Streaming the Arts: ClassicalTV as the past, present and future

I’m a little bit of an opera nut. While other people my age are psyched for the release of Saw VI, I'm anxiously awaiting the Met HD broadcast of Tosca.That’s why I was so excited to find out about ClassicalTV, which makes full-length performances available for free. No more 10-minute-max YouTube clips—just grab a glass of wine, sit back, and watch all 4 hours of Tristan und Isolde! Launched in March of this year, ClassicalTV features opera, ballet, jazz, dance, classical music, and theatre performances. The 1100-hour library includes performances from such classical heavyweights as the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Royal Shakespeare Company, and London's Royal Opera House, as well as recitals and concerts from notable performers like Emma Kirby, Felicity Lott and Ramon Vargas and conductors like Kurt Masur, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Herbert von Karajan. The site also features blogs and informative articles about the videos and the arts in general.

Here's an example of one of their free offerings, a production of Gluck's Orphee et Eurydice at Paris' Theatre du Chatelet (after the opening advertisement):

One of the most fascinating things about the company’s story is its evolution. Its founding and re-emergence chronicles the evolution of streaming video itself. Founder Chris Hunt, a British film and television producer, launched the original site (then named “Online Classics”) in 2000, in the day of the 56k modem and sluggish download times, when the internet was still nicknamed "the information superhighway”.  Hunt describes the site’s early successes and struggles:

Interestingly, even though we had a terribly inadequate offering – users experienced frozen pictures and inadequate audio, among other issues – by the end of the year we had 750,000 people watching our streams.  That was a phenomenal number for the year 2000, since the reach of the internet was much less then.  However, we had to give up at a certain point and agree to wait for the technology and the infrastructure of the web to mature.

So, the demand was there in the early 2000's, but the technology could not yet produce the optimal experience. It makes me wonder how many start-ups were launched at time when the technology and the number of people on the internet simply did not make the business viable, and how many of those start-ups would be viable now. About three years ago, Hunt took up the idea again and after careful market research, decided to launch the site. Pam Meyer, Senior Vice-President of Business Development, thinks performing arts audiences are ready for the site now that they “finally have the technical capability to access long form video content , and are truly tired of watching short form clips of laughing babies and of dogs pretending they are cats on YouTube.”

Many of today's internet media companies face the challenge of how to turn a profit when there is so much free content out there. ClassicalTV handles this cleverly, charging no membership fee and offering the majority of the performances on the site for free, charging only the time it takes to watch a commercial at the beginning of the performance. The site also carries pay-per-view premium performances like Ballet Russes' The Rite of Spring, Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear and many Met titles. Price range from $5-$10 and are available to the viewer 72 hours after purchase.

In October, six months after the initial launch, there are still a few hitches. The Musicals and Theatre section are underdeveloped, although plans are underway to expand them. For arts organizations interested in having their works shown on ClassicalTV, Meyer had this to say:

We are interested in working with established arts organizations that have the rights to distribute completed videos of their performances. They can contact us through info@ClassicalTv.com if they have a completed and rights-cleared catalogue of video that is television quality. We rarely look at single one-off programs, unless they have exceptionally well known performers in them that we know our audience would enjoy.

As it is, new free and pay-per-view programs are released each week. But ClassicalTV is looking ahead. ClassicalTV perceives arts audiences demanding more from their online experiences. When asked what audiences will be demanding five years down the line, Meyer said:

I can tell you that we already find that performing arts enthusiasts demand high quality, a large library to choose from and are watching longer and longer formats. In the near future I think the introduction of web ready TV sets will be disruptive and one of many "leapfrog" experiences where the consumer leaps right over their PC as a common platform to the TV. Imagine being able to watch, in your living room, a streaming Met Opera in HD with your family on your TV. As well, we expect to see a lot of high end material hitting the mobile phones which are just starting to stream long form material.

Prepare ye the way for the digital season brochure

The season brochure, that bastion of quadruple-proofed specialty paper that brings in a cache of new subscribers every year, has officially gone digital. And not just a PDF with an embedded link to the box office page. Oh no. With sound clips. And conductor interviews. As you may have gathered, I was recently delighted to discover London Symphony Orchestra's online season brochure. When I first saw it, it struck me that this is probably what symphony orchestras have dreamed of doing since the inception of the season brochure—that in the first season brochure meeting, the marketers were essentially thinking, “how can we put the experience of our symphony on paper?”

Here it is—not on paper. And with all the interactivity that an orchestra marketer dreams about.

It’s sleek, wonderfully interactive and will certainly grab the reader’s attention… but will it sell tickets? That’s the new question marketers must ask themselves with every shiny new social media tool that comes along. An online season brochure is something a customer must seek out on the organization website. (Isn’t getting them there half the battle anyway?) The traditional season brochure comes to them through the carefully orchestrated efforts of the marketing department. So, which version will result in more ticket sales? And more importantly, will the time and effort spent on the digital brochure be worth it?

So here's a funny question to ask on a technology blog: Is direct mail dying? There's more and more evidence that it's not. When I began my career in arts marketing, I thought this was a rhetorical question; my initial impulse was to say yes, letters, postcards, etc. are going the way of the newspaper. But I quickly learned the usefulness of direct mail: the spike in season ticket sales after the renewal mailing went out, the power of a reminder postcard for “pick 3” subscribers, and more. People still respond to direct mail, at least, arts patrons do. Maybe they just like the feel of the specialty paper. But maybe it’s something more.

In this technology-driven multitasking world, it all comes down to one question: What will keep our patrons' attention?

Many arts orgs still send renewals/season brochures through the mail, as they have for years. Arts marketers have conditioned them to expect a thick packet or glossy pamphlet in the early part of the year with an incentive deadline. But what if we changed that? If we sent an email directing them online to look at a brochure and/or renew online, would it be as successful? I would think not. They won't have a context for it, and so many of those emails won't be read.

