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7digital’s Heesang Jeon examines some of the issues classical music faces in the online era:
In most digital music services, classical music is an afterthought. It’s simply treated as a genre despite significant differences between pop music and classical music in terms of description, discovery and consumption. It’s time that user experiences for classical music listeners on streaming services and download stores are vastly improved.
Try a simple search like ‘Mozart’ on iTunes. In response, you get Mozart: 50 Classics (by Classic FM), Mozart for Brain Power and Mozart - 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces as top album results. These wouldn’t be the preferred choices for most classical music listeners. Try typing Mahler Symphony 2 in Spotify and, unfortunately, the top search result is Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major. OK, it’s still a Mahler symphony, but it takes some time to figure out who the conductor is (Iván Fischer). Worse, the album page does not even show the name of the orchestra.
By now, most classical listeners would have given up. The complexities of identifying and categorising classical music means the genre as a whole is difficult to deal with in digital terms. As such, it is not surprising that the transition of classical music and its listeners to digital service adoption is slower than that of pop music.
Getting metadata right (such as details on the composer, conductor and orchestra) and optimising search and browser experiences are necessary for a successful digital classical music service. However, it’s not all about metadata. As in pop music, discovery is everything. Typically, classical music listeners broaden their music libraries by comparing different recordings of the same work. While doing so, they get to know new conductors, orchestras and soloists. They enjoy finding out subtle differences between interpretations (it’s not surprising that classical music is a focus for high resolution audio initiatives) and like to debate which recording is the best interpretation and why. For them, it is deeply disappointing that even successful digital music services do not (and cannot) offer top 10 recordings of key classical works.
However, classical music can benefit from digital technologies and there are many lessons that can be learned from the successful transition of pop music to digital. Take an example of acoustic analysis of music files: there are many technologies and solutions that analyse acoustic characteristics of music to identify genre, mood, tempo and more. These are used to design music recommendations and playlisting solutions for ‘lean-back listening’.
While recommendations based on acoustic characteristics is not robust enough for classical music (where the mood of every piece is typically categorised as ‘serious’), automated music analysis technologies can prove to be very useful for listeners. They would allow users of digital music services to see further information on the structural elements and acoustic characteristics of recordings (such as tempo, volume and dynamics) and, more importantly, the characteristics of different interpretations of the same work.
There are currently few innovations offered to consumers in digital classical music, although there is a lot of potential. Innovation is slow precisely because classical music accounts for only three percent of the recorded music market. Digital music as a whole is rapidly growing and major players are naturally focusing their attentions on increasing shares in the other 97 percent of the market.
However, there are a few companies for whom classical music is a priority. Services like Composed, Grammofy, Idagio, Sinfini (from Universal Music Group), and the forthcoming MeloMe are beginning to make strides in this space. It’s time for the digital music industry to diversify and dedicate to classical music the specialised attention it both deserves and needs to retain its audience – and even gain new followers – in the digital age.
Heesang Jeon, Lead Product Owner at 7digital, oversees streaming and API platforms for the UK-based digital music service provider. He also leads classical music product development.
This article appears in the forthcoming print edition of M magazine.
In most digital music services, classical music is an afterthought. It’s simply treated as a genre despite significant differences between pop music and classical music in terms of description, discovery and consumption. It’s time that user experiences for classical music listeners on streaming services and download stores are vastly improved.
Try a simple search like ‘Mozart’ on iTunes. In response, you get Mozart: 50 Classics (by Classic FM), Mozart for Brain Power and Mozart - 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces as top album results. These wouldn’t be the preferred choices for most classical music listeners. Try typing Mahler Symphony 2 in Spotify and, unfortunately, the top search result is Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major. OK, it’s still a Mahler symphony, but it takes some time to figure out who the conductor is (Iván Fischer). Worse, the album page does not even show the name of the orchestra.
By now, most classical listeners would have given up. The complexities of identifying and categorising classical music means the genre as a whole is difficult to deal with in digital terms. As such, it is not surprising that the transition of classical music and its listeners to digital service adoption is slower than that of pop music.
Getting metadata right (such as details on the composer, conductor and orchestra) and optimising search and browser experiences are necessary for a successful digital classical music service. However, it’s not all about metadata. As in pop music, discovery is everything. Typically, classical music listeners broaden their music libraries by comparing different recordings of the same work. While doing so, they get to know new conductors, orchestras and soloists. They enjoy finding out subtle differences between interpretations (it’s not surprising that classical music is a focus for high resolution audio initiatives) and like to debate which recording is the best interpretation and why. For them, it is deeply disappointing that even successful digital music services do not (and cannot) offer top 10 recordings of key classical works.
However, classical music can benefit from digital technologies and there are many lessons that can be learned from the successful transition of pop music to digital. Take an example of acoustic analysis of music files: there are many technologies and solutions that analyse acoustic characteristics of music to identify genre, mood, tempo and more. These are used to design music recommendations and playlisting solutions for ‘lean-back listening’.
While recommendations based on acoustic characteristics is not robust enough for classical music (where the mood of every piece is typically categorised as ‘serious’), automated music analysis technologies can prove to be very useful for listeners. They would allow users of digital music services to see further information on the structural elements and acoustic characteristics of recordings (such as tempo, volume and dynamics) and, more importantly, the characteristics of different interpretations of the same work.
There are currently few innovations offered to consumers in digital classical music, although there is a lot of potential. Innovation is slow precisely because classical music accounts for only three percent of the recorded music market. Digital music as a whole is rapidly growing and major players are naturally focusing their attentions on increasing shares in the other 97 percent of the market.
However, there are a few companies for whom classical music is a priority. Services like Composed, Grammofy, Idagio, Sinfini (from Universal Music Group), and the forthcoming MeloMe are beginning to make strides in this space. It’s time for the digital music industry to diversify and dedicate to classical music the specialised attention it both deserves and needs to retain its audience – and even gain new followers – in the digital age.
Heesang Jeon, Lead Product Owner at 7digital, oversees streaming and API platforms for the UK-based digital music service provider. He also leads classical music product development.
This article appears in the forthcoming print edition of M magazine.
