Cultivating Audiences in Cyberspace

Because the topic of the online music distribution scene is so hot this year, I decided to profile two string quartets that are reaching new audiences via the Internet. They are the Chiara String Quartet (www.chiaraquartet.net) and Ethel (www.ethelcentral.com). Both of these groups graduated from Juilliard. Both have specific artistic goals and strategies for reaching their online audiences. And both groups have a strong Web site and MySpace presence. If you are still unfamiliar with www.myspace.com, don't say a single word to another soul until you visit it yourself.

I contacted both groups and asked what impact their Web sites and correlating MySpace pages are having on their careers. It was a loaded question, and the responses came in chapter and verse. Ethel's violist, Ralph Farris, was most enthusiastic: "Ethel's Web site is massively important in building our audience … Nearly every day we are tweaking and editing, fact-checking and link-checking."

For many artists, their Web sites just provide a place where they can post their information, a few pictures, a couple of sound clips, and contact information. But forward-thinking artists are taking advantage of tools like video streaming, blogging, instant messaging, newsletters, memberships, broadcasting, and podcasting to interact with listeners and potential clients. Trend-watchers and futurists are now talking about an impending shift in online behavior, from the passive shopping and browsing experience of yesterday to a customizable and deeply interactive experience of today. The trend is so strong that it inspired Time magazine to print a computer screen on its 2006 end-of-year cover with reflective silver material and award the coveted Person-of-the-Year title to "You."

Consumers of the arts are also affected. They are now expecting greater interaction and a more multidimensional artistic experience online. This trend can only intensify as casual visitors become more intimate with artists and their work. How have Ethel and the Chiara met this need?

Arts consumers are now expecting greater interaction and a more multidimensional artistic experience online. More performing artists are turning to Internet radio to reach new audiences.

One of the richer examples came from an e-mail notice I received from Ethel last year. It was a last-minute invitation to attend a recording session. There were a set number of chairs for the recording session and they decided to give them to the first dozen or so from their newsletter subscriber list who responded to their invitation. The response was immediate, and all chairs were spoken for within minutes.

The Chiara String Quartet is no stranger to online experiences. It was among the first pioneering quartets to develop and launch a comprehensive Web site back in 2000. The newest design came after a summer of strategic planning and soul searching. The quartet members realized that they wanted to reach out to an audience beyond the established "classical" one. But they had to acknowledge "that many of the intelligent and engaged audience members of our generation were simply more comfortable hearing music in a club than in a concert hall," says Jonah Sirota, Chiara's violist. This same audience would also likely be more Web and technologically savvy than previous generations.

"The challenge," explains Sirota, "became how to appeal to that new audience—an audience coming into this with a clean slate (very little experience with classical music, positive or negative)—without alienating our concert-hall audience. The Web site was one of the first things we did to try to bridge this gap."

Indeed, the Chiara's Web site strikes a delicate balance between a trendy, East-Village look and the sophistication of the music they present. The navigation links offer a menu of interests that are typical for today's casual music browser: tour dates, music, blog, and MySpace are standard menu items on the Web sites of most popular music groups.

Ethel's experience with its Web site has evolved considerably, and the group members acknowledge that their eyes were originally larger than their stomachs. "EthelCentral is now in its third iteration. It has gone from a very quirky, Flash-driven, fun little space, to a behemoth HTML-meets-blog-meets-Flash site with conflicting codes and a temperamental calendar, to our current toned-down, content-driven, simple site," reports Farris. Their online presence is heavily integrated with the print materials. Everything from their logo, press-kit design, CD covers, and Web site flaunts their positive attitude, flair, and compelling personality. The image and connectivity work in helping their fans feel they are a part of something unique.

MySpace may now be considered old-school by some of the more progressive music Net mavens. But the site still commands enormous respect from those who are using it daily. "We get a great response to MySpace when we play in school settings (elementary, high school, or university)," says Sirota. "The kids literally can't believe that we're on MySpace, and they get so excited. And we usually get five to 10 new MySpace friends from a day of educational outreach. Those kids really follow what we're doing, too! The other really amazing thing about MySpace is that it plays a track of music when you first go to the page, which means that people who don't know us too well can decide very quickly if they like what we sound like. We get all kinds of new fans that way."

Farris agrees. "It's an amazingly slow and sometimes quirky site, but the opportunities to reach out to other artists and fans are remarkable … We regularly communicate with audiences and colleagues now even before we've met them live. Composers write to us, choreographers, directors, fiddle players, tubists—you name it."

The future for online engagement is only beginning. As artists and ensembles like the Chiara String Quartet and Ethel continue to draw followers and audiences worldwide, the tools afforded them through new technologies and greater bandwidth will continue to present opportunities for greater connectivity. Can this be anything but a positive sign for the future of the arts and audiences?

Derek Mithaug, director of career development, is a Juilliard faculty member and alumnus.