November 2008 Archives

I'm enjoying the growing list of what me and my people do wrong in the comments section of this post. To re-cap, journalists don't like it when publicists:

• ...use ALL CAPS in the subjects or bodies of their e mails.
• ...mail discs with no liner notes/track listings/context of any kind.
• ...blindly send press releases to journalists who have no history of writing about that artist/concert/repertoire/genre.
• ...don't include audio or video clips in their press releases.
• ...act all lover-scorned when editors aren't interested in their clients.
• ...send releases under the oh-so-attention-grabbing subject line "Press Release".
• ...over-package physical CD mailings.
• ...do anything BUT include releases in the bodies of e mails - no attachments, no external links.
• ...seat themselves next to critics at events and concerts.
• ...talk about other clients at concerts they've invited critics to review.
  
• ...don't actually have a reason for pitching what they're pitching, besides being paid to do it.

To this list, I will add, journalists (also probably) don't like it when publicists:

• ....pitch journalists about artists/concerts they've already written about (simple...Google...search).
• ...include huge photo files.
  
• ...don't spell-check.
• ...write poorly.
  
• ...don't think it's their job to come up with and put forth creative story ideas.

 
THAT SAID, two can play this game! Classical music publicists of the world, what do JOURNALISTS do that annoy you most? Be Brave, little ones!  More accurately, Post Anonymously!

I'll start:

I'm all about taking the on-a-pedestal mystery out of the classical music industry, but my gears get slighted grinded (ground?) when journalists write about the trials and tribulations of arranging and conducting an artist interview in the feature said-interview was intended for.

Opera Chic brought these OC Register and San Diego Union-Tribune features to her readers' attention(s) last week, and while both pieces are otherwise interesting and very well-written, I have to wonder if the journalists really had to mention that Maestro-elect Dudamel only gave them ten minutes? And that his publicist interrupted the interviews? And that he was running behind?

The hardest part about preparing for a 10-minute telephone interview with Gustavo Dudamel is figuring out what to do with all that energy.

Not with it, actually, but without it: What if his legendary pep didn't come across in a chat crammed between six other interviews? What if he was worn out, or distracted? Because if there's one thing that pops out from all of Dudamel's five-star YouTube clips - the one attribute both fans and skeptics say defines him - it's that indomitable energy.

The second hardest part was getting a hold of the man...It took nearly a month of planning, with entreaties from certain well-connected individuals to other well-connected individuals, dozens of e-mails and phone calls to the presenter and publicists, and one minor last-minute rescheduling, but at 2:53 p.m. last Friday, I was on hold for Dudamel. He was at his publicist's office in midtown Manhattan, wrapping up another interview. Running just a little behind schedule. (San Diego Union-Tribune, November 21, 2008)

You get ten minutes, take it or leave it. I took it. I called at the appointed time. Sorry, we're running behind, please call back in 20 minutes. OK. I went and did the dishes, then called back. Can you hold for three minutes? OK. Then Gustavo Dudamel comes on the line.

He doesn't seem to know to whom he is talking, so I introduce myself...

[ten minutes later]

"Excuse me, Tim, it's Mary Lou Falcone (his publicist) interrupting rudely, I apologize. But we need to cut it as we have someone waiting, OK?" (OC Register, November 21, 2008)

It certainly makes for good reading (as I've said time and time again on this blog, people love behind-the-scenes drama), but that time-crunch is a fact of artists' lives: when an artist is touring 300+ days a year, he or she is forced to do interviews in a crazy speed-dating fashion! Of course it's not ideal, and the concept of a ten-minute interview is pretty silly, but if you couldn't get what you needed in ten minutes (fair enough), why not tell Dudamel's team thanks but no thanks, we'll wait until he has a bit more time?

This kind of thing is very frustrating for publicists and artists: we try to make time for everyone, and then sometimes get punished for it. Last spring, a writer e mailed me to fact check Hilary's interview with her. No, not what Hilary said in the interview, but rather how many interviews had she done before their's, what time did she get up to do interviews that morning, and how many journalists had I turned down for interviews on her one press day in New York City? Erm....while I appreciate that this makes Hilary (and Dudamel, in the cases above) look all in-demand and celebrityish, I'm not entirely sure it's fair to the artists.

And one more thing, before I hand it over: Just as Greg Sandow commented in the publicist post that press releases should give him a reason to care about their subjects, let me go on record as saying that features and reviews should probably do the same.

One topic of conversation at the Turkey Day table yesterday afternoon was how early everyone was getting to the Short Hills Mall, Kohl's and Best Buy today, destination preferences delineated by expected gender and age stereotypes. 

That in mind, my first order of business this morning was to do some serious Google work on Black Friday classical music sales ((nerd)). Do any orchestras have discounted tickets tonight? Does ArkivMusic have a Black Friday CD sale like Amazon does? Are there any afternoon chamber music concerts advertised as "Take a break from Black Friday shopping?" What about a concert at 8 am somewhere, if shoppers are in lines at 4 am? "Gloat about your purchases and calm yourself at a concert."