According to The Non-Profit Times, if a non-profit arts org sends an email, it very optimistically has a 20% chance of being opened. Maybe 5% of total recipients will actually click through to see your wonderful interactive creation. (These stats are older, so if it follows the current trend, we can safely assume it will be lower.) Or, to put it from one individual's perspective, here’s how it works in my inbox: the message enters the daily deluge of emails that I may or may not tag to read. If I have time within the first day I receive it, I read it; otherwise, it slowly makes its way to the netherworld of "older" emails in the inbox, never to be heard from again. I find myself becoming increasingly immune to email appeals, and it seems to be proportionate to the number and length of emails sent by the organization. Same thing with social media "white-noise"--the more I have to read, the less I want to read.

On the other hand, if the arts org sends a renewal packet or season brochure in the mail, the situation is different. If they have been a subscriber for a while, they know what it is and what to do. The single-ticket buyer or first-year subscriber might think the brochure looks interesting and they'll read it or put it in the mail pile. The difference is, people eventually go through their mail pile, and will probably do so sooner than cleaning out their inbox, when the brochure is still somewhat relevant. Furthermore, so many commercial organizations have gone paperless that, at least for me, it's a treat to get something in the mail that's not a bill, especially if it's cool and artsy-looking. I'm less likely to throw it in the trash.

Bottom line: A paper brochure is something that sticks around. Something that a single ticket buyer can grab at the theatre to see what's coming up. Something arts marketers can hand out at arts fairs to people who don't even know the organization exists. It is for these reasons that I believe that the season brochure will not go completely paperless for a very long time.

Feedback, please! I’m interested to hear your experiences with online brochures and renewals.

(sidenote: Sophie, the online multimedia book publishing software featured at the National Summit for Arts Journalism Friday, releases version 2.0 next Thursday. It might be a tool worth looking in for those considering creating a digital season brochure. There are also several videos of other interesting mergings of technology and arts journalism/publishing on the summit's website.)

The Future of Arts Journalism is Here... Maybe

Worried about your local arts critics being cut? How about the impending demise of your local paper? Don’t worry; the future is here! Last week the USC Annenberg School for Communication announced five projects that will present at The National Summit on Arts Journalism. The School put out an open call for projects that represent the future of arts journalism. The five winning projects will be announced at the conference on October 2 and another five made the cut to present:

• Sophie: A new authoring tool for multimedia developed by the Institute for Multimedia Literacy that suggests new possibilities for presenting critical response.
• The Indianapolis Museum of Art: With its Art Babble and Dashboard, the IMA is an example of a cultural institution extending its reach into areas that have traditionally been the province of journalism.
• InstantEncore.com: An example of an aggregator attempting to gather up everything about an art form (in this case classical music) and making it accessible in one place.
• NPR Music: An example of a traditional big media company that is reinventing itself across platforms. NPR Music blurs the lines between journalism, curation, presenting and producing.
• Gazette Communications, Cedar Rapids Iowa: An example of a local media company trying to reinvent the idea of what it considers news and how it might be gathered and presented to a local community.

I, for one, find it incredibly encouraging that journalists are finding new paths to write about the arts in the face of the layoffs and budget cuts. As the newspaper industry struggles, the first cost-cutting measures always seem to involve pulling more things from the wire and less local reporting.  Many of us in the arts industry have felt the burn from the epidemic of local arts critic firings from major papers, or conversion to a part-time or freelance status. In turn, people find it less satisfying to read the paper as these local writers are cut and circulation decreases further as more people choose to go online to read wire reporting rather than pay for it in paper form. In an effort to save themselves, it seems as though the papers are cutting the very thing that makes them a viable business model.

So how does this decrease in arts journalism affect your local arts organizations? Arts orgs lose out in two major ways: 1) One of their advertising mainstays becomes less effective as less potential performance /exhibit-goers see the orgs' ad in print and 2) as more critics are cut from newspaper payrolls, coverage of arts events is decreased. Since reviews and articles are typically a great revenue generator, arts orgs find themselves hurting for objective reporting and distribution that their own blog doesn’t quite cover. But through the Summit, the search is on for the new model of profitability in this brave new paperless, everything-free-and-now world.

However, the Summit is tellingly vague on what that could mean. Especially interesting was the note about viable business models on the USC site:

"We had noted on the submission form that we were interested in viable business models. Admittedly, the definition of what constitutes a business model these days is unclear. Strictly speaking, an operation that relies on donated labor and sweat equity has yet to find a sustainable business model. A project that relies solely on philanthropic contributions also has no business model in a strict sense. What we're looking for, therefore, is not so much a commercial business plan but some indications of long-term operational viability."

I’d like to echo that question above-- what is a viable business model anymore? The situation with newspapers has gotten so desperate, some are saying non-profit status is the way to go.  But companies like Facebook are relying more on “ownership” of the social media market to determine their company’s value, rather than real revenue.  So what hope does that leave these start-ups? Can they hope to go national, or international? It seems like a near-impossible task to take “ownership” of the information of thousands of arts organizations. Unlike many other forms of journalism, arts journalism seems confined to being primarily local, because of the limitations of a performance or an exhibit. To report on a play, the writer has to be at a theatre at a specific time. There’s not really a good way to get around that. Because of this, many of the projects are confined to a specific city or state. The national sites face the additional problem of collecting these local voices into one comprehensive site (InstantEncore seems to do an impressive job with this).

No matter which sector of the arts you work in, this is definitely an area to keep an eye on. On October 2, you can stream a satellite summit live and participate via text or Twitter if you contact summitinfo@najp.org or register here.

A Social Network Apart

Last week Ning announced its new platform for apps. If you are unfamiliar with Ning, it's a service that allows users to create new social networking sites. And, as the white noise generated by the rapidly growing mass of internet users threatens to overpower the individual voice, this may be just the change that an organization needs to break out of the Facebook Group Box. Where is your target audience, and how can your organization stand out when everything that seems most popular is very formulaic? Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? Somewhere else? Can you really tell how effective it is, or is your voice getting lost with all the others chattering away on those networks?

As I grow weary of the same-old same-old, I am finding Ning to be very refreshing. It does, however, pose its unique challenges.

The great thing about Ning is that it is customizable, interesting--all the personality of a website with all of the interactivity of a social network! It's like Wordpress, but with members in a community at large. It feels more encouraging, urging members to communicate with one another without as much moderation.

