Getting New Ears to Classical Music Concerts... Is Twitter the Answer?
There has been a lot of talk recently about "Tweeting" sections in concerts, places people could sit and tweet during the performance. Good idea? Edward Moyer blogged about it on C/Net , the LA Times ran a poll , and several orchestra have already tried the concept. But, if you look at the results of the LA Times ' poll, you'll see a large number of people are dead set against it. BUT... Classical music concerts are money drains. Seldom to these concerts sell out. Often times, the operating capital it takes to put on an orchestral concert in a concert hall exceeds the money from ticket sales, sometimes as much as two to one. Comments like, "I couldn't sell Mahler tickets at a discount" and "We can't put Ives on the program because no one will come" are often heard in planning meetings and strategy sessions for orchestras. The musicians want to play the music, but the audience that is willing to pay for tickets is rapidly declining....
