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The Crisis of Classical Music 2

  Tobias

First of all, I must apologise. To all the record companies out there, many of whom are led by committed individuals. One thing’s for sure: These guys are not in it for the money - if you were out there to make a wagon-load of cash, the last place you would look for would probably be the Classical Music business. So, really, managers of Classical record companies are idealists. Which, unfortunately does not take away the sorry fact that they have been doing a sad job promoting their often fabulous music.

In my last article, I wrote about the fact that record companies had lost touch with their profession and had forgotten to ask what they represented and what differentiated them from others. This time, I would like to draw your attention to something else they have lost contact to: Their customers.

The easiest way to find out who these companies are aiming at, take a few minutes of your time and check out your local record store. From the covers of the CDs, their prices and the general way they are presented, you will be able to quickly identify the current target groups:

• Classical Music Fanatics: This is a group of people from about 50 years of age and more, with a considerable income and a lot of insight into the music, the artists, the composers and basically everything evolving around these issues.
• Trend Buyers: Let’s just call them that, even though this may be a slightly inadequate description. But it sure fits if you have a look at who’s buying CDs by Il Divo or Myleene Klass – these consumers like their Classical Music easy to digest and with cross-references to Popular Culture. “re:Bach” by Lara St. John would also fit this category.
• Fans: The dream of every record company is to create a “Star”, an artist who not only posesses the gift of music but also this certain extra-quality which will make people flood to the stores and buy a CD blindly, even though they never really cared about this sort of music. The way the Deutsche Gramophon is marketing Anna Netrebko is a clear effort to create a devoted group of fans.
• Bargain Hunters: These consumers don’t really care about Classical Music but if they see a Mahler-CD for 2 Euros, they can not resist the urge to buy it anyway.

Targeting these groups is obvious and not exactly wrong but there’s a problem: Reaching Trend Buyers and Fans is extremely costly and involves a huge marketing campaign that normally starts generating money only after the third album or so. Also, many artists never reach the star-status and trends come and go. Secondly, the group of Classical Music Fanatics is small. And thirdly, offering cheap CDs with great back catalog music to Bargain Hunters means that not only will the product’s monetary value decrease, but also that Fanatics will choose to buy these offers as well instead of expensive new productions.

Now it is well-known fact of the business that a small group of intensive buyers is responsible for the largest chunk of sales (it’s no different with Pop Music). The goal of every record company should therefore not be to get rid of Classical Music Fanatics or to make absolutely everyone buy their products. Rather, the idea is to delve into new groups, who up to now have been “sleeping” (to use industry jargon) and convert them to the same rank as a Fanatic. In my opinion, there are at least three groups that have been bitterly neglected over the last few decades – which I will write about in my next article.

"The Crisis of Classical Music" by Tobias Fischer