There are downsides, though. A Ning site is one more thing to maintain, and one more place that your audience (fans/followers) has to go. They must be cultivated more actively because the Ning community is not as widespread as that of Facebook. And, if your "people" are hanging out on Twitter or Facebook, do they want to join another community? Will they be less likely to interact because they are already consumed with their activities on the sites that Everyone Else is on?

I am on Ning, and am beginning to delve into the vast array of social networks afforded by my free membership. I find it takes a little more attention and investment than my Facebook time, but I also think that my Ning social networking experience is more varied and engaging. I keep thinking of ways that organizations, artists, could bond together by region on a social network, sharing upcoming events, sharing audiences, and generally cross-pollinating. I'd love to hear about your thoughts and experiences.

Tech Planning for Arts Managers: A Nuts and Bolts Webinar on Implementing Technology at Your Organization

On September 2nd Brad Stephenson, host of the popular monthly Technology in the Arts podcast, will lead a new webinar entitled ”Technology Planning for Arts Managers”. Designed to meet the needs of today’s arts managers, this workshop will focus on ways in which arts managers can use technology to best meet their missions and goals. Stephenson, the former Director of Projects and Marketing for the Center of Arts Management and Technology, worked closely with numerous organizations who wanted to find the best technological tools to improve their efficiency.  He "helped these organizations with a number of things, including the evaluation of technology vendors, the design and development of web-based marketing and development tools and the selection of software and hardware products."

Organizations commonly make some mistakes that actually impede the organization/technology synergy.  Too often Stephenson witnessed organizations either failing to align their technology with strategic plan, or worse, failing to develop a strategic plan at all.  Without a plan, there is no way to guide technological decisions in a way that will best serve an organization.  Additionally, organizations often failed to do research--such as calling similar organizations to get thoughts on the tech tools that were of most use to them.

Stephenson strongly believes that an organization that fails to plan for technology is "committing a major arts management sin," one which may compromise the organization's mission and unwisely drain resources: "Everyone on staff doesn't get an iPhone just because they're cool."  Stephenson has designed this workshop to coach organizations through the process of integrating technology into an organization's operations.  "Tech projects are really no different from other projects within an organization.  You still use the same basic project management approach to building a new website as you would producing a new play.  One of the best ways to start any new tech planning process or technology project is to ensure that you have buy-in from everyone on your staff."  Meeting resistance?  Stephenson will discuss ways to address such resistance during the September 2 webinar.

In today’s climate it is necessary for arts managers to understand technology and its application within their organizations. While it’s easy to say “integrate technology into your organization,” in practice it can be overwhelming. This workshop provides a step-by-step examination of an effective technology planning process, coupled with an overview of the major technology concepts with which arts managers should be comfortable. Participants will gain an understanding of three key concepts:

1. Creating a technology plan for your organization or project 2. Analyzing your current environment to make efficient use of existing technology and effectively target resources 3. Making the right technology choices through proven evaluation methods

To register for the webinar, and for more information, please visit the link below. Technology Planning for Arts Managers September 2, 2009 2:00pm – 3:30pm Eastern Register today for $25.00

Non-Technical Difficulties: Unions Block Online Stream of Live Theater Performance

The "boys" of PICT's "The History Boys."  Photo courtesy of PICT.

In 2006 Stephanie Riso, Operations Director of the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater (PICT), recognized the limitations that performance space imposed on ticket sales for her popular Cabaret Pittsburgh project. She considered ways to expand the audience of the musical revue without finding a new location or having to take the show on the road, and landed on the possibilites afforded by internet streaming.

Riso discovered that, with the exception of the Kennedy Center's free online performances of Millennium Stage musical acts, there was no precedent for streaming live performance online. With fellow Carnegie Mellon alumnus Alex Geis, and his company 21 Productions, Riso developed a live stream for Pittsburgh Cabaret.   Upon seeing that "the (sound and video) quality was amazing, "  she determined that she could use this technology to live stream PICT's theater productions.

“PICT’s long-term goal is to create a new revenue stream that will help to sustain the organization and live theatre into the future," explains Riso. Like so many theaters, PICT is small, limited by region and budget, and cannot tour under the Actors Equity SPT contract. So Riso conceived LIPLO™ (for "Live In Person and Live Online"), a hub where tickets could be sold to online streams of live performances and watched in real time.  What was once just a dream of live theatrical streaming is -- almost -- a reality.

"Online presents great promise to theatres, but only if there is something worth watching; no one goes to a theatre website to ‘hang out’ and read about the upcoming shows. They go to the website simply to get the necessary information so they can attend a performance if they happen to live in that city. But, if there is a place online where a person can go and be entertained with a high quality experience – that changes the conversation and opens up potential ad revenue and customers/patrons,” explains Riso.

Last Saturday was to be PICT's inaugural, open-to-the-public, free  LIPLO™ test stream (of PICT's production of Alan Bennett's "The History Boys").  Unfortunately, with less than a week to go, AEA and AFTRA could not agree on contract terms, and Riso had to pull the plug on the stream.   "[W]e had secured the rights from Alan Bennett (the author) plus Fox, who owns the film, new media and broadcast rights – which was a very big deal. . . .Knowing that Actors Equity would be the biggest obstacle, I approached them in February 2009 to start the conversation.  Their initial email response was that at the time they were not giving permission for actors to participate in live streaming.  However, upon further conversations with their filming and taping department they encouraged me to talk with AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and were completely open to the possibility – although Actors Equity kept stating they would likely expect 2 weeks contractual salary for the actors plus rehearsal which seemed out of sorts with the proposed free trial project.  When AFTRA finally negotiated a favorable conclusion and all actors agreed, Actors Equity backed off and was not willing to move forward."

Riso is now caught in a Catch-22 in which she cannot have a bargaining conversation with the unions about money without data collected from test runs--which cannot proceed until the unions agree to allow the stream.

Provided the unions agree to allow LIPLO™ to proceed, theaters around the world may be able to implement this technology to expand their audiences. This may prove a popular method for watching theater, and precisely the tool that performing arts need to find new ways to make money and raise awareness of the art. Once the unions can get on the same page, "the only thing that stands in the way from any organization using LIPLO™ is whether or not the organization has the permission or right from the author, actor, designer, etc to live stream the work."  If organizations are interested in implementing LIPLO™, the LIPLO™ team would "adjudicate the organizations and their work prior to acceptance within LIPLO™ to ensure there is a level of expertise and quality for the LIPLO™ audience."  Following that, LIPLO™ has an all-inclusive team that would work with the organizations to put their work online.

