Illustration by Arnold Roth, for The New Yorker

Myth: Classical Music is Dying Truth: Classical Music is Changing

Classical Music and the Internet

Thanks in large part to the Internet, there are more classical
recordings available for sale today than at any previous time in history 1 for 7% of total sales for the genre (up 4.4% from 2006)
2

Digital classical album sales surged 47.7% in 2007, accounting

The biggest classical music labels, like Naxos and Decca Label
Group of Universal, earn about 20% of their sales from digital music, double or triple the average for other categories 3

1.

Multiple Sources:
Allan Kozinn, Check the Numbers: Rumors of Classical Musics Demise are Dead Wrong, The New York Times, 5/28/06 Naxos Music Library contains over 548,500 tracks of music, with 1000 CDs added every month (http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com, accessed 11/21/09) ArkivMusic offers over 91,000 classical albums and media, with more being added all the time (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Page?pageName=pages/press111908.jsp, 11/19/08)

2. 3.

Davis Hanzel, Global: Digital Symphonies, Billboard, 2/16/08 Seno, Alexandra, Beethoven Goes Digital, Newsweek, 9/5/07

A Persistent Myth
Rumors of classical musics imminent demise have
been around a very long time

Carnegie Hall narrowly escaped the wreckers ball

when Lincoln Center was planned in the late 1950s, because there was a concern that New York couldnt sustain two large halls

In the 40s and 50s, empty seats were plentiful at

Carnegie Hall. Today, Carnegie Hall offers more concerts about 200 a year than it did then.

Source: Allan Kozinn, Check the Numbers: Rumors of Classical Musics Demise are Dead Wrong, The New York Times, 5/28/06

Economics in Two Words:

Supply and Demand

The Long Tail Theory

The long tail is the almost limitless inventory of CDs, books, movies, and other products that pours forth on sites such as Amazon.com. Some may sell or rent only once a year. Yet, Anderson says, about a quarter of Amazons book sales come from outside its top 100,000 titles. Classical music, with its thousandyear back catalogue, has the longest tail of all.
Alex Ross of The New Yorker*, referring to the book The Long Tail by business author Chris Anderson

* Alex Ross, The Well-Tempered Web, The New Yorker, 10/22/07

Naxos
Subscription sales for Naxos Music Library increased by
35% in 2008

Naxos had its best year ever in 2007, and was on track
to top those results in 2008 until the bottom fell out of the economy. Even this year, sales are still good. blogging about releases and performances, commenting on other blogs and Twittering * are doing as well. **

Every member of its 12-person marketing staff is

A lot of the things the pop guys are doing, these guys

Source: Jon Healey, Who says subscription music services are dead? Los Angeles Times,16 June 2009 * Jon Healey ** Naxos CEO Jim Selby

Film Scoring Around the Globe

Example: Music composed in London, orchestrated
in New York, recorded in Prague, and edited and mixed in LA.

In the US, LA and New York becoming increasingly

interconnected; orchestration, editing, and mixing are particularly non-dependant on geographical location

Top Hollywood distributors are increasingly picking

up local independent films from around the world *

* Mark Northam, President of Global Media Online, which publishes online trade magazines such as Film Music Magazine. http://marknortham.com/?p=37, 10/21/09

The Composer Collective

www.TheComposerCollective.com

How it Works
Filmmakers upload scenes from their films for
composers to score

By paying for a membership, composers gain the

opportunity to upload demos for any of the films in the database composers to work on the same film, purportedly giving filmmakers a better end product and giving composers more opportunities the composers get all other typical royalties, including writers share and mechanical synch

The new Teamscoring project allows multiple

The Composers Collective claims publishers rights, but

The A Team and the B Team

The A Team is the team of chosen composers

The rest of the composers are eligible to join the B Team for
that project

B Team members can:

Download and watch the film Read the directors notes and feedback on particular cues Listen to other composers cues Upload their own demos for consideration by the director If a cue by a B Team member is accepted, he/she is upgraded to A Team Status