I couldn't find any such things. It seems like a missed opportunity: any time an entire country has one thing on the collective brain (SALES!!!), arts organizations should find ways to tap into it.

If you need me for the rest of the day, I'll be elbow-throwing/hip-checking at The Apple Store.

Atlantic Records' digital sales beat physical sales, so says The New York Times and lots of research-y people. HOWEVER:

This performance is sharply at odds with the trends in the music industry over all, where data show that sales of compact discs still account for more than two-thirds of music sales. Forrester Research does not expect digital music to reach 50 percent of the overall pie until 2011.

Fear not, gentle readers, Atlanta Records President Julie Greenwald has "figured it out", "it" being, presumably, how to sell records in 2008?

"I think we've figured it out," said Julie Greenwald, president of Atlantic Records. "It used to be that you could connect five dots and sell a million records. Now there are 20 dots you can connect to sell a million records."

It seems the 15 additional dots include extras (or, apparently, essentials) like ring tones, ringbacks, satellite radio and subscription services. I didn't know what a "ringback" was, so I looked it up. Ah yes, that explains the awful remix of "Take on Me" I have to listen to every time I call my cousin. I've never heard classical music while calling someone, though. Perhaps none of my friends select it (possible), or perhaps classical labels haven't tapped into it? I would make my ringback "Clapping Music", should it become available. "Please enjoy the clapping while your party is reached."

The Times article also explains that, record labels not being as "flush" (seriously, that's the word used) as they once were, spending on album marketing, tour publicity and music videos has been cut. Music videos, and my childhood, are dead anyway, or didn't you hear?

Atlantic chairman and CEO, Craig Kallman, clarifies what record labels have to do, by way of...Leonard Bernstein?

"Today you have to be like Leonard Bernstein," said Mr. Kallman, "making sure everyone is hitting the right notes at just the right millisecond. The tipping point, if you will, is when everything converges and your timing with everything is impeccable."

Mr. Kallman is perhaps more right than he knows: record labels do need to be like Leonard Bernstein, but not simply like Bernstein-as-name-dropped-stand-in-for-orchestral-conductors-everywhere. Like Leonard Bernstein insofar as connecting with communities, educating listeners in a non-patronizing way, creating original content, being a force of personality and brand identity, and shattering preconceived notions of what their role in the music industry is and can be.

From: a New York City classical music and dance writer
To: Me, just now

I would like to take a moment to thank you for never sending me emails with all caps subject lines.  It is an affliction of many publicists, and actually makes me less likely to want to read the email.

I also assume that marking all your press releases "High Importance" gets pretty annoying to writers. And including huge attachments, I would imagine.

Calling all journalists! What do publicists do that annoy you the most?

[Some comique is probably going to say "blog".]

Can there be viral marketing when most classical concerts are one-night-only events?

I went to the high-flyin'-larious play Boeing Boeing on Broadway last week, and took a gander at my call log today: I sent three texts at intermission and another two while walking to the subway. "Definitely go see Boeing Boeing." "Boeing Boeing is funny stuff." "Loved Boeing Boeing even though my beloved Josh Lyman isn't in it any more." Assuming others had as much fun as my friend and I did, Boeing Boeing got good press on the SMS airwaves that night. And, if the people I texted trust my opinion, there is time for them to buy tickets and go see the play themselves.

I also loved the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Pierre-Laurent Aimard concert last night and, as per my usual, texted a few inquiring minds just that. But...how does that help anything? My friends can't go see the same concert I saw after my text recommendation, because it won't exist again. They could see Aimard perform somewhere and something else in the future, but that's a far less immediate marketing effect: "my friend loved this concert in this location, I'll buy tickets now" is just more managable than "my friend loved that concert in November, I should see that artist when he's in town again."

Sure, orchestras have soloists play the some concerto three, four nights in a row sometimes, but even that is not ideal. If I text someone to see Lang Lang with the Philharmonic, they only have the next two nights and maybe an afternoon to make that happen. With movies and plays, and sometimes non-classical concerts, though, you have weeks, months, sometimes even years (in the case of plays, and I suppose, movies on DVD) to see them, so a positive review - via text message or otherwise - isn't wasted. [This also brings up the topic of venue exclusivity rules in classical music, which I think is another post for another time, but, something to think about when we're talking about word-of-mouth marketing and PR.]

And speaking of reviews: a rave from The New York Times about a play or movie can really help ticket sales, but a review of a fantastic one-night-only classical concert? What does that actually accomplish? A Times rave generally raises an artist's "profile" and is nice for me to slap on a quote sheet - all good things - but no tickets are sold because of the review. "The concert was awesome - sorry you missed it, suckers!" That's why it's curious to me that there are so many more concert reviews than album reviews in the arts sections of major publications these days. Reviews can actually help album sales! The problem is, arts writers increasingly need a strong local angle for coverage, so a stand-alone CD review is often a hard-sell to editors. My personal ideal media coverage is an album review couched in a concert preview. That is, a writer reviews an album and then adds where and when that artist will be performing live, locally.

All that said, the one-night-only fact of classical life is also what makes the concerts in our industry very special. Seeing a performance that will probably never be repeated in your city is exciting, especially when the concert is amazing. A good critic can almost/sometimes/really capture that for those who weren't there in a review, but so often reviews somehow miss that opportunity.

