Best Classical Music Blog?

Forte, a sheet music notation software company, has decided to hold a “Best Classical Music Website” contest through March 1, 2015 and the winning outlet will apparently be awarded with 3 licenses of their Forte6 (one each of Home, Basic, and Pro versions) software to be given to readers who participated in the contest poll. As of now, there are 14 different outlets and you can vote for one; having said that, I don’t know how those outlets were selected but there are many fine options on their list.

Adaptistration People 004Fellow nominee, Lisa Hirsch’s Iron Tongue of Midnight, posted an article about the contest and I share many of her observations; not the least of which is many of the outlets on the list cover radically different aspects of classical music so you’re definitely going to end up with an apples to oranges comparison. Nonetheless, they are all classical music fruits, so to speak, and even though there are a number missing from the list (IMHO), it is their list, not mine.

So yes, the contest is certainly an effort to generate attention for their latest release but they are also very transparent about that so I don’t really have any issues from that perspective other than it isn’t entirely clear how the licenses are distributed to readers of the winning outlet. I would assume that the recipients are selected at random among those who voted for the outlet in the contest.

That being said, if Forte decides to allow the respective outlet’s author/owner to select the recipients you can assume that if Adaptistration ends up with the largest percentage of votes, anyone directly related to me or working at a company that does business with my consulting firm would be ineligible.

Nonetheless, voting in contests can be fun so long as everyone approaches it from the perspective of it being a non-scientific endeavor. Simply put, whoever wins (myself included) should be guarded against adopting any sort of “best of” title. Conversely, I tend to favor recognition endeavors similar in nature to Barry Hessenius’ My 15 Favorite Nonprofit Arts Blogs or Shoshana Fanizza’s Giving Program idea but so long as Forte isn’t trying to declare anything inasmuch as generating interest in their notation software via engaging with potential users on the topic of classical music outlets, I’m fine with it.

Cast your vote at Forte’s “Best Classical Music Website” poll

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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3 thoughts on “Best Classical Music Blog?”

  1. I would much rather see a list under a headline like “Here are some great blogs that you might like.” As you said, I don’t think we need a winner, especially when each of these outlets covers such a different subject in a different way. After all, isn’t that what’s so great about narrowcasting?

    And of course, you guys know that it’s okay to read *both* the New York Times *and* the Washington Post, right? I subscribe to almost all of Forte’s list in my RSS reader of choice.

    Having said all that, I clicked a link and visited Forte’s website for the first time ever. They make software that is ostensibly for people like me, and I’ve never heard of them. Mission accomplished?

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