Though Riso is confident that the technical components of the stream are dependable (it has undergone at least 15 trials without a hitch, and Geis will be online for every stream to troubleshoot viewers' problems via messenger), additional details rely on feedback from viewers of what were to have been three practice streams (including "The History Boys," PICT has streams planned for each of their season's final productions).  For example, would viewers prefer a single or multiple camera feed?  Is Paypal the best way to sell tickets to online streaming?  Would the tickets be priced lower than in-life tickets?  How will advertisers most effectively be placed during the stream? Will advertisers be local or could they be national and international?  And most importantly, will this truly reach a new viewing demographic?

It is this writer's hope that the unions recognize the need to update contracts to open the possibility of alternative methods of viewing live theater.  It increases exposure for all the artists involved in a show, and greater exposure could lead to greater demand for the artists.  The  tools are in place to expand audiences beyond the Baby Boomers, and hits the Millennials, and even Gen-Xers, where they live--online.  In theory LIPLO™ is the perfect marriage of technology and art, and could do what simply expanding or altering marketing approaches may not: it could get new people watching live theater.

To view Riso's Quicktime community address, and to read additional information, including her request for supporters to contact these unions, visit the LIPLO™ website and follow the simple log-in procedure.

Update: AEA refused to discuss the matter with me.  Spokesperson Maria Somma replied, "As you may have read in the media, Actors' Equity Association will not comment on the situation in question."

One Route, Two Guides — Part 2: Marc van Bree's "Orchestras and New Media"

Marc van Bree has published an impressive and free forty-five page (plus bibliography and succinct glossary) ebook called "Orchestras and New Media: A Complete Guide".  I emphatically encourage anyone working with arts and non-profits to read his ebook. Though van Bree's experience is specifically with classical music and orchestras, his ebook is not for that audience alone. Rather, is the most comprehensive and interesting social media guide that I have read. Van Bree does not claim to be a social media expert, despite his long-time successful use of it, and his recommendations and guidelines for social media are supported by research and commentary from others in the field. He does not merely tell you what to do, he writes things like "How has social networking changed our communication?" and then answers this question with evidence from independent studies.

"Although the number and variety of arts organizations has increased, the percentage of adults participating in the arts has remained flat," writes van Bree.  The first 11 pages of this guide are a fascinating and well-researched analysis of the arts and the arts' representation in printed media, and the struggle that the arts face in generating new audiences.  With excerpts from a variety of studies, publications, others in the field, and projects, he establishes a context in which to place non-profit social media. "If blogs are an alternative to print media, podcasts are the alternative to radio and television."

Van Bree not only discusses the various forms that social media can take, his guide is part history lesson, part handbook, and completely engaging. He examines all of the major American players, from Facebook to Flickr, and suggests others that might be of use on an international platform. Van Bree also illustrates their use with true anecdotes that are at times cautionary, encouraging, amusing, and most of all show what is possible by NPO arts organizations using social media.

If you are new to social media, you may want a very basic, "Step One: Do This" approach--but I strongly recommend you take the time to read van Bree's guide. He does not neglect to explain the principles and common practices that users of the social media tools follow, and even discusses how you can measure the results of your efforts.

This guide has it all, is a pleasure to read, and paints a broader picture of what it is, exactly, that NPOs may accomplish with social media.

One Route, Two Guides -- Part 1: Rebecca Coleman's "Getting Started"

"Signpost" by JMC Photos

With social media have come social media experts--usually self-taught, who have learned what works because they have done it themselves. As more organizations turn to these explorers to lead the way, it seems natural that the pathfinders would begin to document what they have learned to enable information dispersal.

Rebecca Coleman, a successful theater publicist in Canada, has released a social media instructional that she conceived for "artists or arts organizations that see the value in participating in social media, but are unsure about how to begin." "Getting Started with Social Networking for Artists and Arts Organizations: A Guide to Creating a Marketing Plan Using Social Media," is one part marketing basics, one part "what's what" encyclopedia of the tools available, with a dash of strategizing tools in a "get you thinking" worksheet series. Turning a self-described "hobby" of theater promotion into a full-time job led to Coleman's slow "foray into Social media. I think that’s the way to go. I started by joining Facebook, then about a year later I started blogging as a guest on someone else’s blog. After nearly a year of that, I started my own blog, and began Twittering. I took all of that experience and put it into my book. It’s like a shortcut. " Her e-book, which she is marketing almost exclusively online, is a great tool for beginners. For those who find the prospect of figuring social media out daunting (let's face it, many of us have spent a good bit of time in conferences, webinars, reading blogs and just getting hands-on experience in order to get comfortable with navigating the social media waters, and it can be exhausting), this e-book does a great job of putting it all in one place. Coleman obviously writes from experience, focusing on what she thinks is important based on her own adventures. But, for those of us who don't consider ourselves novices, it is more likely to be a reference than something providing new insights and information.

The strengths of Coleman's book are her meticulous detail (though this may also be overwhelming to a social media novice) and her integration of true marketing components. She reviews fundamentals of marketing and explains how Web 2.0 can enhance the marketing experience. Her own experience, moving into social media after already having a strong and successful offline presence, may not reflect that of her readers, who may be struggling arts organizations hoping that by integrating social media into their marketing plans they will turn their frustrations around. I think that this is where the marketing emphasis may assist companies that might otherwise spin their wheels into the ground.

"(Social media) requires time to create and maintain, which can be a huge challenge for many underfunded, understaffed arts organizations. But this is where having a plan can really help." This belief manifests as the most interactive, arts-geared component in the guide: a series of worksheets at the end of the e-book that take the reader and prospective social media user through a process of reflection and planning.

Coleman is passionate about what she has created, and though the arts are her forte, this guide is certainly one that would be useful for non-artistic small and financially-strapped businesses. I couldn't resist picking Coleman's brain to see what she felt successful use of social media is, at the end of the day. Her guide is a great start, but what would she consider being the best result?

