Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

#TBT, Since We’re Ranting About Images…

Thu, Feb 2, 2019
Adaptistration People 195
In light of Tuesday’s rant about artist images, it seems fitting to bookend it with a callback to another content management rant from 2017 about delivering bio and related promotional copy in PDF format. PDF files are the bane of a content manager’s work day. In a nutshell, they are impossible to use for copy/pasting

Time To Turn Your Motivation Up To 11 With ArtsU’s Google Analytics Webinar

Wed, Feb 2, 2019
Adaptistration People 209
Mark your calendar for February 12, 2019 at 3PM ET for the first installment of Americans (@Americans4Arts) for the Arts’ Taking On Google Analytics webinar. As part of @Americans4Arts’ ArtsU program, I’ll be in special guest mode alongside Ceci Dadisman, the always-dynamic authority on all things GA reporting. Session Description Before looking at any data,

Dear Artists and Artist Managers, Help Us Help You. Here’s What You Need To Provide For Promo Pics And Bios

Tue, Feb 2, 2019
Adaptistration People 197
It isn’t unfair to say most orchestra marketers have anywhere from 5-20 minutes per event for compiling all the related artist information. That includes promo images, bios, and any program specific copy. Unfortunately, too many artists and/or their managers make those tasks so difficult that there’s simply no way to end up with a good

Are Atonal Musicians Even Allowed To Have A Sense Of Humor?

Mon, Feb 2, 2019
A country singer walks into a recording studio and reminisces in song about his late father who was a composer of atonal music. No, it’s not the setup line to the latest joke at the expense of atonal composers, it’s a real thing. While there’s no shortage of tongue-in-cheek fun, this is a real song, Copyright

#TBT When Good Managers Have Little Choice But To Do Bad Things

Thu, Jan 1, 2019
I’m traveling for work today so just a quick #TBT post by way of a terrific article from recently retired Baltimore Sun music critic, Tim Smith. He recently started a personal blog to use as an outlet for his ongoing music journalism habit (it should definitely be in your bookmark folder) and one of the

The Best Way To Begin Learning About The Differences Between Cloud And Hosted Software Is At The Beginning

Wed, Jan 1, 2019
ArtsHacker.com
There are no shortages of good reasons why you may be hearing more about “the cloud” lately. The fundamental benefits of a serverless platform produce very real advantages. Having said that, understanding the differences between cloud-based software and apps compared to their traditional hosted counterparts is a knowledge well arts administrators need to dig. To

The Latest Update In Opera Workplace Satisfaction: Winter 2019

Tue, Jan 1, 2019
It has been just over eight months since the last time we examined the value of improving opera workplace satisfaction which means it is high time to see where things are related to your efforts on increasing the quantity and frequency of reviews at GlassDoor.com from arts administrators and staffers about their respective orchestra employers. This article

The Latest Update In Orchestra Workplace Satisfaction: Winter 2019

Mon, Jan 1, 2019
It has been just over eight months since the last time we examined the value of improving orchestra workplace satisfaction which means it is high time to see where things are related to your efforts on increasing the quantity and frequency of reviews at GlassDoor.com from arts administrators and staffers about their respective orchestra employers. This article

Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change, The Courage To Change The Things I Can, And The Wisdom To Know The Difference.

Fri, Jan 1, 2019
Yesterday’s post about the Baltimore Symphony article archive got me thinking about all the issues over the years this outlet has tackled. While accomplishments are always gratifying, it’s the topics that feel more like failures that seem to linger longest. Granted, that’s far from a unique trait but the serenity prayer in today’s title made

#TBT You Have To Know The Past To Understand The Present, Baltimore Symphony Edition

Thu, Jan 1, 2019
One of the unique byproducts of having an archive with nearly 4,000 articles over 16 years is you tend to write about most topics and organizations at least once. In some cases, a lot more than once. One such example is the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The BSO has appeared in no less than 36
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