Most Fridays, I post an interview with a certain someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism masters student Devin Dwyer on learning how to broadcast himself, the shrinking journalism market, and why this isn't a good interview.

Devin Dwyer is a multimedia journalist with a background in public radio broadcasting.  The Minnesota native is a graduate of Dartmouth College and candidate for a master of science in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.







The Journalism program at Columbia is only one year, correct? Is that chaos?

Yes, the M.S. program is 10 months. It's pretty chaotic - but much of that depends on one's concentration. Broadcast concentrators tend to be a little crazier than the print/newspaper folks since we have to learn audio and video recording/editing skills on top of basic reporting and writing. And then, of course, being out in the field with all that equipment means more time required to produce the story.  But it's a heck of a lot more fun than just interviewing people over the phone and writing it up. (Not to mention there are actually jobs in broadcast! All the newspapers, as you know, are going under...)


What classes are you currently taking? (The "Writing with Style" class description on the site is hilarious.)

During the first semester, everybody takes Reporting and Writing I - which for broadcasters, is a "jumbo course". It takes four full days of the week. Two of those are all-day seminar; two are field reporting and producing. This class covers all the basics and gives you a taste of everything: deadline writing, shooting, recording, interviewing, different topics (courts, schools, business/economics, ethnic news, etc.)... On Friday everyone takes two all-class courses; they're lecture style. One is Critical Issues in Journalism; the other Law, Journalism and Society.  Critical Issues is a (boring/pointless) lecture followed by discussion on some aspect of ethics or decision-making in journalism.  Law is taught by two profs from the law school and is basically a study of nuances of the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedents involving/affecting journalism.... I also take the "Masters Project" which is technically a class, but it's an independent long-form assignment that is due in March.  And, I also take a New Media Skills Workshop which meets on Saturday - we learn Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc. for the web.


On the "history" section of the website, it says, "It took Columbia ten years to act on Joseph Pulitzer's pitch for a journalism school. " Is it ironic that a journalism school was started with a pitch?

It's totally ironic!  Although I admit, I don't know much about the backstory.


In classical music, critics are getting let-go left, right and center. Is this a problem across journalism fields? If so, is it more evident in print journalism, or are TV and radio journalists suffering as well? How are your professors preparing you for a career in journalism if they know jobs are dwindling?

Across the board, journalism is undergoing a transformation right now. The web has altered the financial equation for most news outlets and they are struggling to find a new paradigm.  Fact of the matter is that ad revenue on the web is not sufficient to support most newsrooms.  And since more and more Americans get their news from the web - and, of course, it's the timeliest source - fewer are tuning in their TVs, radios, or buying newspapers. This is a very simplistic explanation for you, but it's generally the case.  The job market is tough - particularly in print, however.  There are more opportunities for online news and there always tends to be more demand for business/economic reporters.  One other aside (from a fan of public radio): with tax revenues falling around the country, even public news outlets are not immune from the industry woes.  Most states have hiring freezes - or even layoffs - at public TV and radio stations.  

The Journalism School at Columbia is trying to make all of its students as marketable as possible by equipping everyone with a strong grounding in reporting ability and storytelling (there's no substitute for these skills) and a diverse "tool box" of technical skills.  For example, if an established news outlet wants to translate more of its news video into web content, they could turn to one of their older, veteran employees to do the job - but often, those veterans are loathe to learn new skills or reluctant to adapt to the changing market.  So, outlets are eager to hire younger journalists who come with a broad array of skills - who can not only shoot video and do web techniques, but can also do audio recording/editing, shoot a digital camera, write a strong lead, etc. etc..

 
What assignment have you learned from most so far, and what did you learn?

On election night, all Columbia Jschool broadcast students produced a live, four-hour radio webcast. As Executive Producer, I learned an enormous amount about managing a newsroom and developing a plan for a live broadcast.  I basically had the chance to conceptualize, from scratch, what our coverage would look like, what themes we would highlight and how we would execute it.  We ended up having reporters, editors and producers working from a campus newsroom, in three NYC boroughs, and 3 "swing" states (NH, VA, and PA).  The show was designed on the NPR election coverage model, with two teams of hosts who anchored on alternating hours and who provided up-to-the-minute results as they came in, interviews with a range of political and historical experts, and live check-ins with reporters in the New York area and three swing states.  All audio and video streamed online.
The overarching theme for America's Choice 2008, which is what the show was called, was the diverse voices and perspectives of America's people.  We featured lots of "vox" from a cross-section of New Yorkers, New Hampshirans, Virginians, and Pensylvannians. We tried to better understand the important issues driving voters' choices this year.   Our reporters caught up with voters as they were leaving the polls, spoke with prominent and not-so-prominent community leaders, and embedded in an array of ethnic communities around the area.

It was a very exciting, high-pressure experience.


I think the subject of sources is extremely interesting. I'm sort of a "source" for journalists about my artists, but, outside of industries that have publicists - general news coverage, for example - how does a journalist find stories to cover?