Coleman: For me, successful social media is: engaging your audience or potential audience, one-to-one being able to solve problems for your audience/potential audience creating an online community that is supportive and passionate about the same things you are and, yes, selling tickets! For example, if you are having a slow night, reservations are low, send out a Tweet or a message to your Facebook fan group saying that the first 20 people that show up at the door and say a secret password get in for half-price. Sure, you’re selling tickets at a discount, but at least you are getting people in through the door. And word of mouth is always your best form of marketing!

By having it in electronic form, she ensures that any updates can be made to keep the guide current and relevant for its readers. But because she is marketing it almost exclusively online, she must rely on a lot of real-world word-of-mouth to get the truly "untechnological" to take note. Because Coleman is the first to admit that real-world relationships and online relationships reflect and enhance one another, I suspect that people who find her e-book online will have heard about it from her obviously supportive offline network.

A final thought from Coleman: I think a lot of people find it very challenging to make the shift from the old ways to new media. I often see people trying to graft old media ideas onto new media. You can’t just send a press release to a blogger. I mean, you can, but the press release will carry a lot more weight if the blogger knows that you have been reading their blog, and are familiar with them. Social media is about personal relationships. In the past, I think we maybe have hidden a bit behind “the business model.” . . .Our audiences want to see the face behind the company. That’s what’s interesting and compelling—the people who are pouring their passion into these art projects. In my experience, passion is attractive, and will get people in through the door.

Where There's Hope, There's Profit

We got pretty excited over here today about the launch of the new Facebook Actions Application by Grassroots Enterprises. Just think! An application for your cause that does the following: -Your visitors can instantly email Legislators from your FB page -You can promote a fast way to "Take Action" on your page or in other emails and status updates -Your visitors can quickly pass the word on to their friends -And more.

This application could be invaluable to organizations (like all those here in PA waiting, with bated breath, to find out whether or not Arts funding will be completely eradicated from the state budget) to urge their followers to quickly and easily contact their legislators.

As you can imagine, I was disappointed to learn (via other Twitterers sad lamentations of it being "sadly out of our range") that an organization wishing to add this exciting innovation to their Facebook page would pay $3000 to start, with a monthly charge of $250.*

As you know, I am all for people profiting from their hard work. In earlier posts I have railed against organizations expecting work for free, companies wanting art at no charge, and the pressure to enter into that trading system. BUT--that's a LOT of money to most of us. Especially when you consider this is AIMED at non-profits and organizations, most of whom are using Facebook precisely to try to cut some of our online operating costs.

I was really looking forward to talking up a great new low-cost addition to getting the word out about non-profits arts causes. Sorry 'bout that.

*Caveat: I have contacted Grassroots Enterprises and perhaps they will inform me that there are different pricing structures for various sized organizations. I look forward to bringing you further news about this.

Tech + Art + Mobile + Money = A New Hope for Artists and NPOs?

START Mobile offers 18 Mobile Art Galleries

Wouldn't it be great if you could spend a small amount of money to get something cool, and at the same time both support an artist AND the non-profit that supports them?

For example, you could hop on iTunes and look up your favorite museum, your alma mater, your child’s school, your favorite ballet company, and download a gallery of images relating to or by the organization. You could purchase it for less than a buck, and pat yourself on the back for making a donation (when really you were just buying something for yourself).

Thanks to START Mobile, that possibility is rapidly becoming a reality.

Started in 2005, START Mobile’s mission, as described by founder and CEO John Doffing, is to bring “NEW ART to the mobile medium. From the beginning, our vision was one of 'Art for Everyone & Art for Everywhere.’” At the moment, START Mobile is "a bootstrapped startup" that has launched 18 mobile galleries for the iPhone, including one which contains Shepard Fairey's now-controversial Obama image, and promises to launch applications for other platforms in the next few months.

“Technology can facilitate a lot of outside the box thinking relative to the marketing, ownership and appreciation of fine art, and this is a significant part of what START Mobile is trying to accomplish," says Doffing. "[I]t introduces a decidedly egalitarian ethos into an art world that has become inaccessible to the vast majority of potential art lovers.”

A longtime advocate of the arts, Doffing also founded San Francisco's START SOMA Gallery and the Painted Rooms at the Hotel des Artes. He is fierce in his conviction that artists retain the rights to the work that START Mobile licenses, and that they be paid for their work. "There is no charge to the artists that we work with to 'mobilize' their content," explains Doffing. "ALL our artists receive the same commission (and this goes for ALL our art projects): 50% of our net. Or about 10 times what is typically paid to artists to license their work. How much can they make? Depends entirely on how many are sold!"

Apple charges 99¢ for an individual to download one of START Mobile’s artist galleries (a gallery contains multiple images) onto an individual’s iPhone. Apple makes 29¢ off the sale, and the remaining 70¢ is equally split between START Mobile and the artist. Thus, the artist is paid every time anyone, anywhere, downloads the gallery.

Doffing again stepped "outside the box" when he approached Kathy Hanlon Sampon, art teacher at his alma mater, Wisconsin’s Catholic Memorial High School, whose art department was struggling for funds. “During our talks, we discussed [the CMHS art] department’s progress in digital media,” explains Hanlon Sampon. “Since [Doffing] was already developing the program for the app, it would be easy (relatively speaking) to drop our students' work into one of his programs and make it available to the general public – worldwide.”

Hanlon Sampon chose the work that would be included in the CMHS Gallery, digitized the pieces, sent them to Doffing, and START Mobile did the rest--including donating all revenue to the CMHS art department (CMHS is a Catholic non-profit organization). But Hanlon Sampon appreciates more than financial benefits, and says her students now "understand much more about marketing of artwork, the prospect of global visibility, PR, and how technology can be used to not only create art but also to share it.”

START Mobile subsequently released the Pride Gallery by artist Samala (START Mobile Creative Director Christina Samala), who donated her work to raise money to NPO The Courage Campaign. As with CMHS, START Mobile gives 100% of revenue to the Courage Campaign. Though in neither case do the artists directly profit from their work being used, the implications of START Mobile undertaking a project like this are huge.

