Classical concerts reaching fans via streaming video

14/06/2008 01:22

By Hazel Davis

LONDON (Billboard) - Classical festivals and orchestras are looking to webcasting to expand the genre’s audience for live performances.

Helping lead the way is Medici Arts, a Paris-based producer/distributor of performing arts recordings and videos. In 2007, Medici collaborated with Switzerland’s prestigious Verbier Festival, named after the ski resort where it takes place, to stream 30 concerts online at medici.tv. Such A-list artists as pianist Lang Lang and violinists Joshua Bell and Sarah Chang were among the featured performers.

Medici and Verbier are renewing their partnership for this year’s festival, which will be held July 18-August 3. The 2008 online program will feature streaming video of 32 concerts, including one live stream per day. Viewers will be able to watch the concerts for free for about two months after they are posted online. Since June 7, the Medici site has also made an archive of past concerts available for download purchase for between 5 and 9 euros (4 - 7 pounds) each.

"We have very good attendances and our major concerts always sell out very quickly, but there are plenty of people who can’t get tickets," festival managing director Kim Gaynor says. "This enables audiences in 173 countries to ’attend’ the festival."

According to the fest’s official report, .....continued below

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150,000 visitors from 173 countries watched more than 1 million video streams last year at medici.tv.

Gaynor says the festival doesn’t make any profit from the deal, adding that "it doesn’t cost us anything, either." She expects the model to shift to a pay-per-view format in the future. But for now, Gaynor is happy for the festival to be a pioneer in what she claims could be the future of the classical music concert business.

"We have had a huge amount of (coverage) in the international music press on account of being the first festival to embrace such technology," she says.

TAKING A CHANCE

Herve Boissiere, director of Medici TV and head of new media and DVD for Medici Arts International, won’t disclose the exact size of Medici’s initial investment in webcasting, but says it is "in excess of 500,000 euros."

Boissiere says the idea is yet to make real money, but he is confident it will pay off long-term.

"We are the pioneers, so we are taking a big risk," Boissiere says, "but there is money to be made from direct sales, sponsors, subscriptions and advertising, all of which we are investigating at the moment."

Medici has also broadcast a Berlin Philharmonic concert in Moscow and the New York Philharmonic’s widely publicized concert in Pyongyang, North Korea, in February.

New York Philharmonic director of new media Vince Ford says the technology is a great way to reach new audiences.

"It removes the mystery in terms of getting access to classical music," he says. "It’s like any new product; you don’t know what you don’t know, so it’s much easier to try online."

Ford says the New York Philharmonic is still working on its own webcasting business model, with pay-per-view, subscription and advertising-funded models all under consideration.

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