How can streaming help the classical music industry?

This article was written and published for our partners at La Lettre du Musicien. Read the entire article here.

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At Vialma, this is a challenge we face every day, especially since the pandemic. We have a duty to put our streaming platform dedicated to classical music and jazz at the service of cultural institutions, along with all our technological and editorial know-how. In this way, these institutions will be better able to weather the crisis and project themselves into the future by anticipating new uses.

To explain how streaming can help, it's easiest to let three of our partners speak, whom we've successfully accompanied on very different projects in 2021: The Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Auditorium-Orchestre national de Lyon.

Aix-en-Provence Festival: a 100%-digital patrons benefits

Interview with Mathias Coullaud, Director of Sponsorship and Development, Festival d'Aix en Provence, and Anne Robert, Head of Communications, Crédit Agricole-CIB.

"We were looking to take the experience initiated in 2020 with #LaScèneNumérique a step further, so as to nurture exchanges with our patrons and partners outside the festival period," explains Mathias Coullaud. In the context of weakening social ties, the Aix-en-Provence Festival has teamed up with Vialma and Crédit Agricole-CIB's Communications Department to create an exclusive digital journey around The Marriage of Figaro, dedicated to employees.

For Anne Robert, "it was an unexpected way of involving and thanking them for their efforts during this long period of remote work". This initiative, presenting W. Mozart's opera "through unique multimedia content ranging from the preparation of the show in the Festival Workshops to its production on stage at the Théâtre de l'Archevêché", was praised for its originality and innovative character. "It was an opportunity to share cultural and artistic content created in Aix-en-Provence, beyond its spatial and temporal limits".

Why Vialma? "Vialma possesses real editorial skills, providing real advice and support. We really appreciated the participative way in which they worked with us," explains the Festival. "Vialma was able to adapt over the 8-week course to meet our employees' expectations, our channels and our communication rhythm as closely as possible," emphasizes Anne Robert. "Vialma also has a very extensive catalog and offers varied, high-quality content: playlists, articles, photos, videos, quizzes".

Auditorium-Orchestre national de Lyon : maintaining a genuine relationship with their audience

Interview with Emmanuelle Durand, General Secretary of Auditorium-Orchestre national de Lyon

In the context of the pandemic and concert cancellations, the AONL chose to offer several cycles of playlists to its public. The aim was to "bring the season programs to life and to be heard", to maintain the link with the public and "offer a dreamy musical interlude, moments of respite and escape through music", says Emmanuelle Durand. These playlists, integrated into the various pages of their website in the form of players, are also regularly shared within newsletters: reccurent musical moments in phase with the orchestra's communication objectives: "communicating today requires sound, video, interaction... This is all the more true if we wish to reach a younger audience who have grown up with social networks and the all-digital world" explains Emmanuelle Durand.

The playlists were a great success with the public, especially the collaborative playlists which "generated a very high level of engagement and created a sense of emulation at certain times of the year": the Christmas playlists or the playlist by musical director Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, sent out at the beginning of summer to accompany everyone on their way to vacation.

Why Vialma? "Their attentiveness to our needs and constraints, their responsiveness and ability to adapt are very much appreciated. Our exchanges have always been fluid and constructive, enabling our collaboration to evolve over time" emphasizes Emmanuelle Durand.

London Symphony Orchestra: offering an innovative digital experience to their public

Interview with Becky Lees, Director of LSO Live

Faced with the challenge of the Covid pandemic, the LSO has actively sought to increase its presence on the digital and international scene. Very quickly, the convergence between the orchestra's strategic objectives (notably the digitalization and the search for an extra-British audience) and the services offered by Vialma became obvious. The LSO also noted that the pandemic had increased its audience's confidence and receptiveness to digital formats.

For the LSO, offering interactive concert evenings was "an excellent way of deepening the relationship with international audiences - particularly French ones - and reinforcing the digital content strategy". In addition to these three new events, dedicated newsletters and a multimedia space featuring playlists, videos, albums and feature articles co-created by the orchestra and Vialma have contributed to the creation of a "captivating musical experience, which encourages longer attendance times". "The audience - and the musicians - experienced authentic interactions during the livestreaming events".

Why Vialma? "Vialma is an enthusiastic team full of ideas looking to increase our revenue and improve the audience experience," Becky Lees tells us. "One of our musicians even declared it the best online event he'd ever attended!"