Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
One of the most common questions I’m asked by arts admin students is which books they should read to learn about the latest trends in arts management. While that’s a fine endeavor, I usually respond saying there’s far more to learn by talking to as many retired or soon to be retired insiders as possible. The history of this field is poorly documented and much of the knowledge from past generations …
Rainer Glaap has enjoyed a long career as an arts marketing and box office authority. He’s based in Bremen, Germany and although recently retired, that doesn’t seem to be stopping him from being neck deep in one fascinating research project after another. One of his recent endeavors has been studying how much audiences are engaging with the initial round of online streaming offers from traditional cultural institutions. Granted, his subject base …
In today’s operating environment, there are no shortages of anxiety triggers. Having said that, it’s not like we should be going out of our way to pile on. Case in point: I’m seeing a lot of static analysis generated alarmism. One of the best examples of this are a few articles making the rounds that all but guarantee social distancing (mandated or otherwise) will make ticket revenue all but useless. The …
Back in November, 2019 I published an action alert about an attempt by a private equity firm to purchase the .org registry. This would mean all the nonprofit organizations that rely on the registry to maintain affordable registration rates would have gone up in smoke. Thankfully, a large coalition of voices helped persuade the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from going through with the deal. It’s tough to …
We’re into our first full month of coronavirus shutdowns and that is enough time to have an impact on our weekly employment status polls, which track both orchestra administrators and musicians. For staffers and managers, the questions are straightforward. Music directors (employee or independent contractor status) and staff conductor positions should respond as an administrator. For musicians, questions are specialized for salary and per-service level musicians. While there are certainly musicians …