Journalists rely on a number of established and not-so-established means of finding stories to cover. As a general rule of thumb, we look for things that are of interest, impact and immediacy to particular communities. Some of this depends on the intended audience. Finding compelling and meaningful stories - aside from the standard press-release events and catastrophes - involves following one's curiosity and talking to lots of people, asking questions.  Good stories are about people. And, just talking to people and observing people interacting within their worlds can reveal tons of possible avenues for exploration.


I hesitate to ask how many times the words "technology" and "new media" are used every day; are your professors tech-savvy/tech-excited, or is the academic journalism community pretty old-school?

"New media" is definitely the buzz around Jschool, especially since more and more news outlets are going online these days. And some, like the venerable Christian Science Monitor, are becoming exclusively online publications after decades of being in print. The faculty at Columbia Journalism School are acutely aware of this trend, and while some individual professors may be more or less tech-savvy than others, the prevailing objective is to integrate more web-based journalism into the curriculum. Each basic reporting and writing class has its own website and we've done several exercises producing stories in multiple mediums for the web. The Election 2008 webcast is another good example of how the school is trying to stay on the leading edge of the tech transformation: audio and video coverage streamed live online and graphic/interactive features were developed for the site itself. The school also offers some pretty interesting workshops and guest-speaker panels on the latest online trends in journalism. And I'm learning the fundamentals of Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash in a weekend seminar which is really enhancing my web-based journalism abilities.

 
How are blogs taught? Are they regarded as the end of true journalism, or are we at a point where there are whole classes taught about blog culture?

Bloggers are generally viewed with skepticism as being a part of the class of "journalists."  They are generally viewed as talking heads that don't practice the traditional principles of sound reporting and verification. To a certain extent, I agree with this assessment.  Blogs can't (haven't, at least) unseated the established news organizations' reputations as being the most trustworthy.  Studies show that even people who read stories on Drudge or Digg or whatever end up going to a reputable (traditional) news source to verify that it's true.  Blogs have demonstrated their power, influence and importance. But established news outlets still have something blogs don't.


Do you think I should apply to the Journalism program at Columbia to see how the other half lives?

I'd say save the $50,000. You've got a good job with income.  Don't abandon it just to "see the other half."  


Based on your journalism expertise, was this a good interview? If so, why? (If NOT, why?)

This was a decent interview, although it would have been better in person!  Intrapersonal communication is an important part of good journalism.  Interviewing face-to-face not only allows you to ask follow-ups, but it lets you better understand the subject and his/her answers based on vocal cues and body language.


Which do you prefer: Dartmouth or Columbia?
Dartmouth. Hands down. Go Big Green!

From Playbill.com:

Perhaps the most famous incident of his career was instigated by New York Shakespeare Festival impresario Joe Papp. In 1973, when Papp learned that Mr. [Clive] Barnes had given a poor review to David Rabe's In the Boom Boom Room -- Papp's choice to open his reign as the new director of the Lincoln Center Theater program -- Papp called the critic at home at 11:30 PM and cursed him, yelling into the phone, "You think you're going to get me? Well, I am going to get you. I am going to get you." That might have been the end of the incident, except that Papp made the call in the presence of a New York Times reporter who was writing a story about the producer.

The next day, a letter from Barnes was hand-delivered to Papp's office. "Our telephone conversation (or rather your monologue) last night disturbed me," Mr. Barnes wrote. "Not merely because I am unaccustomed to receiving obscene telephone calls, and certainly not because of your violently phrased defense of Rabe's play -- I would expect no less -- but because in your anger at our difference of opinion, you questioned my integrity. You told me that 'You are out to get me.' This is transparent nonsense. I admire you as one of the major forces in our theatre -- and I imagine you have kept the press clippings to prove it."

Today we learned that Lang Lang is one of the Sexiest Men Alive, or so says People Magazine.

Now, I like Lang Lang a lot, but I have to ask...of all the men...alive...is he really...the superlative of sexy? David Beckham...Lang Lang...David Beckham...

I didn't get a sociology/biology degree between his Sexiest Man Alive status being declared this morning and the present moment, but I do know that "sexy" is in the eye of (body of? pheromones of?) the (be)holder. Who am I to say who/what's sexy to someone else? Who is People Magazine, for that matter? I always assumed (naively, perhaps) that "sexy" was more attitude than straight-up physical characteristics;  "beautiful" and "handsome" can be purely physical, but things like "sexy" and "cute" have some personality traits attached. Or perhaps more than personality elements, "sexy" has both effort and presumably an ultimate goal wrapped into it.

So it begs the question: how much or little does it matter if a classical musician is attractive? Not just objectively nice to look at, but actually sexually appealing to their audiences?

I'm always surprised when anything physical about a classical musician is mentioned in the press, and perhaps I shouldn't be, because physical descriptions are expected across the media of more mainstream performing arts industries-at-large. Just the other day, Peter Margasak previewed Lang Lang's Chicago Symphony concerts on his Chicago Reader blog: "With his youth, virtuosity, good looks, and dramatic flair, 26-year-old Chinese pianist Lang Lang is as big a star as the classical-music world produces these days." "Good looks" stood out for me: why even mention that, I thought, it's a matter of opinion. When Hilary made her Chicago Symphony debut in 2006, not one but three reviews mentioned her looks (hey, maybe it's a Chicago thing?), and that also struck me as odd. It should be about the rep and the playing, I groaned, but if I'm encouraging press and audiences to write about/think about the people and personalities behind the music in order to increase interest in the art form, why should the physical be off-limits?

