Recordings of New Music Need to be More Accessible
As a composer in today’s internet era, making a decision about your online presence is essentially unavoidable. Even rejecting the internet altogether is a choice in itself, because it limits the ways audiences can discover your music. About five years back, when I was thinking about what my online presence would be, and whether I would venture into the wild-west of music streaming, I felt like I had no blueprint for what a New Music composer typically did. Composer websites range from being simple business cards to full-fledged artist websites, but they are (thankfully) fairly common. Where the issues really arise are in terms of discography: can I listen to anything other than a small selection of works? Are recordings available for free, or on major streaming platforms like YouTube or Spotify? Is there even a recording which exists?
The answer, more often than not, is no. The reasons for this are myriad, systemic, and too lengthy to go into here, but the end result is that trying to discover new composers online feels like someone keeps saying “you had to be there.” Music discovery in the modern era frequently begins with people listening to recordings and ends with fans deciding to go to a live show. But New Music operates in exactly the opposite direction, with audience members enjoying premiers, and only afterwards locating a recording. Although it is very exciting to go into a concert with no expectations and be surprised by what one hears, we have to acknowledge that this presents a barrier for potential audience members.
With a lack of accessible recordings, New Music suffers in terms of online visibility. Community-building is increasingly an online activity, with subreddits, chat groups, and comment sections serving to connect people who share a love for the same thing. Free, online recordings would help to meet people where they are, and ultimately result in filling more seats. I am not about to go into the well-worn diatribe on the health of New Music or classical music at large because I don’t think it is particularly helpful, or entirely accurate; but it should be said that things could be improved by getting more people involved.
Phrases like “filling seats” and “more involvement” somewhat obscure what really needs to happen first: discovering and loving the music. In terms of discovery, I think that the industry has been improving with initiatives like community and student outreach, but availability of recordings is an overlooked component in today’s digital era. With more resources allotted to New Music recordings, a vibrant online fanbase would be fostered, and the entire industry would be helped. Securing funding is no small task; but just like a company can’t grow without first investing in research and development, I think that making recordings more accessible would bring more people into the industry. Let’s emphasize recordings as critical to accessibility and outreach, and help to make more fans of the beautiful world of New Music.