At this time START Mobile would not be able to sustain itself if every gallery operated like the CMHS and Pride mobile galleries. But perhaps there are artists that would collaborate with non-profits for an equal share of the traditional revenue of 35¢ (after START Mobile takes its cut). START Mobile could become the go-to company for arts organizations wishing to make some money for themselves, the artists, and increase exposure. Galleries could have mobile shows, private schools around the world could have a program like CMHS’s (perhaps public schools could get in on the action if the profits went toward the Booster Club, or were differently packaged). Doffing's long-term goal is "to get our business stable enough that we can do a few dozen apps each month for non-profits that our team supports."

Doffing is optimistic about the potential for artists and organizations to really profit from the galleries, though START Mobile doesn't release sales figures. "If we can manage to crack the top 100 apps in our category on iTunes, sales numbers increase by an order of magnitude. . .There are currently quite a few iPhone wallpaper applications available via iTunes that are selling several thousand units globally per day at 99¢ each - generating several thousand dollars a day in revenue."

"When the CMHS iphone app started getting some press, we received inquiries from around the world wanting to do something similar, representing everything from art museums to non-profits to high school and college art departments. We don't have the resources to do them all, and I have been talking to some folks about automating the process so we can just launch as many of these things as possible [in the future]."

His enthusiasm is contagious, and his positive outlook gives me hope for all of us who have been lamenting the sacrifices that both artists and non-profits make daily. When I told him that I believe many people, like myself "would love the opportunity to support favorite organizations AND get nice wallpaper AND support artists," his reply made me smile:

"Mobile + small-dollar transactions + application model for content delivery enables this for the first time EVER. Pretty exciting."

Yes, it is.

And Now for Something Completely Different

I thought I'd share some of the interesting, and hopefully heartening, things that I have come across recently and wanted to share. (Please note, I am not endorsing any of the services or products herein.) Talenthouse, an online networking tool for artists from many disciplines, encouraging exposure, collaboration, and audience engagement globally. (Thanks to Dana Oshiro at ReadWriteWeb for the tip)

Start Mobile whose Art for Everyone iPhone wallpaper art has been used to benefit non-profit organizations. (A more in-depth story to come)

Tele_Trust, a piece by artistic duo Lancelmaat (with the technical development of V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media), uses technology to analyze real-life socialization (instead of moving socializing onto a virtual platform). Though authorities have been alarmed by the full-body cloak, filled with sensors and circuitry, it's a neat reminder of how "in our changing social eco-system we increasingly demand transparency; while at the same time we increasingly cover our vulnerable bodies with personal communication-technology."

And much thanks to NTEN for highlighting this: iWith's third annual photo competition, "Documenting the Digital Divide."

Google Local Business Center - A Great Free Tool

Thanks to Webware's item about Google's Local Business Center--it got my gears turning on how to effectively use a great free tool for arts organizations. As a Google girl (it's my current search engine of choice, but I'm giving Bing a shot), it brings to mind the number of times that I have attempted to find a gallery or theater by searching the web.

But for YOU, the lister, Google has added a slew of new dashboard tools that could prove very useful free feedback. With the new Local Business Center, the lister is provided insight into who is out there searching for their organization, and how much information they want. For example, does the person just look up the map? Find the number? Check out the website?

This could be very useful for arts organizations to gather more data about audience location, the amount of information that those using the web desire, and tailor marketing to target these audiences.

And yes, it's FREE.

Open Source (reading recommendation)

Came across Holly's post about Open Source. It's definitely worth a read if you haven't seen it already, and be sure to check out the ensuing comments. It's a really interesting discussion that I highly recommend.

Arts Video Site

I've been wanting to write something about this site for a while now, but I've had a hard time figuring out what exactly to say about it beyond just describing what it is, who's involved, and what they do.

ArtBabble is more than just another collection of videos about art.  Each video comes with a sidebar of notes and more information that the viewer can dive into in order to explore more aspects of what the video is presenting.  At times this sidebar can be a distraction, and other times can lend more depth to something like an Art21 video about Jenny Holzer that you've seen a few times.

The bulk of the videos come from MoMA, SFMoMA, Art21, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The New York Public Library, and the Smithsonian.  By and large, the content is geared towards the art novice, but there are some incredibly poignant videos for arts managers on the site, like the Museums and the Web 2009 video posted below.

So far my favorite video series has been the Behind the Scenes at the MoMA, but all of the videos I've watched are really high quality and very informative.

In an Update, last night ArtBabble won a Gold Muse award from the AAM for best online presence.

Really Alternative Exhibition Spaces

Deviating from my usual blog posts about new technology's influence on the Art world, today I would like to talk about alternative exhibition spaces and some of the issues surrounding Marketing escalation.

I've mentioned in the past that the Younger than Jesus crowd has a general disdain for excessive marketing and that we simply do not like being sold to.  We Tivo the shows we want to watch to remove the adds, and we employ as many add-ons as we can install into our web browsers to reduce the amount of online advertising we are subjected to.  We have a certain amount of immunity to advertising, our eyes glaze over and we cease to pay attention to billboards, print adds, junk mail, spam, pop ups, and recently even most viral marketing has become groan worthy.

Some marketing companies like NPA outdoor have been upping the ante by advertising on billboards that are erected without permits.  An intrepid group of artists took it upon themselves this past weekend to appropriate 120 of the over 500 illegal NPA outdoor owned billboards as alternative exhibition spaces.  Some amazing images, and more information about the project Here, and Here. This project is a really interesting look at the debate over public space, and the ubiquity of advertising.

Not to say that there aren't innovative and interesting marketing campaigns out there.  This add, for instance, probably sold more Cat Power and David Bowie songs on Itunes than it did Lincoln MKS's.  (on a side note, if anyone knows where to find the full version of this cover, please post it in the comments) And this one shows how versatile Vimeo is more than it inspires me to buy a Honda Insight.

One thing that all of these projects, and even some of these advertisements point out is that there is still a deep appreciation for art out there, which bodes well for those of us making a living in the art world.

Does this make you think of how you can approach marketing an arts organization differently?

The MoMA recently received some blow back by hiring The Happy Corp to "mashup" their subway advertising campaign.  But were their intentions in the right place?

