It's Tuesday, 21 June, 2022 in Portland, Oregon and it has stopped raining.
\nToday I also accidentally some bullet points, The Ones Who Advocated for a Casus Belli Intervention in Omelas, and Nineteen More.
\nYes. I found out my season numbering went weird. I fixed it.
\nI got an email today from The Oregon Symphony, asking us to share our perspectives on attending concerts again, and to help the symphony "get it right":
\n\n\nAs you know, COVID-19 has presented unprecedented challenges for arts organizations around the country. The Oregon Symphony is working hard to adapt, but we can't do it without you.
\n
\n\nToday, I’m writing to a small number of our audience members to ask how you’d like to engage with the Oregon Symphony over the coming months, both online and in-person.
\n
I took the survey. It was maybe thirty-odd questions, covering things like what sort of requirements would it take to coax me back to an indoor concert, or an outdoor one, and so on.
\nOne thing COVID has changed for me is how quarantines and lockdowns made so many more things accessible. This isn't to say that they were better, just that they were more accessible. I could go buy a ticket and livestream, say, the Oregon Symphony instead of going to their concert hall. This is good because it's additive -- it's not really taking much away from people who're there in person, and it offers a new opportunity and access to people who would have difficulty taking part, for whatever reason.
\nSo. I am thinking sideways and I am already jumping ahead, because the Oregon Symphony wants to get this right, and what I think right includes is better and more options for access. Which means streaming.
\nOh but you see streaming well costs money. There's audio engineers and producers and recording equipment and, you know, it's not nothing to put this on.
\nNo, it's not. So... I don't know, fundraise for it? You love naming buildings after things. Go hit up that donor network, because fundraising for livestreaming access is, I reckon, a fundamentally different value proposition (sigh) than fundraising so that the orchestra doesn't disappear and because you love and want to support certain arts. I mean, I love and support certain arts. I also appreciate that donating to have my name in a program is different from knowing that I'm donating so that I can watch and listen to concerts or gigs or whatever from home.
\nSo. Fundraise for building upgrades and the technical equipment, etc. Hit up your donor network. Better still, start going after that sweet tech company money and hit up Twitch or whatever. I'm sure there'll be strings attached.
\nNext? Charge me more. You know what you could do? You might try getting me to subscribe to an at-home season and charge me a bunch of money, because what you're going to do is you're going to lend me a set of high-end Dolby Atmos home cinema kit, you'll send someone around to set it up for me, and, get this, the whole point is that it's so that I can experience your concerts as best as possible. Plus I get to borrow high-end surround sound kit for as long as I subscribe to a season.
\nGet this. A subscription to the classical series -- 6 concerts, on a Saturday night, running from September to June -- will run me $462 for one seat at the most expensive Orchestra tier. That's, like $77/seat/concert. The cheapest tier is $138, which is $23/seat/concert.
\nI'm just going to try and do rough numbers, which is to say the retail price of an Atmos sound bar is say around $900, so let's say instead of $50/month (which is what the most expensive concert subscription would be) you charge me $75/month, I get access to a bunch of previous/library recordings (that I probably won't watch or listen to, or might just skip around?), and I get the use of a reasonable soundbar if I didn't have one. I return it at the end, or if I subscribe for two seasons (maybe more?), I get to keep it.
\nI'm just saying. If I were to spend more than fifteen minutes thinking about this, I would totally look at the numbers more.
\n(Of course, a problem with this is that there's a bit of a first mover advantage, and that sound quality is going to become a commodity over time. Soundbars will only get cheaper, etc, probably, so it's not like this is a great 10+ year strategy. Gotta keep innovating!)
\nThat's it. I'm tired. It's been a long day. How are you?