Let's think about the classical musicians who are generally regarded as "sexy": Joshua Bell, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo, The Eroica Trio? There are other objectively good-looking musicians in the industry, obviously - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Johannes Moser, Elīna Garanča, Hélène Grimaud, to name a few - but they don't come to mind immediately. Do the ones who do come to mind, come to mind because they want to come to mind? Are they the few who have recognized and used their appeal to further their careers? Alternatively, have their "teams" "handlers" "crew" (that is, managers and publicists) done it for them?


And does the classical music industry give artists the opportunity to use their physical attractiveness in a positive way, that is, to literally attract new audiences? It seems to me that the ones who do use their sex appeal (in publicity photos, in the way they dress in performance) are often mocked and considered less serious musicians than the ones who don't. How did we get to a place where sexiness is actually made fun of? Frowned upon? Isn't it a...good thing?

Do folks go to concerts because they find an artist attractive, or is that just an added benefit after the tickets have been bought? I may or may not have scored a ticket to Johannes Moser's last NY Philharmonic concert because I think he's dreamy, but clearly that wasn't the only reason I went. (...and I saw the new Bond movie for Dame Judi Dench.) So how should his manager and publicist use the fact that he is darn attractive to their (his) professional advantage? Is physical attractiveness just one more thing Negative Nancy's can use to criticize, judge and qualify artists' achievements (along with, well she got that cancellation, he got that Times profile, so on, so forth), or is it more dangerous and personal than those other possible "explanations" for success?

This could have been you, Gerard Mortier!

Or any arts organization executive director or orchestra music director, for that matter.

Keep us in the loop! We'll care more about what you're doing if you...tell us.

In recent days, the following happened in the topsy turvy world of media*:

• Alex Ross quotes a press release on his blog.
  
• Anthony Tommasini directs New York Times print and online readers to Jeremy Denk's blog in a concert review.
  
• Ronald Blum references Opera Chic in an Associated Press article. Opera Chic blogs about the reference.
• Inspired by a New York Times profile, Gawker suggests Nico Muhly compose a "singfest" for Gossip Girl. Nico Muhly accepts their offer on his blog.
  

*("  ")

I went to...brace yourselves...Mary Poppins on Broadway yesterday, and it took all strength I had left on a windy Sunday night to stop my 20-something sister from buying a Mary Poppins bird-head umbrella. Granted, the umbrella was pretty cute (if not slightly creepy), but, come on now.

The joint was filled with merchandise! It is, after all, a Walt Disney production, so the amount of merch was to be expected. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious t-shirts, Mary Poppins dolls, Mary Poppins mugs, a signed poster from the cast (those sales were going toward Broadway Cares, props for that), a Broadway Christmas ornament (also for Broadway Cares), souvenir sippy cups (a la the circus and sporting events), the obligatory snow globe...you name it, it was Poppinsed-out.

Do classical musicians sell merchandise? Other than a (possibly signed) CD, what souvenirs can people bring home from their classical concert experience? Even the smallest bands manage to print posters and t shirts to sell in addition to their discs, so why wouldn't/shouldn't classical folks?

Now I for one don't especially want/need Hilary Hahn's mug on a mug (although some people might...), but I would buy a tour poster. I wouldn't have minded a mug or whatever from Doctor Atomic, actually. We (and by "we" I actually mean "Josh's team") had beautiful posters created for Hilary's tour with Josh Ritter two summers ago, and I don't see why we (and by "we" I mean "I")  didn't do the same for her recent tour of China with the Vancouver Symphony, or for her upcoming US tour.


Also, who was buying the merch at Mary Poppins last night? Mostly parents for their kids. And who comes to a lot of classical concerts? Parents with their kids.  If I may digress for a moment, one thing I love about classical music CD signings is all the little kids waiting in line. Signings seem to attract kids, their parents, and then the older crowd. ((Gross Generalization!)), but something happens when kids stop taking music lessons. They go to college, cease attending concerts, and then come 'round to classical music when their culture/"should" instincts kick in. Again, generally.

So kids who take music lessons are coming to concerts. What can venues or individual musicians sell to support that? Custom-made violins (The Joshua Bell)? Music stands? A music book of artists' favorite pieces to play as children? Practice advise books?

Even the most basic, framed glossy headshots with pre-printed signatures would probably sell.

Back to Disney: my mom reports that when we would go to Disney World as kids, she'd get us these Disney-produced "Passports". Apparently, one had to run around collecting all the characters' signatures, and this would keep us occupied for days (it's the little things in life for me and Aliza, apparently). Wouldn't it be cool for Deutsche Grammophon, or iTunes, even, to put together Passports for venues to sell (or for download, in iTunes' case)? Kids could bring them to concerts and have the soloists sign them. Each page could have a photo of the artist and some basic info: hometown, age, favorite piece, etc.. There could be a violinist passport, a pianist passport, so on, so forth.