Let us know what you think.

New Media Opportunities part 2

This time it's Personal

Last Wednesday I touched upon four readily available social platforms that Arts Organizations can use to maintain relationships with their audiences.  Today we'll look at some more online tools that may have been overlooked.

Linked In:

LinkedIn is a professional social network that allows you to connect with peers in the field.  Much like Facebook, organizations are able to create a LinkedIn Group with the ability to post discussion topics and aggregate blog posts into the News Feed.  However, your audience within LinkedIn is generally different than your audience in Facebook.  This also means that the content and tone of your discussion posts should be differentiated as well.  Your Facebook fans will generally consist of audience members and people interested in your organization, where as LinkedIn will primarily consist of professionals in the field.  Discussion topics will be more focused on the day to day nuts and bolts of the organization, and it provides a good platform to ask questions like,

"I had a question for folks working within arts organizations.  What ticketing software are you using? Are you satisfied with your solution? Thanks!"

Google Alerts:

Depending upon the size of your organization, it may be a good idea to set up some Google Alerts that keyword search for articles about your organization, and artists or performances that you are presenting.  It is a really convenient method of gathering information about what is being said about your organization online, and alerts are available as an email or via an RSS Feed.

Flickr/Youtube:

These are a bit obvious, but some arts organizations still are not taking advantage of these two media sharing sites.  Keeping up with a Youtube channel can be quite a bit of work for an arts organization, especially if you are trying to maintain a constant stream of new videos to keep your audience engaged.  However, by releasing videos that revolve around a significant event such as a performance or opening it can be more of a one time thing.  There is a great article about the marketing power of video Here.  I feel like The Soap Factory in Minneapolis has done an excellent  job producing videos that grab the audience's attention without giving away too much.   Flickr is also a great way to present images of events and performances online, and allow your audience to tag and upload their images of your organization as well.

Last.fm:

Ok, so Last.fm, ILike, and Pandora are relatively in the same boat when it comes to social networked internet radio sites, but Last.fm seems to be the most popular (this week).  Users are able to create profiles that allow them to search for friends and groups that may have the same taste in music and create personalized "stations" and playlists that others can listen to and discover.

Orchestras are able to claim their profile on Last.fm, post basic information about the organization and upload music that listeners will be able to stream online.  Your organization will also be able to set up a group much in the same way as Facebook and LinkedIn, that will allow your fans to participate in discussion and comment about your organization.

This is also a great forum to post information about upcoming concerts and events.  Users are notified about events based on their proximity to the venue, and you can add direct links to ticketing sites.  This site isn't just for Orchestras and indi rock bands, if your arts organization hosts performances during openings and other events it may be a good idea to start a profile, and post event information about the artists that will be playing your event.

More More More:

This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything that is out there.  There are an innumerable amount of social networks cropping up specifically for artists.  For instance, Peter Vikstrom commented on Wednesday's post about Cultgrid, which I haven't had the chance to explore fully, but looks like an good performing arts social network.  There are Blogs such as the SITI group blog that are an excelent source for information pertaining to performing arts.  And this awesome thing called CrowdFire, that just boggles the mind.

If you have come across a valuable source of information or an interesting social network pertaining to the arts, please feel free to leave a link in the comments below.

Performing Arts' New Media Opportunities part 1 of 2

As traditional print media's coverage of performing arts and the arts in general continues to decline and audiences across the board start to adopt social networking sites, it may be time for your organization to strongly consider updating your website and starting to utilize a new set of tools to get the word out about your organization.

I realize that I may be preaching to the choir at this point, and other people have recently addressed this, mainly due to the release of Global Faces and Networked Places A Nielsen report on Social Networking’s New Global Footprint earlier this month.  The report shows that social networking has now surpassed Email usage, and is currently the fastest growing sector of online use.  This demonstrates how drastically the way that people are using the web is changing.  It is moving from an information based, Google search oriented "Super phone book" to more of a community that relies upon members for word of mouth updates about events and information.

This means that the reasons people are visiting your organization's website are shifting from trip planning (directions, hours of operation, finding a place to eat/hotel) to engagement and becoming involved with the real life community centered around your brick and mortar building.

So, everyone is utilizing these social networking platforms to stay informed about their day to day lives, which creates some opportunities to get your organization's message across above the din of traditional marketing and the other media that is out there.

I'm going to briefly outline a few of these tools and how your organization may be able to utilize them to inform your target audience, as well as maintain healthy relationships with your existing community.

Facebook:

I briefly touched on Facebook's updated Pages features Here, but it may be useful to give a brief overview.  Facebook is a social networking site that allows your organization to create a "Page."  The Page exists much like a user profile in that you can post basic information about your organization, send event invitations for upcoming performances and exhibitions to people who have become friends of your organization, and update your audience about current events and offerings.  It also has the ability for you to aggregate any blog feed that your organization may have, and update your fans when a new blog has been posted.

There is one very important issue that I cannot stress enough at this point.  Do not approach Facebook from a purely Marketing perspective. Audiences are quick to selectively tune out organizations that they feel are just trying to sell them something.  As an Arts Organization it is better to focus on audience engagement, informing people about upcoming events and cultural offerings like classes or discussions, and maintaining a dialogue about your organization.  Facebook audiences prefer to be informed about an event or offering, not to have it sold to them.

Blogs:

Should your organization have a blog, and if so what approach should your organization take?  Well, if your only reason is because Johnny Awesome's arts organization down the street is doing it, then probably not.  Nina Simon, author of the Museum 2.0 blog, breaks down the blogging conundrum in exquisite detail Here.  She breaks down the why and the how of an institutional blog.  Before allocating time and resources for  the production of a blog first think about it's relevancy to your readers.  Who will be reading this, and what is the desired outcome?  That question is the best place to start.

