So, not to go all press-releasey on you, but there’s this cool new thing on the Minnesota Orchestra website today. It’s a free MP3 download of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, which we performed and recorded just last night. Yes, you have to register with us to get the download, and from the look of things, I’m guessing that registration might result in your hearing from our marketing department in the future, but hey – free music! And apparently, we’ll be doing this again next week with our performance of Bruckner’s 7th Symphony, giving away what normally isn’t available for any price – a live concert recording you can keep forever. Next season, we’ll put up a bunch more concert recordings, but I’m told you’ll have to start paying (albeit a very small amount) for those.
This is, of course, exactly the sort of thing that everyone in the music world but American symphony orchestras has been doing for quite a while now. We should have done it years ago, but the media rules governing our industry are massively complex, nationally negotiated, and quite frankly, about two decades out of date. There are some very good, smart people who have been working to change this, but the process frequently seems to get hung up when other people with very old, dull axes to grind start grinding them against the wheels of progress. If that makes any sense.
But anyway, the good news is that we are, finally, making progress, and these downloads are some of the first evidence of it. Over in St. Paul, the chamber orchestra launched its own music-streaming site this week as well, and really, once you open those floodgates, it’s nearly impossible to close them again, so with any luck, these projects will be the first of a lot of great things to come!
They don’t mention “a performer’s blog” as a “how did you hear about this” option. I suppose “Website” works, but really “Website” often means the official website, not some link from the outside.
Thanks for mentioning, Joe – they probably didn’t know I’d be blogging about it when they set that up. And actually, this ItC site is still administered by the orchestra’s official website, so they’ll be able to track any clicks from here to there.
Speaking of tracking clicks, I’m told that there over 1100 people downloaded the MP3s in just the first couple of hours they were available!