The Internet + Classical Music: Perfect Frenemies

People over the age of 25 might remember the pre-internet days when music enthusiasts were forced to drive to a record store and hope against hope that it would have what they were looking for.

Classical music lovers were left with even fewer options than popular music enthusiasts - often peeling through thick dusty catalogues to order recordings from Europe only to wait 6 months for them to ship, often at extreme cost ($70 for one CD was not unheard of). If they didn't have 6 months to wait? No problem, they'd just buy the recording of whatever potentially crappy performance of the piece was available - that is, if any was available at all.

Can you imagine such limited access to information? I hardly can, and I was there!

I still remember a moment when I was a classical music nerd in high school and Tower Records (whose passing was the poster-child for the end of the record store world) finally got in my long-awaited copy of Baroque English composer Henry Purcell's opera, "Dido and Aeneas." I triumphantly arrived to collect my obscure treasure, only to be met with great confusion by the cashier because Dido, the now world-famous pop artist, had been in the store that very day signing copies of her pre-stardom debut album.

"She's not here any more," the cashier stated with confusion.

"How can that be? Someone called me today to tell me the CD was in."

"Well, there are tons of CDs over there, but you missed her."

"Who?"

"Dido!"

"Dido, the ancient carthaginian queen?"

"What?"

"Oooohhhh."

Dido the pop singer who sings longing songs of lost love

Dido the baroque opera character who sings longing songs of lost love before operatically committing suicide

This entire interaction might as well be as ancient and unknown to the teenagers of today as renaissance-era printing presses were to me in 1997, despite my interest in 17th century music.

These days, the explosion of music on the internet, especially YouTube, has thrown the entertainment industry into a tizzy as they try to figure out how to make money in a post-CD era, but the impact that this has had on the accessibility of classical music is particularly interesting and is, in many ways, extremely positive.

15 years ago, the top classical record houses were still kings. They decided who got recorded performing what, and when they didn't like a particular composer or artist, it was virtually impossible for an average person to access that content at all. Entire sets of beautiful obscure art songs and unusual instrument concerti remained uncovered like ancient treasures languishing under the desert sands, cut off from modern listeners and performers until tools for mass-discovery and recording could enable them to be unearthed and shared with the world. Enter: The Internet.

Those tools came with the internet, especially with YouTube, completely revolutionizing access to a vast library of previously hidden cultural treasures. Now when I want to perform a new piece, I can simply search a fragment of the name on YouTube and within moments I am presented with numerous recordings from across the world - from professional to amateur, from mid-century greats to recent college productions.

While exuding excitement about the wonders of the internet feels like an activity that became outdated in about 2001, the introduction of Broadband, Fiber and other fast internet services, combined with the amazing crowd-sourcing renaissance on social media, has made the last few years a truly revolutionary time for classical musicians. Suddenly, with the click of a button I can compare the same piece interpreted by Anna Moffo, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Nellie Melba, Renee Fleming and dozens of unknown fledgling artists. I can compare the great conductors of the 20th century to unknown grad students. With a simple Google search I can download public domain sheet music, and find translations and interpretations equal or better to those I used to dig for days to find in the Stanford University libraries. All for free...from my couch...in my pajamas.

What this means practically, is that these internet resources have created a democratized opportunity for musicians to understand and interpret music at a new level. It has enabled even amateur scholars and enthusiasts to have access to work that was previously limited to PhD students and industry insiders. It has enabled new markets and audiences to grow and discover content that would never have made it through the politics of the traditional recording industry.

YouTube was founded just 9 years ago, and since then, the world of internet-based music and video has exploded into the primary challenger to cable and entertainment giants who seemed like unstoppable bastions of modern culture just 10 years ago. Imagine what this renaissance and unprecedented democratized access to cultural materials will mean for culture in another 10 years, assuming that a ruling against net neutrality doesn't bring it screeching to a grinding hault. I'm excited to see (and terrified of the alternative)!

In the meantime though, we must deal with the problems that such a quick renaissance has posed, including the virtual collapse of the classical music recording and performance industry. Many excellent musicians who would have made fabulous careers in 1950 must make their primary livings through other careers, thus leaving the professional performances and recordings to a shrinking population of extremely poor or independently wealthy musicians who can live without making a living from their art.

In this musician's opinion, this has led the overall quality of classical music performance to suffer accordingly, and the audiences who have traditionally funded such endeavors are agreeing and investing their money elsewhere - we've entered an uncontrolled and dangerous snowball effect for the future of classical music appreciation and performance. Yet, who can blame the audiences, who now have better access than ever to Maria Callas as Tosca and Carlo Bergonzi as Scarpia? Who wants to sit through a mediocre modern performance when the divas who defined this music are accessible for free with just the click of a button? Surely a live performance has a magic that can't be captured in a scratchy recording on YouTube, yet is it magical enough to warrant the $150+ price of most major opera house tickets these days? Most audiences say no, and most importantly, young audiences aren't convinced. And it is these young audiences who hold the future of the industry that defined entertainment for centuries in their smartphone-occupied little hands.

While this is sad in many ways, I must point out that the music industry, even the classical music industry, can hardly be considered an innocent victim. This industry tightly controlled world access to cultural heritage, and now that access is in the hands of the 2.4 billion global internet users. World music is enjoying a renaissance as internet platforms have enabled an unprecedented discovery of global culture, previously confined to extreme local niche status. Suddenly, new performers don't have to play the industry games, and they can be free to go wild with direct access to their potential audiences. While the monetization models for direct funding are still in their infancy, I have confidence that within 10 years those too will be developed, and then imagine the access that we will have to an unprecedented variety of innovative musical performances.

In the meantime though, while one door closes we must make sure that the next door remains open. We must make sure that even as the traditional industries breathe their final breaths, classical music survives. Young people must be exposed to it and encouraged to perform and appreciate it. Net neutrality must keep access to the cultural resources of YouTube and other platforms available for the culture-seeking masses. Young nerdy high school students must be able to explore, perform and share their art in this brave new world.

If we let this new cultural renaissance shine, and the dawn has already come, then when we least expect it, an entirely new industry will emerge like a phoenix from the ashes, ready to thrive within the new golden cultural renaissance of the internet.