page and many a twitter account. Unfortunately, if the orchestra has any budget for social media at all, it's generally pretty small, which means they end up getting a newly graduated college student in as an intern. These students may have their own twitter and/or facebook account, but the chances of them really knowing what to do to market an arts organization is slim. But, what they don't know they can learn. So, I've created a few touch points that might help. FACEBOOK 1 - post s...