Podcasting Becomes Regular
Medium For UK Orchestras
17 September 2007
The rush to begin podcasting is a symbol for a wider embrace of technology by the UK's major Orchestras
‘Welcome to the Philharmonia Orchestra’s first video podcast.’; ‘Hello, welcome to the CBSO’s first podcast’; ‘Welcome to Liverpool Philharmonic’s first podcast’!
Classical music and technology have not always been portrayed as the happiest of bedfellows, but the enthusiasm for podcasting displayed by British orchestras over the past two years suggests that such a picture is far from complete. Since October 2005, when the Philharmonia Orchestra celebrated the 60th anniversary of its first public performance with the release of the first podcast by a UK orchestra, many other ensembles have followed suit. The London Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few, all produce regular podcasts. In the last few weeks, the Philharmonia Orchestra has once again pushed ahead in the field, adding a visual element to the audio dimension by producing video podcasts. But what is the attraction of podcasting, and how are orchestras using this technological innovation?
Let’s clear up one point first. What is a podcast? According to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, which officially welcomed the word to English in 2005, a podcast is ‘a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar programme, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player’. Podcasts can be downloaded to your computer from a website or iTunes, copied to your iPod and burned to CD. So, the theory goes, it is possible to listen to a podcast any time, anywhere. And, perhaps most importantly, podcasts are free to download.
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How are orchestras using podcasts? Monthly magazines, artist interviews, news, features, videos, music extracts, little-known facts about orchestra members, backstage gossip, listening guides, talking programme notes: if it can be heard, it can be podcasted. If you want to know ‘which conductor is fussy about his bananas, and what happens when you get caught in a blizzard’, ‘which player enjoys an afternoon snooze’, or the answer to the cryptic question ‘Double basses?’ a podcast might well have the answer. On the other hand, podcasts also cater for those who would like to listen to ‘a backstage feature on the refurbished Royal Festival Hall’, ‘a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation [with] Sir Colin Davis’ or find out about pieces of music.
As with many initiatives explored by twenty-first century orchestras, podcasts are seen to help make music more accessible and understandable. For orchestras, podcasts are rather like bite-size in-house music magazines, designed to tap into the every-expanding group of internet users. When the Philharmonia Orchestra started podcasting in 2005, Managing Director David Whelton explained that it was part of a drive to make ‘our music available and relevant, and to explore the new technologies that can bring us closer to our audiences’. Accordingly, although some podcasts are hosted by professional presenters and animateurs, musicians from the orchestra are often involved, adding that sought-after personal touch. As a marketing tool, you can’t beat ‘em. And for audiences, podcasts can whet the appetite. Quite literally in some cases: the Philharmonia helpfully informs its listeners that hearing a symphony is ‘a bit like going for a four course meal but in the case of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, it’s a feast’, whilst music broadcaster Tommy Pearson suggests that the LSO is ‘as hot as a vindaloo’. Perhaps, then, an orchestral concert is like a sit-down dinner and podcasts are the party bags?
