Life's a Pitch

Peer Pressure

2008-12-01T15:03:31Z

My college roommate was in town this weekend and informed me about the completely nauseating Wal-Mart stampede incident. "I read it on the Times site this morning," she said. "It was in the 'Most E mailed' column; that's how I get all my news." Now, this is a girl who's getting her PhD in East Asianist History at Yale, so I strongly doubt the "Most E mailed" column is her one source of current event intel. That said, I see a "Most E mailed" list and I generally read through those articles/blog entries first, whichever site I'm on. Most presenter and orchestra websites already have "Send to a Friend" buttons on their concert listings, so why not have a "Most E mailed" section on their homepages? Other tabs could be "Most Blogged", "Most Read" and "Most Commented" concert pages, although Joe's Pub is the only presenter website I've seen that allows comments on their concert listings.

The New York Times Arts Section:

Pitchfork:

Perez Hilton dot com:

(It seems the most commmented posts on Perez Hilton are the ones with the most punctuation in their titles. A marketing thought for presenters? "Eric Owens at Carnegie Hall?!!!")

Couples Counseling

2008-12-01T01:37:35Z

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.

Scariest day ever

2008-11-28T14:45:04Z

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.

Let us review Lesson Eleven, paragraph two - axion seven

2008-11-26T16:07:34Z

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.

READ THIS NOW

2008-11-24T22:06:45Z

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".]

You want all my love, and my devotion

2008-11-24T16:52:20Z

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.

Talk to me about journalism school

2008-11-21T14:05:11Z

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!

How not to handle bad reviews/how to handle crazy people

2008-11-20T15:46:10Z

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."

If that's your girl you better watch your back

2008-11-20T04:59:45Z

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?

Perhaps most importantly, what do people ultimately have the bigger problem with: the fact that some sexy classical artists don't have the so-called "goods" to back the so-called "it" up, or the fact that some sexy classical artists are trying too hard to be just that.

Update 11/24 - for more on the same subject, see the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's Eddie Silva's piece on Playbill Arts dot com. Silva points out that journalists referencing sex(iness) in the context of an artist's playing achieves a kind of ideal: acknowledging that the artist is a trying to be attractive with their concert attire/general presence, but using that attitude/appearance to describe the actual music. See Anne Midgette's recent review of Hilary's NSO concert as an example:

Hahn then made her entrance in a black dress with decollete that reached nearly to her navel. I would not mention the soloist's dress had it not so well matched the piece she played, and the way she played it. On most women, that dress would have appeared provocative, vulgar; on Hahn it epitomized cool and classic elegance. By the same token, she took Paganini's showy and probably vulgar piece and treated it as if it were the finest music, and as if her prodigious feats of violin playing were all in its service.

Space heater-side chats

2008-11-18T18:09:59Z

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.

Good news for people who like confusing news

2008-11-18T05:22:44Z

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.

*(" ")

Disneyfication

2008-11-17T21:08:47Z

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.

The argument for digital-only releases

2008-11-12T16:16:50Z

I hauled this woolly mammoth of a shopping bag (CD to show scale) to the post office yesterday, only to be informed by a knowing piece of paper on the door that it was Veteran's Day, and the post was closed. Cue sad Charlie Brown music. I proceeded to take my mailing to dinner, at which point my friend kindly didn't comment on our third party.

Physical releases: The expense! The environment! My back!

What's the over-under on physical CD production, do we think? Five (ten?) years, and we're all digital, with special-edition physical releases only?

Everybody ought to have a blog

2008-11-12T03:55:46Z

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.

PSA from Gawker to Publicists

2008-11-11T20:56:12Z

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.