In a recent article for the New Yorker, Alex Ross examined the effects of the downtown club scene on the uptown classical model, writing: “As they pontificate on blogs and websites such as Sequenza21and NewMusicBox, distribute music via MySpace pages and Internet radio, and post flyers for their shows, they act for all the world like unsigned rockers trying to make it in the city.”
This nouveau form of crossover is a genre gaining steam. The Met recently announced that composer Nico Muhly will compose an opera for the house, in conjunction with Lincoln Center, for the company’s 2013-14 season [see p. 6]. On the other end of the spectrum, Renée Fleming, who previously crossed over to jazz with 2004’s Haunted Heart, has emerged from the recording studio with a foray into indie rock, including covers of Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie.
If the band performing in the East Village were to compare bank accounts with the chamber ensemble near Lincoln Center, the numbers would more or less match up. And with more audiences growing musically omnivorous, the accounting for taste is no longer an excuse. Perhaps more than borrowing musical idioms and performance practices from their indie counterparts, singers can and should look to the indie D.I.Y. promotional aesthetic for further inspiration when it comes to filling seats or selling CDs.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Rossini first used his overture to Il barbiere di Siviglia as a prelude to an opera about Queen Elizabeth. Movie trailers famously make use of the scores from previous films. And you can bet that most mainstream musicians take the ideas behind these examples to heart, particularly when it comes to visual promotions.
As we’ve said previously in this column, a friend with a good eye for photography or a local art student or grad can do your photos for either a reduced fee or barter. Beyond headshots, however, try to get one or two non-headshots that can be used for promotional materials or album artwork.
“If you do a photo shoot, whether you’re hiring a photographer or using a friend’s time, try to get as many different shots out of that as possible so that you aren’t just looking for that one thing that will be usable for a particular event or record,” says composer Judd Greenstein, a co-founder of indie classical label New Amsterdam Records (and a doctoral candidate at Princeton writing his dissertation on hip-hop). “You can have a number of shots done at once that seem like they were done in different places—you change your outfit, you change your hairstyle, you change the atmosphere that you’re creating.
“Emphasize quality over quantity,” he adds. “If you have one or two great images, the benefit of that from a cost-saving perspective is that you don’t have to do too much to them for your event or album to look really professional. We’re inclined to think that a captivating and wonderful image indicates captivating and wonderful music.”
Just as important as good photographs is good copy. If you aren’t one for writing, even concert taglines, consult a writer friend and ask them to look over your copy in exchange for coffee. The personalized, one-on-one interaction will be far more valuable than a copywriting manual or MediaBistro.com class.
Go Digital . . .
A little over a year ago on her Arts Journal blog, Life’s a Pitch, publicist Amanda Ameer (who has experience in both the classical and indie PR worlds) posted a photo of a Prada shopping bag overflowing with the ubiquitous padded mailing envelopes that are probably sitting somewhere in your drawer/closet/cabinet as you read this. Next to the bag is a CD to show the scale—it would easily take three or four discs to scale the height of Ameer’s post office trip.
“It cost me $300 to mail them out,” she said. “And it cost [singer/composer Gabriel Kahane] however much money to print them. . . . Obviously, if you’re starting out, whatever fee you have to pay to get the mechanism [for digital downloads] into place is going to be less than postage and printing costs.”
As the music industry on the whole moves toward iTunes and other forms of Web download, the CD is gradually becoming obsolete. Journalists are more likely to lose a physical copy of your CD than they are a digital copy. In fact, with a digital copy, your music has a better chance of making it onto a writer’s computer and there’s an excellent chance it may be heard, even if by accident.
. . . But Don’t Pixelate Your Product
Going digital, however, does not mean you have to sacrifice personality. Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want promotion for the release of In Rainbows earned the band not only a nice chunk of change, but also an expanded fan base as appreciative of the consideration to their wallets as they were of the band’s music.
“Obviously they’re in a financial position where they could afford to do something like that,” indie rock publicist Marisa Handren noted in an interview on Ameer’s blog. “But I feel if any artist really takes the time to consider what their listeners might want, you can actually bring something to them that’s interesting, unique, and enjoyable for everyone involved.”
Moreover, for the rare physical copies you may need of a CD, make them something special. The explosively popular Vampire Weekend’s initial CDs were Staples CD-Rs with the info scrawled in marker. The contrast between the innocuous packaging and the wellspring of sound it contained caused many to stop and take notice.
Handren cites a few other examples of trends in indie packaging—poster inserts, interchangeable cover art, limited edition packaging—that can even be incorporated as digital packaging. (“Why not get a digital artist to create a cover art specific to the download that makes use of the medium?” Ameer suggests.) Your vocal power and musical prowess aside, creative, eye-catching packaging will get additional notice—and perhaps a story in and of itself. And mostly all you need is the time and thoughtfulness to analyze the market you’re trying to reach. (For more inspiration, check out Ameer’s Life’s a Pitch blog for the full details on the band Deerhoof’s sheet music project.)
Talk Is Cheap . . . But It Doesn’t Cheapen
In a 2007 article, musician Sufjan Stevens wrote: “There are a lot more terms flying around today . . . but have you heard about Friend Rock? It’s very simple: you are going to a show not so much as a fan of the music, but as a fan of your friend, the musician, on stage.” Since then, Friend Rock has, in many indie circles, become the rule rather than the exception, and it’s led to increased audiences and even the occasional spike in CD sales.
“I don’t see how it’s a bad thing to help each other out,” adds Ameer, whose friends and colleagues in the indie world consistently promote one another in person and on the Internet. “But [because of] whatever happened a long time ago in classical promotion, it just isn’t done. If someone has a really great Facebook presence or a really great website, and another has a lot of industry friends, for them to use what they have at their disposal to help their friends . . . everyone should be doing that.”
Form a collective. Team up with fellow singers, instrumentalists, and composers and use each other’s networks to spread friendly word about upcoming CDs or performances. Rockers frequently pool their resources, whether it’s double- or triple-bill concerts, working on one another’s recording projects (remember that Christmas duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie?) and linking to each other’s blogs.
The greater the word of mouth, the more you’re likely to reach audience members—either directly or through the press. We wonder how many times Anthony Tommasini was linked to pianist Jeremy Denk’s mock-interview with Sarah Palin on his blog, Think Denk, before mentioning it in a review of the pianist at Carnegie Hall.
