KillingClassicalMusic

In light of the last week’s two posts on the failure of the Honolulu Symphony (here & here), I thought it wold be good to share this video of Seth Godin.  In it he talks about entrepreneurship in today’s environment and what leaders need to do to be successful.  While he talks in the context of more typical businesses, there is no reason the message shouldn’t resonate with arts organizations.  You can watch the full video here, but below I’ve highlighted a few quotes that I think are particularly relevant and important.

“…there’s a revolution going on and the industrial economy is ending.” - What this means in the arts world is that the old institutional models need to be rethought.  Many are already.  We see this happening with the growth and success of small, localized arts groups - think Classical Revolution.  This de-institutionalization reflects people’s desire to interact with people rather than cold institution, and it means that to be successful, arts organizations need to connect with their audiences on a personal level, by putting a face on what can easily be just a massive silhouette.

“…if you can do things that are scarce, people are going to reward you.” - What is scarce in the arts world?  Certainly, performing at a high level is common place today.  Even if it doesn’t happen in a particular town, world-class musical performance is available at the click of a button to nearly anyone around the world.  The questions to ask then are: What does your arts organization do that deserves praise and reward?  What makes you stand out?  Is your group scarce, or is it just one of several?

“Now, what you do for a living is you help the community, what you do for a living is organize, what you do for a living is contribute.  And you side job is to sell insurance - not the other way around.  If you become that indispensable member of the community…and you are there and people know it, then selling insurance becomes easy.” - Simply replace “selling insurance” with “performing high quality classical music,” and this is a formula that is directly applicable to any major orchestra or other arts organization.

“This is all good news, because it’s scared everybody else…It’s made everybody else so afraid that they won’t do anything interesting which makes it far easier to be on the edges, far easier to stand out.” - This means everyone, large and small, has an opportunity in today’s environment to be that unique organization that is essential to its community, provides something no one else provides, and experiences the success that comes along with that.  The fear of the marketplace represents a magnificent opportunity for those arts groups willing to take risks and do something different to be truly remarkable.

And so in the arts we’re presented with a real chance to, as Godin puts it, “[do] the hard work of being original.”  It is an exciting time.

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed here.  You can also follow me on Twitter here, or like KillingClassicalMusic on Facebook here.