For years now, I’ve been enjoying the benefits of seatguru.com, which until it was picked up by TripAdvisor.com in 2007, was a fairly well kept secret. After that, the associated spike in traffic meant more travelers with inside info but for whatever reason, the handful of business colleagues I tipped off to seatguru had never heard of it before. Well, that’s all gone now since cultural uber-blogger Alex Ross posted a little something in praise of the service a few days ago at The Rest Is Noise…
Web/Tech
The Untapped Revenue Beyond Required Registration
Since the onset of the Orchestra Website Reviews, the issue of requiring users to register in order to explore ticket information and/or make a purchase has generated a great deal of heated debate. Unfortunately, most positions boiled down to hunch rather than anything supported by quantifiable data but an article by Jared M. Spool published on 1/14/2009 titled The $300 Million Button that was originally published as part of Luke Wroblewski’s …
Marc van Bree’s Big List of Classical Music Twitterers
There’s nothing quite a satisfying as a good resource list and the world of cultural blogging has a new entry they can be proud of thanks to Marc van Bree, author of the Dutch Perspective, a self described “levensbeschouwing (a Dutch word, by way of Germany, meaning “world view”) based loosely on two themes: public relations and cultural affairs.” Marc’s resource list compiles classical music individuals and groups on Twitter…
2009 Orchestra Website Review: US and Canadian Comparisons
The final article in the 2009 Orchestra Website Reviews will compare and contrast US and Canadian results. Both groups made advancements but the Canadians, on average, once again made greater strides. This article examines exactly which components had the most impact on these developments…
Here’s Hoping Berlin Enjoys Some Success
Ever since the Berlin Philharmonic launched their digital concert hall feature last season, subscribers to the complete season of webcasts have been steadily growing. Adaptistration reader Michael Brewer provided a first-hand review of the Philharmonic’s initial offerings back in January, 2009 and based on that perspective it seems like the folks in Berlin might be on to something. It will be interesting to see how several months of planning have helped iron out technical wrinkles but I find myself wondering more about the business plan behind the venture…