Kids like collecting. And everyone likes souvenirs.

Well, every publicist or marketing director, anyway.

Now, we all make mistakes. A few weeks back, I sent Steve Smith a potential Time Out NY listing without a date. He was kind enough to write back (errr...when is this??) rather than simply ignoring me, which would have been deserved. But I received two comments on this blog today that will certainly make me think about my pitching efforts and relationship with journalists going forward.

The first was an e mail suggesting I write about a website that I already written about, not five days ago. I'm not entirely sure how the person who pitched the site to me even located the "Contact" section on this blog without noticing the relevant entry, but she managed to. We live in the custom-built-for-the-lazy Age of Google. It is...painfully...simple to find out if someone has already written about your artist (or website, in this case), the fact that you're supposedly an expert on that which you are pitching (and consequently should know its press history) notwithstanding.

The second, and worse, was a comment on a recent entry ("I have had it with these motherf-ing snakes on this motherf-ing plane!"), from the American Symphony Orchestra. Not an actual comment, but rather a listing for an upcoming concert of theirs! What the Leon Botstein is this?? They tried to list a concert on a blog entry that used the word "motherf-ing" (2x) and referenced Snakes on a Plane, of all things! Did they think they could just sneak it in, folks would see it in the comment field - a blatant advertisement apropos of nothing - and buy tickets? Also - SPOILER ALERT - this is a blog about classical music publicity, so the ASO clearly didn't pay attention to where they were posting these listing-comments. Not incidentally, I asked two other ArtsJournal bloggers about this, and they got the same comment on recent entries. Is that...SPAM?

Not only is this just very odd, but it demonstrates a total lack of understanding of blog culture and etiquette. [insert "blog 'etiquette' is an oxymoron" joke __here__].

That said, perhaps the clever, clever American Symphony Orchestra has simply outsmarted me. If they purposely marketed their concert in an absurd fashion so I would post about it on this blog and consequently promote their concert, my hat goes off to them. Well-played. Well-played indeed.

Jerry Portwood is the editor of the New York Press, and he does a lot of theater reviews. Like lots of theater reviewers, he gets free tickets for plays from publicists. But last week, he was abruptly disinvited and taken off the list for the play "The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents," just before he was scheduled to attend. The reason: the play's publicist didn't like a NY Press story that pointed out that the play's publicists were marketing it by hyping up the fact that Meryl Streep's daughter is a cast member. Losing a pair of free tickets isn't the world's biggest tragedy, but it brings up the interesting question: How are flacks supposed to handle bad press? Answer: a lot better than this. Read on.

I mean, clearly you have to give the guy tickets and just complain to the friend you're having drinks with that night about the story. That said, it does get a bit disrespectful, I think, when writers detail publicist's approaches in their features or reviews. Publicists are given the task of selling tickets - a play title that includes the words "sexual", "neuroses", and "parents" helps with that, too - so obviously they are going to mention Meryl Streep in their pitches, unless clearly told not to. I think the pitch is a reflection on Mamie Gummer herself, not the publicist in question. If she didn't want the publicist using her mother's name to promote the play, she should have, or perhaps would have, said something.

Nonetheless, we do not take away writers' tickets because we are mad at them, no we do not.

More thoughts for City Opera, should they decide to go into belated grassroots fundraising mode:

• Enlist top singers who love City Opera to create public service announcements, or an opera star-filled Obamaish video that can be easily forwarded and posted on opera blogs around the world.
  
• Have singers record phone messages, a la the crazy Snakes on a Plane marketing campaign with Samuel L. Jackson, that people can leave on their friend's voicemails. Idea courtesy of my sister.
• Does footage of Beverly Sills speaking about City Opera exist? That's probably good stuff. Put it in an e-card format and send it to all previous ticket-buyers and donors, thanking them for their continued support.
  

Hey! I even have a sample PSA for them, courtesy of my friend Jeff:

People will come, City Opera. They'll come to the Opera for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up at the box office, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you have a look around," you'll say. "It's only fifty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they [kind of] have and peace they lack.

City Opera, just sign the papers.

And they'll walk up to the balconies, and sit in suit-sleeves on a perfect evening. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the railings, where they sat when they were children and applauded their heroes. And they'll watch the acts, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

City Opera, when the bank opens in the morning, they'll foreclose.

People will come, City Opera.

You're broke, City Opera. You sell now or you lose everything.

The one constant through all the years, City Opera, has been OPERA. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But Opera has marked the time. This stage, this music, is a part of our past, City Opera. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, City Opera. People will most definitely come.

[Blogger's note: "come" can also be substituted for "donate".]

"The irony of all this, I really believe, and many others do as well, is if we could simply have gotten the first season on the boards, it really would have galvanized fund-raising." - New York City Opera's Susan L. Baker to The New York Times 11/7/08, on losing Gerard Mortier due to a lack of funds.


