{"id":1627,"date":"2010-08-14T12:30:59","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T11:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=1627"},"modified":"2010-08-14T12:30:59","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T11:30:59","slug":"too-much-in-the-way-from-artwork-to-consumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/08\/14\/too-much-in-the-way-from-artwork-to-consumer\/","title":{"rendered":"Too much in the way: from artwork to consumer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve written previously<\/a>\u00a0about the lack of power cultural consumers appear to wield, given that it\u2019s our wallets that arts companies and institutions are fighting over. What should put us in a position of strength, and result in a Golden Age of Artistic\u00a0Creations\u00a0which the masses are clamouring to experience, doesn\u2019t seem to be happening. Why ?<\/p>\n

Part of the reason, it seems to me, may lie in the infrastructure that comes between the artistic object (a concert, CD, art exhibition, or latest novel) and the consumer experience.<\/p>\n

Before the object even reaches the public, all manner of individuals have made decisions about it: what people want, what they will like, what they might pay, how it should be packaged to appeal to them, and so on. From marketing managers to distribution teams, sales executives and in-house staff, the object has had decisions made about it, and the way it should be pigeon-hold, packaged, promoted and presented long before the actual consumer gets anywhere near it.<\/p>\n

This means that all sorts of decisions are made as a result of distribution strategies (release date, performance run, tour dates, retail price) and marketing psychology (presentation style, launch, advertising imagery and attendant promotional campaign) without necessarily having any bearing on the work itself.<\/p>\n

How the cultural object reaches the public is the result of protracted planning and ideas about what will appeal, and ultimately what will contribute to successful sales. This takes away the innate appeal of the object itself, and replaces it with hyper-marketing trappings designed, not to make it accessible, but to make it sell well.<\/p>\n

\"Renee
Renee Fleming: out of this world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This latter factor, the distinction between accessibility and successful sales, is where part of the problem may lie. If everything is made accessible, there could be too much to choose from, and consumers would drown in a wealth of too much to experience. Instead, let\u2019s make certain things inaccessible, either through pricing or rendering something Esoteric and Difficult in comparison, so that people will buy the rubbish. Let\u2019s package artists that are only half-decent as easy to access, performing works that everyone half-knows or knows that they like, such that they will sell. Why buy discs of Ren\u00e9e Fleming <\/a>or Cecilia Bartoli<\/a>, when you can have a CD by this lovely young girl with blonde hair singing stuff you probably already know, and\u00a0ok, she doesn’t sing it\u00a0very well at all, but hey, she\u2019s a Bright Pretty Young Thing and the album won\u2019t challenge you ?<\/p>\n

How can that be good for the cultural market-place ? Instead, why not let consumers decide, and trust that they can make informed decisions for themselves ?<\/p>\n