On May 28th, 2021, OC welcomed Carol Kehoe (Tafelmusik), Neil Middleton (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), Hugh Donnan (Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra), and Bernard LeBlanc (Canadian Federation of Musicians) to the second forum in our three-part series on the Future of the Digital Orchestra. The topic: Finances.
The conversation began with a summary of research insights from The Arts Firm based on in-depth interviews with orchestras and performing arts organizations around North America, reflecting on their experience with digital activities during COVID-19 and the future they see for digital. Then, we heard from our speakers in a series of short presentations followed by panel discussion and Q&A.
Here are a few key learnings about finances and digital content:
What enabled the digital explosion during COVID-19?
Several special factors enabled orchestras’ shift to digital this past year:
- The CFM’s COVID-19 side letter has reduced artistic costs for digital significantly
- Wage subsidies have kept musicians and staff employed
- The performing arts could only be consumed digitally
- Orchestras were largely able to retain pre-paid subscriptions and sponsorships
- Non-traditional venues became practical
- Some new project grants became available
- Staff had capacity in the absence of live concerts to devote to digital
- New projects created excitement (but also burnout)
Which of these enabling factors will or won’t continue in the next 2-5 years? How might a shift in these factors impact your future digital plans and capacity? Our interviews with orchestras around North America found that online ticket revenues are approximately 5-10% of a normal year’s ticket sales from live concerts. Your digital pricing strategy may emphasize access, flexibility, or trying to recoup some of your costs – but with its low ticket revenue and high production costs, digital does not pay for itself. A sustainable digital strategy for orchestras coming out the pandemic will not look the same as what we’ve done during the pandemic.
Creating a Sustainable Strategy
Understanding value
As Neil emphasized, the more you dig into the value of digital for your organization specifically, the more likely you are to develop strategies that help you achieve your goals. Do you see digital as a temporary connection between your musicians and local community while venue doors are closed? As a long-term bridge to new audiences around the world? How might digital help you deliver on your orchestra’s mission (e.g. Newfoundland Symphony’s outreach across the province), and how might it distract you from it? The post-pandemic era will be a learning experience, just as the pandemic was.
Understanding capacity
Carol emphasized the importance of understanding your organization’s capacity coming out of the pandemic. Do you have the resources to sustain effective in-person and digital programming simultaneously? Take staff, musicians, and volunteers into consideration – does your team have the capacity to work throughout the day, work live concerts at night, and serve digital patrons as well? What will you prioritize to deliver on your mission long-term? It’s okay if we can’t do everything at once! Set reasonable, clear expectations for your team and your audiences regarding performances that are live-only, digital-only, or available in both mediums.
Digital Revenue – Getting Creative
Online concerts are everywhere these days. What makes your orchestra special to a digital patron such that they’ll spend their time and money to connect with you in their homes? Work with marketing to make sure your work is discoverable, starting with your local community – those nearby (be that in your city or your province) are most likely to feel a connection to your orchestra, even through their screens, and engage in-person when concert halls open up again.
That said, ticket sales are not the only revenue stream when it comes to digital content. For example, you may promote the added value of digital to sponsors – think of playing advertisements at the beginning or end of a session or during an intermission, emphasizing the number of people a sponsor can reach more deeply by having their ad in a video rather than in the back of a program.
Opportunities for Collaboration & Economies of Scale
Though artists are intuitive collaborators it can be difficult to structure and organize joint projects between organizations. There was a lively discussion in the session’s Zoom chat about how performances from orchestras across the country were once featured regularly by CBC on the radio (an early “cousin” of digital!), though this has declined in recent years. With the challenging financial realities of digital on the individual orchestra scale, what collaboration and economies of scale could help our sector realize a lively and accessible online ecosystem for Canadian orchestras’ work long term? The panelists and participants mused on a national joint-library of digital content that could take advantage of our search-driven world. We’ve sped decades forward in digital innovation over the last year – what are our dreams and next steps now?
OC is grateful to Carol, Hugh, Bernard, Neil and everyone that joined the discussion and offered great insight. We deeply appreciate the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund in helping to make our Future of the Digital Orchestra research and events happen. We are also grateful to our steering committee (Bernard LeBlanc from the Canadian Federation of Musicians, Robert Fraser from the Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians, Jovanny Savoie from Conseil québécois de la musique, Tim Crouch from Soundstreams / OC’s Digital Committee, and Tanya Derksen from Philadelphia Orchestra / Board Member at OC), who provided oversight and feedback throughout the project. This project was managed by The Arts Firm. Be sure to explore the recordings, Powerpoints, and key learnings from our other two Future of the Digital Orchestra sessions: Audiences (May 21, 2021) and Pride of Work (June 4, 2021).
Resources:
in the fall of 2020 to better understand Canadian orchestras’ digital activities in the age of COVID. We’d been informally monitoring this work since the start of the pandemic; even so, we were bowled over by the range of orchestras who have embraced digital content capture and sharing, their learnings, their honest expression of the challenges, their commitment to keeping artists working, and to maintaining lively and engaging contact with their communities. Learnings from the survey will certainly influence OC’s advocacy and learning efforts moving forward. But I think the survey’s greatest value could be its reflection back to respondents of the vitality and shared interests across the Canadian orchestral community.” – Katherine Carleton, Executive Director at Orchestras Canada. 
have done a remarkable job of reinventing themselves during COVID. The amount and quality of digital content produced are exceptional. It has not only kept orchestras closely connected to their public but also brought in new audiences. It is clear our sector must continue innovating to grow our impact. However, funding questions are already apparent and will only become more glaring when we start presenting live concert seasons again.” – Neil Middleton, VP Marketing & Sales at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and board member at OC. 
digital initiatives since March 2020 is an exciting statistic. Many of us have been wanting to expand our digital offerings; however, the expertise, funding and fear held us back. This pandemic has opened that door for all of us, which is a wonderful opportunity.” – Taras Kulish, Executive Director at the Orchestre classique de Montréal.