I hate to kick City Opera while it's down but...what first season? The homepage of their website, above, looks like the same old City Opera. I realize they need to promote the concerts they're presenting around town this season, but why is there NOTHING about the awesome 09-10 season we've all been told to eagerly await on this homepage? I can't even find the original season announcement in their Press Room section.

If City Opera was waiting until Mortier arrived to launch a new site, the powers-that-be made a huge mistake. Launch that puppy NOW (well, not now now, but at the beginning of the 08-09 season). Create a new logo. Employ Howard Dean/Obama online fundraising techniques: if you're going to really be The People's Opera, forget fancy Young Associates receptions and take my $25. Mortier graces you with his presence every 5 weeks? Sit him down for short video interviews every time he shows up and post them on your site and YouTube. Follow him around to meetings with a camera so we get some sense of what he's doing. Philip Glass is in the office? That's gold! Film him chitchatting with Mortier in the hall and put it on the site. Obviously, not all meetings can be filmed, but some can. Why not put a semi-staged meeting with Mortier and the communications department on the web? "Alright, mes camarades, we have this great season of 20th century music coming up, how are we going to market it?" Brainstorm brainstorm, film film. The worst thing that could happen is that potential new audiences actually find your filmed marketing meeting on YouTube and comment on it; that's free advertising and a free focus group all in one.

And you, Gerard "Mortier", you sir, are on my bad list. Also from The New York Times:

Speaking by telephone from his apartment in Ghent, Belgium, Mr. Mortier said he decided to resign when it became clear that the board would not give him the money needed to produce a meaningful slate of opera productions. He said that from the start he had been promised a budget of $60 million, a number even mentioned in his contract. But the board was prepared to approve only $36 million, he said, not much more than the basic fixed costs of running the company, leaving him little room for innovative productions.

"I told them with the best will, I can't do that," Mr. Mortier said. "I cannot go to run a company that has less than the smallest company in France." Mr. Mortier is in the final year of running the Paris National Opera, which has a budget closer to $300 million. "You don't need me for that," he said.

Actually, they do need you for that. They need exactly you for that. So kindly check your "Impresario" hallmark at the door, or perhaps qualify it in the future with "as long as I have money to spend". What kind of impresario is that?? Sure, if you were promised a certain budget and you didn't get it (among other complications, I'm sure), you have every right to walk. But what a star you would have been if you had just made it work. When life gives you less money than expected, make creative viral marketing and interesting artistic programming lemonade. I was interviewed this morning about how the economy is affecting the arts, and in the middle of the interview realized that I've been seeing "Recession sales" all over the place, and yet none on the NYC classical music scene. It's not actually funny that people are losing their jobs, but a recession is funny if you make it funny. [That may be the worst sentence written on this blog to date, but I hope you get my point.] And beyond having comedy potential, admitting that we're in a recession and that you don't have the budget you thought you would makes you accessible and instills compassion from the masses: we're all in this together.

Now, we all know the economy is not the only thing to blame for City Opera's lack of fundraising, but why didn't the company take advantage of that unfortunate historical moment and use it as a scapegoat here? More importantly, now that THAT opportunity has passed, will they use this more personal crisis - Mortier's pre-resignation - to their advantage? If City Opera called me up or sent me an e mail today about a new "Save City Opera!" campaign, I would write them a check. It wouldn't be for thousands of dollars, but it would be something.

You really want to be The People's Opera, New York City Opera? Then seize this moment and raise some grassroots cash. The URLs http://www.savecityopera.com/ and http://www.screwmortier.com/ are both available.

I don't completely (heart) the fancy Celebrate Salonen season site that the LA Phil put together, but I do appreciate the alliteration potential and the gesture.

Two cool things: 1. The fact that you can hover over any timeline point with an eighth note graphic and an interview will start without your having to click on it, and 2. the wall on which you can leave your tribute to Salonen.


I've mentioned this before, but I'm big into the juxtaposition of, you know, Bill Viola's thoughts on Salonen with Lemon Lim from Hong Kong's thoughts on Salonen. It gives an artist an air of importance and widespread relevance without making him or her seem intangible.

I wonder if people are also saying snarky things, though, and the LA Phil just isn't posting them. Maybe the site visitors can sense that it's a "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" situation, but I doubt it. People are mean. Maybe I'll post "I cannot effing WAIT for Dudamel!!" ((not true, by the way)), and see if it shows up.

Would it be too dangerous to have unmonitored message boards for orchestras on their websites throughout the season, and not just on special occasions such as this? People can be nasty, but at least when they're nasty it means they're engaged. Out of curiosity, I took a gander at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's website and thought, "Oh, great! They have a Community section." I assumed that meant message boards like this or this, but then I remembered the industry in which I work, and thought, "Riiiight: family concerts and volunteer opportunities." Of course there's nothing wrong with family concerts and volunteer opportunities, but it is interesting that, outside of the classical music realm in 2008, "community" has come to mean something completely different.

