1.4 Pulse and Marketing Classical Music............................................................. 4

Arts and the market, 2016

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to consider the key findings of a yearlong collaborative research project focusing on the London Symphony Orchestra's development, implementation and testing of a branded smartphone app. This app was designed to primarily sell discounted tickets, engage and inform a student audience. Design/methodology/approach-A mixed-method approach including an analysis of the technology, focus groups and interviews was used. Findings-Though the aims of app developers and marketers are often to provide customers with more choice and interactivity, this research suggests that though the app proved a useful mechanism for selling discounted tickets, it indicates that existing customers were mostly enroled and mobilised via a limited and focused functionality for the app. Originality/value-This paper is significant as mobile phone use remains comparatively underresearched, in particular there is still a relatively small literature on the growing phenomena of apps, and even less on their use in brand marketing. Also importantly, though this paper offers a consideration of one case, the app has since been expanded to include the ticketing for ten major orchestras in London, and moreover, many of the lessons learnt from this study will be of relevance to other arts organisations.

2012

This report documents the key findings of a year-long collaborative research project focusing on the London Symphony Orchestra’s (LSO) development, implementation and testing of a mobile ticketing and information system. This ticketing system was developed in association with the LSO’s technical partners, Kodime Limited and in collaboration with the Aurora Orchestra.

This report consists of an overview of the IT consultancy with the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra (SBSO) and the implementation of the selected IT solution by the Client. The solution aimed to address the Client's need to attract more concert attendees and donors by providing a tool that leverages the power of data and geographic information systems (GIS) to identify untapped areas for potential outreach. In addition to this, the project team is interested in examining the use of mobile applications (apps) by symphony orchestras as another tool to enhance audience engagement and participation. We will evaluate the viability and effectiveness of mobile app usage for the purpose of increasing concert attendance. Data on industry IT expenditures, concert attendance, and mobile app usage will be analyzed to determine recommendations for symphony orchestras like SBSO.

This paper considers the key findings of a year--long collaborative research project focusing on the audience of the London Symphony Orchestra and their introduction of a new mobile telephone ('app') ticketing system. A mixed--method approach was employed, utilizing focus groups and questionnaires with over 80 participants, to research a sample group of university students. This research develops our understanding of classical music audiences, and highlights the continued individualistic, middle--class, and exclusionary culture of classical music attendance and patterns of behaviours. The research also suggests that a mobile phone app does prove a useful mechanism for selling discounted tickets, but shows little indication of being a useful means of expanding this audience beyond its traditional demographic. Introduction This paper considers the key findings of a year--long collaborative research project focus.ing on the audience of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and their introduction of a new mobile telephone ticketing application or 'app'. The app was chiefly introduced to provide an easier and more cost effective way of selling discounted concert tickets to (primarily an already existing) student audience; however, a secondary aim was that it was hoped that by using technologies (smart phones and apps) popular with a wide young demographic , this might also help expand the LSO's current audience base. Compared with research on other genres of music, such as pop and jazz, there is sig.nificantly less empirical research on classical music audiences, and even less on the use of new technologies as a means of classical music audience engagement. The aims of the Paper forthcoming in Cultural Sociology, available online first at: http://cus.sagepub.com/content/early/recent overall research project were therefore two--fold: first, to evaluate the effectiveness of the app as a mechanism for selling discounted student tickets, and second, to explore its potential for audience expansion and engagement. Elsewhere (Crawford et al., forthcoming), we focus more on the social networking potentials of this new technology, and it is also our aim in future publications to focus on the app as a marketing tool. However, significant findings that arose from the research were the continued patterns of class--based social exclusion around attending a live clas.sical music event and, moreover, the desire of the participants in this research to maintain these continued patterns of distinction (Bourdieu, 1984). This paper begins with a consideration of some of the relevant literature on classical music audiences. There is a significant literature on classical music audiences, which includes (but is not limited to) the work of authors such as Dobson (

The participatory turn, fuelled by discourses and rhetoric regarding social media, and in the aftermath of the dot.com crash of the early 2000s, enrols to some extent an idea of being able to deploy networks to achieve institutional aims. The arts and cultural sector in the UK, in the face of funding cuts, has been keen to engage with such ideas in order to demonstrate value for money; by improving the efficiency of their operations, improving their respective audience experience and ultimately increasing audience size and engagement. Drawing on a case study compiled via a collaborative research project with a UK-based symphony orchestra (UKSO) we interrogate the potentials of social media engagement for audience development work through participatory media and networked publics. We argue that the literature related to mobile phones and applications ('apps') has focused primarily on marketing for engagement where institutional contexts are concerned. In contrast, our analysis elucidates the broader potentials and limitations of social-media-enabled apps for audience development and engagement beyond a marketing paradigm. In the case of UKSO, it appears that the technologically deterministic discourses often associated with institutional enrolment of participatory media and networked publics may not necessarily apply due to classical music culture. More generally, this work raises the contradictory nature of networked publics and argues for increased critical engagement with the concept.

2015

As the importance of real-life use cases in the music information retrieval (MIR) field is increasing, so does the importance of understanding user needs. The development of innovative real-life applications that draw on MIR technology requires a user-centered design and development approach that assesses user needs and aligns them with technological and academic ambitions in the MIR domain. In this paper we present such an approach, and apply it to the development of technological applications to enrich classical symphonic concerts. A userdriven approach is particularly important in this area, as orchestras need to innovate the concert experience to meet the needs and expectations of younger generations without alienating the current audience. We illustrate this approach with the results of five focus groups for three audience segments, which allow us to formulate informed user requirements for classical concert applications.

The participatory turn, fuelled by discourses and rhetoric regarding social media, and in the aftermath of the dot.com crash of the early 2000s, enrols to some extent an idea of being able to deploy networks to achieve institutional aims. The arts and cultural sector in the UK, in the face of funding cuts, has been keen to engage with such ideas in order to demonstrate value for money; by improving the efficiency of their operations, improving their respective audience experience and ultimately increasing audience size and engagement. Drawing on a case study compiled via a collaborative research project with a UK-based symphony orchestra (UKSO) we interrogate the potentials of social media engagement for audience development work through participatory media and networked publics. We argue that the literature related to mobile phones and applications ('apps') has focused primarily on marketing for engagement where institutional contexts are concerned. In contrast, our analysis elucidates the broader potentials and limitations of social-media-enabled apps for audience development and engagement beyond a marketing paradigm. In the case of UKSO, it appears that the technologically deterministic discourses often associated with institutional enrolment of participatory media and networked publics may not necessarily apply due to classical music culture. More generally, this work raises the contradictory nature of networked publics and argues for increased critical engagement with the concept.