Challenges and Opportunities in the Market for Classical Music and Opera Audiences

As part of the sociocultural changes related to digitalization, new musical reception practices are emerging in the field of classical music in many countries. New audio-visual online streaming services like the ‘Digital Concert Hall’ or ‘Philharmonie de Paris-Live’ promise to bring the ‘live’ experience of the classical concert or opera performances into the living-room and have achieved a noticeable number of users. At the same time, general attendance at classical music concerts is in decline. This raises the question whether audio-visual live-streaming will form an alternative/additional mode of classical music experience in the near future and how this will affect classical concert and opera culture, performance attendance, and everyday reception practices addressing recorded classical music and opera.

Additionally, the global Covid-19 pandemic, the resulting lockdown imposed in many countries, as well as related safety measures taken by governments pose big challenges to classical music culture. Concert producers, artists and audiences are still suffering intensely from the situation, whilst digital streaming of recorded or live music events has quickly turned out to be the only way to supply classical music to enthusiasts and maybe provide a new perspective for artists, musicians as well as opera and concert houses.

To provide answers to these questions listen and exchange ideas between academic researchers and practitioners, we have established an academic-industry collaboration network.