Twitter:

For as much as I have railed against Twitter, on an institutional level I recognize how useful it can be is.  Twitter is officially everywhere, and I'll admit to drinking the Kool-Aid.  We've posted time and again about Twitter and how arts organizations can be utilizing this tool to inform your followers of what is going on at the organization.  Recently though, I have been relying upon Twitter to stay abreast of current events among peers within the Arts Management field by following people such as:

Maryann Devine and Jeffrey @ the MF and the Brooklyn Museum

Yelp:

There is so much information available to us at any given moment that people are now relying upon social constructs and taste makers to filter what is out there.  Beyond asking friends on Facebook or on Twitter for help in finding something interesting to do, or a place to eat or go on a date, Yelp provides candid reviews of just about any business broken down by location.  This happens to include an entire Arts and Entertainment category, so depending upon the city, your audience may already be posting reviews about your organization online.  Yelp presents a good forum to address customer service issues by responding to negative comments, and it may be a good idea to upload some current photos and make sure that all of your information is correct.

Continued in part 2, I will present a few more tools that performing arts organizations should be aware of.

Yet another reason to own an iPhone

If you have been to the Mattress Factory recently to see the new Thaddeus Mosley exhibition, you may have noticed that the title cards and some of the minimal signage have these intricate symbols on them. What you're seeing is a two dimensional bar code called a QR code that can be used to access information via your mobile internet enabled devices such as an iPhone or Blackberry.

The code on the image above for instance, contains a link to a Youtube video of Thaddeus Mosley discussing the placement of large scale works within the gallery space.

Once you are in the gallery you can text QRCODE to 41411 to receive a simple walk through that tests to see if your phone is compatible with the suggested reader. The BeeTagg reader supports over 50 types of mobile devices and is available as an iPhone application as well.

After you have the reader installed you can access information from signage posted throughout the gallery space. Much like the guide by cell program, there is no proprietary equipment for the museum to pay for beyond the fabrication of the signage and developing the web content. However unlike a guided tour, this allows visitors to explore the space and access information that they are interested in when they want to.

Director of PR + Social Media, Jeffrey Inscho was kind enough to give me a guided tour on Thursday and pointed out some of the kinks that he is still working out. While most of the QR codes bring up URLs on your mobile device, some of them are text only which makes the codes much more dense. This can make it more difficult to take an accurate enough picture for your phone to recognize and decode the data. The smallest that the QR codes can be printed and still be read by most of the camera-phones on the market is about 1.5" square. So the text only cards may end up being replaced with a URL of the text to help ensure that they can be read. Shadows also tend to cause some issues while taking pictures, so you have to watch where you stand.

For the recent Predrive event, before they had installed the signage in the gallery, the Mattress Factory included a QR tag on their advertisement in the City Paper and received around 72 hits, which was more than Jeffrey had expected. Over the course of the exhibition the Mattress Factory will be able to monitor which tags receive the most hits, and get a feel as to how people are using the signage when visiting the museum.

As of right now, the Mattress Factory is the only museum in the United States that is currently using QR tags within the exhibition space, but the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney Australia has been using them for a a while and have outlined many of the issues that have cropped up in an amazingly detailed step by step guide.

Jeffery stressed that this was an experiment and an effort to help reduce the amount of printed gallery guides they use. It is not a permanent replacement for the printed material, but as the technology becomes more prevalent the QR codes will provide more in depth interaction and information to the visitors.

As of right now the Mattress Factory plans on continuing to use this new technology for future exhibitions and already has some just flat out amazing ideas on how to incorporate it into their Annual Garden Party but I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Best arguement thus far as to why I should update my phone from the bottom of the line Nokia I'm using.

Youtube Symphony Orchestra

Back in December, Brad posted an article about the call for entries for the Youtube Symphony Orchestra I'd like to post an update.

Google held an open call for musicians from around the world where users were asked to upload video auditions to be judged by a jury of professional musicians from the London Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic.  This short list of musicians was then opened up for Youtube viewers to vote on to decide the winners.

Well, the votes are in, and on April 15th over 90 musicians from 30 different countries will be flown to New York City to perform at Carnegie Hall for the first ever crowd sourced symphony orchestra, that will be conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony.

The Youtube Symphony Orchestra will be playing “Internet Symphony No. 1, Eroica,” by composer Tan Dun (of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero fame). Tan Dun has been providing continuing online video master classes to help prepare the musicians for their upcoming performance, including video of him silently conducting each section of the orchestra and staring directly into the camera.

The project has drawn an amazing amount of interest from participants.  After being announced on December 1st nearly 3,000 auditions had been uploaded from 71 countries by February.  This seems like a really interesting way to get younger people involved and interested in classical music, as well as pointing out what can be accomplished as technology continues to shrink the size of the globe.

Blogging on the Shoulders of Giants

Creative Commons licenses provide the ability to modify the terms of the copyright on your intellectual property.

Some times Copyright can be too restrictive when you would like to share your work with the world.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Creative Commons licensing, this video helps to explain some of the ways in which it allows someone to publish their work somewhere in between All rights reserved and No rights reserved. This method of copyright allows the creator of the work to decide how it can be used by others, if it can be used commercially, sampled, remixed, or built upon.  By using a Creative Commons License creators are able to maintain some rights while allowing others greater access to the work than the regular Copyright would allow.

FairShare is a free online application that allows you to track the usage of your creative commons licensed intellectual property, making it possible for people all around the world to reuse content while still attributing it back to the original creator.  Currently FairShare works for any text based content that is available to the public via RSS feeds.  This means any blog posts, essays, cookbooks, and anything as long as it is text and available as via RSS.  According to Plagiarism Today's Jonathan Bailey, FairShare Developer Attributor is also gauging interest in a FairShare for photos and videos as a possibility for a future service that would allow users to track the use of images and other media beyond just text content.

FairShare begins by asking you to choose from a list of available Creative Commons Licenses.

• Attribution
• Attribution Non-Commercial
• Attribution No Derivatives
• Attribution Share Alike
• Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
• Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Once you've registered your blog or other RSS feed, FairShare searches to find instances of your content on other sites, and then displays the different pages that have reused your work and how that reuse of your content compares to your license conditions.  The sites using your content are displayed in your FairShare feed that can then be accessed through a feed reader such as Google Reader, or any number of other RSS readers.

This is an amazing new tool that will allow anyone who is concerned about how their intellectual property is being used to track and influence how that content is being shared.

As we go into the weekend, I leave you with this awesome Video Mashup, "The Mother of all Funk Chords"  that was created entirely from clips available on Youtube.