\nBest,
\nDan
\n","body_text":"0.0 Context Setting\n\nIt's Tuesday, 21 June, 2022 in Portland, Oregon and it has stopped raining.\n\nToday I also accidentally some bullet points,\nThe Ones Who Advocated for a Casus Belli Intervention in Omelas, and Nineteen More\n.\n\nYes. I found out my season numbering went weird. I fixed it.\n\n1.0 Some Things That Caught My Attention\n\nConcerts, and The Job To Be Done\n\nI got an email today from The Oregon Symphony, asking us to share our perspectives on attending concerts again, and to help the symphony \"get it right\":\n\nAs you know, COVID-19 has presented unprecedented challenges for arts organizations around the country. The Oregon Symphony is working hard to adapt, but we can't do it without you.\n\nToday, I’m writing to a small number of our audience members to ask how you’d like to engage with the Oregon Symphony over the coming months, both online and in-person.\n\nI took the survey. It was maybe thirty-odd questions, covering things like what sort of requirements would it take to coax me back to an indoor concert, or an outdoor one, and so on.\n\nOne thing COVID has changed for me is how quarantines and lockdowns made so many more things accessible. This isn't to say that they were better, just that they were more accessible. I could go buy a ticket and livestream, say, the Oregon Symphony instead of going to their concert hall. This is good because it's additive -- it's not really taking much\naway\nfrom people who're there in person, and it offers a new opportunity and access to people who would have difficulty taking part,\nfor whatever reason\n.\n\nSo. I am thinking sideways and I am already jumping ahead, because the Oregon Symphony wants to get this right, and what I think\nright\nincludes is better and more options for access. Which means streaming.\n\nOh but you see streaming well costs money. There's audio engineers and producers and recording equipment and, you know, it's not\nnothing\nto put this on.\n\nNo, it's not. So... I don't know, fundraise for it? You love naming buildings after things. Go hit up that donor network, because\nfundraising for livestreaming access\nis, I reckon, a fundamentally different value proposition (sigh) than\nfundraising so that the orchestra doesn't disappear and because you love and want to support certain arts\n. I mean, I love and support certain arts. I also appreciate that donating to have my name in a program is different from knowing that I'm donating so that I can watch and listen to concerts or gigs or whatever from home.\n\nSo. Fundraise for building upgrades and the technical equipment, etc. Hit up your donor network. Better still, start going after that sweet tech company money and hit up Twitch or whatever. I'm sure there'll be strings attached.\n\nNext? Charge me more. You know what you could do? You might try getting me to subscribe to an at-home season and charge me a\nbunch\nof money, because what you're going to do is you're going to lend me a set of high-end Dolby Atmos home cinema kit, you'll send someone around to set it up for me, and, get this, the whole point is that it's so that I can\nexperience your concerts as best as possible\n. Plus I get to borrow high-end surround sound kit for as long as I subscribe to a season.\n\nGet this. A subscription to the\nclassical series\n-- 6 concerts, on a Saturday night, running from September to June -- will run me $462 for one seat at the most expensive Orchestra tier. That's, like $77/seat/concert. The cheapest tier is $138, which is $23/seat/concert.\n\nI'm just going to try and do rough numbers, which is to say the retail price of an Atmos sound bar is say around $900, so let's say instead of $50/month (which is what the most expensive concert subscription would be) you charge me $75/month, I get access to a bunch of previous/library recordings (that I probably won't watch or listen to, or might just skip around?), and I get the use of a reasonable soundbar if I didn't have one. I return it at the end, or if I subscribe for two seasons (maybe more?), I get to keep it.\n\nI'm just saying. If I were to spend more than fifteen minutes thinking about this, I would totally look at the numbers more.\n\n(Of course, a problem with this is that there's a bit of a first mover advantage, and that sound quality is going to become a commodity over time. Soundbars will only get cheaper, etc, probably, so it's not like this is a great 10+ year strategy. Gotta keep innovating!)\n\nThat's it. I'm tired. It's been a long day. How are you?\n\nBest,\n\nDan","raw_format":"markdown","source":"app","summary":"This issue explores how arts organizations should adapt to the post-pandemic world, with a focus on what the Oregon Symphony should do to \"get it right\" when it comes to concert access. The author argues that livestreaming concerts is a genuine expansion of access that shouldn't compete with in-person attendance, and proposes concrete solutions: fundraise specifically for streaming infrastructure through tech companies and donors, charge premium subscription rates for at-home viewing, and sweeten the deal by lending subscribers high-end sound equipment like Dolby Atmos soundbars they can use for the season. Underlying the piece is a broader observation about how COVID made cultural experiences more accessible and the argument that organizations should double down on this shift rather than simply trying to return to the pre-pandemic status quo.","reading_minutes":4,"links":[{"url":"https://medium.com/@hondanhon/the-oneswho-advocated-for-a-casus-belli-intervention-in-omelas-and-twenty-more-9650c3146ea7","normalized_url":"https://medium.com/@hondanhon/the-oneswho-advocated-for-a-casus-belli-intervention-in-omelas-and-twenty-more-9650c3146ea7","domain":"medium.com","anchor_text":"The Ones Who Advocated for a Casus Belli Intervention in Omelas, and Nineteen More","is_archive":0,"archive_url":null,"archive_service":null,"category":"external"},{"url":"https://www.orsymphony.org/concerts-tickets/subscribe/2223/classical-a-saturday/","normalized_url":"https://orsymphony.org/concerts-tickets/subscribe/2223/classical-a-saturday","domain":"orsymphony.org","anchor_text":"classical series","is_archive":0,"archive_url":null,"archive_service":null,"category":"external"}],"sections":[{"id":2355,"ord":0,"number":"0.0","heading":"Context Setting","level":1,"word_count":49},{"id":2356,"ord":1,"number":"1.0","heading":"Some Things That Caught My Attention","level":1,"word_count":6},{"id":2357,"ord":2,"number":null,"heading":"Concerts, and The Job To Be Done","level":2,"word_count":743}]}