Doing their jobs

The recent announcement from the BBC about their upcoming broadcast of everything Bach wrote reminds me that — unaccountably —I never said anything about their free Beethoven downloads, which must be the most wildly successful classical music promotion I’ve ever heard of.

And it wasn’t just the downloads. They filled their website with Beethoven material, fascinating, readable stuff. They knew, in other words, how to create an event. And in fact they’ve been creating classical music events for a while now. We shouldn’t forget their ceremonial broadcast, with wide publicity, of John Cage’s 4’33” (the famous silent piece), or their Webern broadcasts, again with lots to read on their website.

But what about those classical record labels, bitching because the BBC gave away Beethoven free? In my view, that’s pathetic. Utterly pathetic. Beyond pathetic. The record labels don’t know how to sell Beethoven, so now they yell because someone found a way to get people interested — to do, in other words, the one crucial, fundamental thing the labels couldn’t figure out how to do themselves.

Instead of whining and moaning, the labels ought to learn from this. And the first thing to learn was that the BBC didn’t succeed simply by giving Beethoven away. It created an event. Sure, the fact of the free downloads (which by the way were available only for a strictly limited time) was an essential part of that event, but those alone wouldn’t have made much difference. I ask the record labels to look at themselves in the most merciless mirror they have, and ask themselves this question: If we had offered the free downloads, would anyone have paid attention? I strongly doubt it. The record labels don’t know how to create any buzz.

And so now, instead of bitching, they ought to piggyback on what the BBC has done. Let’s suppose they have Beethoven recordings in their catalogue (as of course they do), that they think are better than what the BBC offered — Beethoven symphonies conducted by Karajan, Szell, Roger Norrington, Osmo Vanska, name your favorite conductor. Why not promote these as downloads? Pick some famous movement, maybe the first movement of the Fifth Symphony. Sell it for 19 cents, with the rest of the symphony available at a discounted price to anyone who buys the first movement, and now wants the rest. Offer five versions of the first movement for $1, stressing how different they are, and how fascinating the differences can be. Offer subscriptions to Beethoven. All the symphonies conducted by Karajan, with one movement available each week. Even e-mailed, if you have broadband, and don’t mind the download time intruding on your e-mail. Or else all the symphonies conducted by different people, again so buyers can enjoy the contrast, with one movement made available each week.

Of course, then the record companies would have to figure out how to promote this. But they need to learn promotion anyway, and having something notable to promote — notable, that is, in ways people outside the classical music world would understand — would be a good way to start.