Sure, there are easier things to do. I’ve marketed candy, cigars, nuts, lighters, gasoline, travel and education. All were easier.
But music can change lives. It has thrilled mine. Music carries deep, otherwise-inexpressible meaning. 35,000 years ago our species was making music on a flute carved from a bird’s bone.
A Manifesto
We are like Abraham, blessed beyond imagination. “Pray look toward the heavens and count the stars, can you count them? So shall your seed be.” Such is our inheritance with music. Not only its past, but its present and future have no limits as well.
Is music in danger of going away? Shall we shrink away because the economy, donations and audiences are down? No, we need music more than ever.
Wrestling with Reality
Should we play it safe, programming only popular blockbusters? I grieve when I hear classical music described as restful. Music is a place to come to grips with reality, like Jacob wrestling with God at his birth. Pardon the biblical references—but it’s that important.
We must be like Moses, challenging the people at Mt. Sinai. True marketers aren’t like Aaron asking, “How would you like your golden calf?” Seasons of greatest hits are today’s golden calf.
A Larger View of Marketing
Minerva Presents Music to Apollo. Engraving by William Hogarth
Marketing classical music isn’t simply maximizing revenue and audiences. That’s the empty mantra of the least of today’s businesspeople. Marketers are not to be bellhops, an isolated function that sells tickets that’s down the hall and to the left. We are to join our performing and other managing colleagues as partners in helping to birth today’s music with its audiences.
We must follow the music, as Clive Gillinson of Carnegie Hall is fond of saying. And we must lead in reviving music. While the task looks daunting, we aren’t alone. The music itself—our audience’s response to it—is what drives participation, not our efforts. We’re midwives to attendance. We may lose heart at times, but the outcome isn’t in doubt. Music is eternal.
This is a great post! Well said.
I have to say — if I didn’t happen to start working in classical music marketing upon graduating from college, I don’t think I would have chosen marketing as a profession. As interesting as I find mass consumer marketing, it generally comes off as confection or downright deception. In my experience in this field thus far, I have never gotten a sense that we want to deceive the audience or misrepresent our “product.” Cliche though it may sound, I feel like everyone I work with feels strongly about sharing this art form with others.
Unlike many of my colleagues, I am not a classical music expert. However, I think it’s very important to the community, and I get a real sense of purpose out of my work. I’m proud to tell people what I do — I don’t know if I could do that selling candy bars or soda.
Thank you.
How wonderful that you feel significance and pride in your work! So few people do. I myself was also proud when I marketed candy, I have to admit.