Back to message boards: are we afraid of negative comments and differences of opinion in classical music? Hilary wanted to put her bad reviews on her new website, and my first response was WHAT are you talking about; why would you do that? She figured people would see the reviews anyway - they're out in the world, after all - so why not just admit that not every critic in the known universe thinks she's the bee's knees, as any artist quote page or press kit would suggest? On folkish/indie-rockish singer/songwriter Sam Amidon's MySpace page, he includes the quote, "Amidon makes mistakes, lots of them..." Grapevine (Reykjavik), which is funny and eye-catching. Does it really add something to include the negative, though, or is it just a joke? Interestingly (enough), that quote does not appear on his website proper, so maybe posting bad reviews is OK on the sites for the kiddies, but not on the "official" sites? OK then.

Like (all) (/) (most) things, the root of this classical PR conundrum comes from the art form itself. In other musical genres - jazz, bluegrass, folk - making mistakes is cool; the art is in the imperfections, or whatever, and mistakes aren't really "mistakes". In classical music, we assume that mistakes aren't made in performances (or composition, for that matter), so when a critic (or, in the case of a message board, a community member), criticizes something, it reads as an admission that the performer(s) have made one, and is consequently a completely negative entity. Constructive criticism doesn't appear to be allowed to exist. The perception of classical musicians as perfect beings leads to all sorts of problems with perception: if The King's Singers never mess up, how can I relate to them? I, Jane Human Being, mess up all the time!

Open-ended message boards may not be the solution to online community engagement for orchestras, but it's worth thinking about what is (beyond simply having your 20-something intern create a Facebook page). And if we truly open ourselves up to criticism and commentary of all shapes and sizes and really put our flaws out there, will we attract more fans?

OK, now I brace myself for the negative comments to this post.

Fill in the blank:

It's ____________ that the first thing that comes up when you Google "Metropolitan Opera" is a search for movie showtimes.

I was going to post this yesterday, but in a moment of total paranoia decided not to put forth any semblance of a gesture of support for McCain/Palin. But now that it's safe, an advertising suggestion for the Philadelphia Orchestra, from Wonkette:

As Wonkette writes re: McCain/Palin, "'Oh, that's right, my favorite baseball team won the big game, and this gave me pleasure,' the average voter will say upon encountering this placard. 'I will now vote for these two nuts whose names are on the sign next to that of my favorite baseball team.'"

I don't think, however, it would have been a mistake for the Philadelphia Orchestra (Opera Company of Philadelphia, et al) to ride the Phillies' coattails a bit. Run a "The Philadelphia Orchestra congratulates the 2008 World Champion Phillies" ad campaign, and come up with a funny discount ticket offer (bring your Phillies ticket stubs to the box office?).  Maybe put together a special concert to celebrate. COLLECT THE E MAIL ADDRESSES of the folks that come. And if you can't pull together a congratulations concert (understandable), videotape the Philadelphia Orchestra playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and post it on YouTube, tagged with "Phillies, World Series, 2008, Orchestra, Philadelphia, Ballgame, Song" etc..

Phillies fans are energized and filled with home-city pride; why don't the local arts organizations figure out a way to tap into that?

This just in: Opera singers DO DRUGS!! Stop the world, I want to get off.

The fact that this "story" is getting so much "airplay" speaks to the presumed untouchable nature of classical musicians. 

Now, if we could just get some sex tapes and lesbian post-rehab relationships, we'd be in business.

The current issue of Symphony Magazine contains a comprehensive article on whether or not arts journalism can exist on the web.

I would link to it, but the full article is not available online.


What publication web edition in the WORLD asks readers to DOWNLOAD their articles? If Symphony dot com can include a two-sentence teaser in the body of a web page, why can't it include the entire article? I do not understand. And this particular article not-surprisingly cites over a dozen blogs and bloggers; wouldn't it be nice to actually link to those pages in the online version?

If you take the time to download the thing, you'll see that the piece's tagline is, "As newspapers accelerate their assault on classical music coverage, critics and arts reporters are rising to the challenge and establishing new outlets online. Can arts journalism successfully make the switch?"

I think they successfully answered their own question.

Through a series of unfortunate events (mostly involving my having to send more press releases than usual on account of Universal duties and finding out that my @#&$#@ing web server doesn't allow me to send over 250 e mails per day), I came across the very easy to use and generally life-saving iContact.

iContact is lovely because you can actually see which journalists have received and opened your releases ((BIG BROTHER)), a feature that is useful for two reasons: 1. If certain journalists are never opening your e mails (perhaps because they aren't writing about classical music anymore or perhaps because they're just not that into you), you can remove them from your list and stop bothering them in the future. 2. In this SPAMtastic time, it's great to be able to see which e mails are bouncing in a clear list format, rather than becoming the proud recipient of 30 nefarious MAILER-DAEMON auto-responses. (MARK SWED IS WRITING TO ME!!! Oh wait, it's just the Mailer-Daemon.)

You can also hyperlink to music and video clips without knowing HTML (Music samples in a music press release?? Brave new world...), and link to an e mail address with the auto subject of your choice. So the Netrebko press release I just sent into the ether will come back with the e mail subject "Souvenirs request", for example, which helps to keep life organized.

The system has both designed and simple text formats, so your beautiful press release won't turn into a big fat mess should a recipient not work in HTML. Here's how the release looks all designed-like:

And now the simple text version: