Why Technology Matters

Shift happens. Symphonic musicians and their managements need to wake up.

When I first started making web sites over ten years ago, a web site was really not thought of as anything of value beyond the academic world. When I mentioned to people that I was making web sites, they usually asked the same question that many musicians get asked, “so what do you for a living?”

Web development was thought of as nothing more than a hobby. In my case because I am also a musician, I was asked that question – many times with skyward eye rolls – more than I care to remember.

Today, things are a lot different and I manage to do fairly well in both careers. While I still get “that question” when I tell people I am a musician, they no longer ask it when I tell them that I am also a web developer. I get attention and accolades.

How times have changed.

Last fall, I started an ambitious project for a group I play in, the Arizona Opera Orchestra. I have already written extensively on this in a Polyphonic.org article, so I won’t go into detail. However I will say this: when I began the AZOOMA site, many people questioned the impact and effectiveness of an in-depth web site with content beyond the “who’s and the what’s” of most musician association web sites. Few people truly believed the AZOOMA site could have any effect whatsoever on larger issues like contract negotiations.

However, once the press got wind of our marathon contract negotiations, the web site was instrumental in bringing the negotiations to a swift conclusion. Our videos in particular had a strong effect as this was something that no musician organization had done before.

The “doubting Thomases” were ultimately proved wrong.

Of course our negotiation team had a huge hand in this process and I do not want to rob them of all the credit they greatly deserve; but with its web site, AZOOMA has gone from an organization that few have heard of to one that is widely known.

Some naysayers became very convinced by the web “bubble” crash in the 1990′s that the Internet was nothing but a passing fad. What they neglect to take into consideration is that the crash was due to bad financial prospecting and speculation, not from bad technology. The Internet has long since moved on and is bigger and more powerful than ever.

The recent press conferences of the Columbus Symphony Musicians serve as an another excellent example of how the web can change the direction of the negotiation tide. No less than 24 hours after the musicians went on YouTube with their press conferences, their management woke up from their self-imposed coma and offered to resume contract negotiations.

I started a new temp job today working for a technology company and in our first meeting, we watched a superb video (see below) that graphically illustrates why web technology matters. All contract negotiation issues aside, both sides of the symphonic music organization spectrum – symphony management and the AFM – could benefit from the information in this video.

Without a doubt tactical use of web technology can have a tremendous impact for any arts organization. And in our field specifically – which seems to be suffering from a Great Depression of creative marketing strategies – it is time quite frankly, to wake up and smell the coffee.