All composers can discuss ideas with other composers for any
project, in the online forum

The Good:
"... hands down, the most supportive, productive, and helpful group of people that Ive been exposed to (Wes Costello) "I wanted to let you know how much The Composer Collective has helped me in getting my foot through the door. Because of my [TeamScore] credits and [what] I learned from you and Matt Gates, I just scoredmy first full length feature film." (Stephen Tammearu)

Source: http://www.thecomposercollective.com/tcc/composersignup.asp. Accessed 11/22/09

The Bad:
All in all, I would say that the people running the site probably have good intentions. However, the organization is poor and frustrating, the projects are few and far between, the payments are small with relatively no chance at any royalties, and apparently Im not the only one who thinks so. This business model needs a serious retooling. Anonymous

Source: http://musiclibraryreport.com/music-services/composer-collective/. Accessed 11/20/09

And the Ugly:

This site is a major scam! (James Hughes)

Ive worked for them. Submitted cues that got used for no money. Was promised credit and didnt even get that...All this organization does is make it worse for poor guys like me trying to get a gig for themselves. (Anonymous)
TCC is a sweatshop. Evan is often rude in his comments about revisions, and who knows when they pay you. I had music placed in a project thats almost a year old and I still havent gotten a dime. Also, dont be surprised if they try to take your publishing without asking. (Tim)

Source: http://musiclibraryreport.com/music-services/composer-collective/. Accessed 11/20/09

To Be Fair
Matt and Evan have HUGE plans for the future of TCC, but they have really started something from the ground level here. They work an incredible number of hours and are 110% committed to the success of TCCthis means keeping both clients and composers happy. Shaun 1) The Composer Collective is a novel, fledgling endeavor with noble intentions, audacious goals, and daunting obstacles in a highly competitive industry 2) TCC is a good deal for some people and not others 3) Film composers need to get used to the idea that they will be paid much later, regardless who they are working with... PerspectiveGiver

Source: http://musiclibraryreport.com/music-services/composer-collective/. Accessed 11/20/09

Yurina Shin
Most of works were rushed and they made the composers very competitive. Even after they chose the track for the cue, they changed it to another if the one was better (this is a very subjective judge). Everyone has their own job beside this but the work schedule there didn't allow them to be flexible.

There was so much of a process in between which we don't usually have when we work for film. We just simply talk to the director and discuss and come to a a conclusion to make the music better... Everyone says the same thing. meeting people and trying to get a connection. That will give us better chances than being very competitive and stressful working on a website.

Classical Music Online Trendsetters

Tasmin Little and the Naked Violin Deutch Grammophons Web Shop generated over
50,000 music downloads in its first week. LSO Live now sells more downloads than CDs in the US one of two recent free classical samples went on to purchase additional classical music. Nearly one third of those customers had never downloaded a classical track from eMusic before.

At eMusic, half the customers who downloaded

Source: Global: Digital Symphonies, Billboard, 2/16/08

Getting Started in the Online Music Marketplace

First Step: Your Own Website Blogging and/or social networks; give something to
the community and form new relationships

Other considerations For Composers: Self-Publishing

For Performers: Consider running your own

independent label (like Canadian violinist Lara St. John)

Promoting Your Music Online: What Works

From Bas Grasmayer, Best Practices of the Online Promotion of New Musical Content

Giving fans a reason to buy (like Nine Inch Nails) Freemium (like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails) Understanding that the package IS the product (like
Mos Def and Radiohead)

Buzz (like Nine Inch Nails, Tasmin Little, Naxos) Co-branding (like Groove Armada and Barcadi)

The Future
Online music is still in its infancy; huge growth is ahead

Enormous democratization of music and

decentralization of control

Greater interconnectedness; huge music databases and

search capability light years ahead of what exists today (and we already have query by humming) least for listening if not downloading. This is actually a positive trend for those who understand freemium and the music itself, either directly or through video games, remixing, and social networks. These will be major areas of growth in the industry.

Music will increasingly become available for free, at

Listeners will have new ways to engage with musicians

Questions?