Changes in marketing in the classical music business over the last 20 years

Abstract

My paper focuses on how the classical music business has radically changed in the way it has operated over the last 20 years in the UK, with a particular emphasis on marketing. My starting point is the EMI recording of Vivaldi’s popular work the Four Seasons which I worked on as an employee of EMI at the time. I illustrate the basic principles of the marketing campaign portraying a project that was visionary in that it took a pop marketing approach to a classical music recording and successfully reached a new buyer, a non-traditional one. My paper traces developing marketing tactics used by artists and other organisations in the classical music field indicating how this genre of music is highly alert to promoting itself to both traditional and non-traditional consumers.