I am thrilled that my masters project at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, beautifully marries the two disciplines of my degree: music with innovation.

We are conducting an experience-design and marketing project on how to make live concert performances of classical music more accessible to new demographics (our primary and secondary consumers - see below). Through the research of arts innovator David Taylor and his book "The Future of Classical Music", we have discovered that post-pandemic in-person concert audiences are down by 30% (Taylor, 2022, p.98).

Less than half of pre-pandemic concertgoers cite health concerns as a reason for not returning (Taylor, 2022, p.98-9). Moreover, post-pandemic attendance is above average at other events in the entertainment industry, such as the Premier League and Glastonbury Festival (Taylor, 2022, p.100). In addition, despite an observed increase in 18-25 year olds streaming classical music post-pandemic, this demographic is not represented at live performances (Radcliffe, 2021). These disparities demonstrate that the pandemic acted as a catalyst, exacerbating a pre-existing decline caused by underlying issues within the industry itself:

“systemic resistance to change, a stagnant and unevolved product, and unoriginal and out of date marketing” (Taylor, 2022, p.100).

Motivated by a need to increase concert revenue, a limited number of classical music institutions have begun to identify opportunities to market their concerts to new demographics (Bergauer, 2022). For example, the Austin Opera House are now appointing persons directly dedicated to audience experience, which illustrates that there is both demand and remuneration available for consultancy on concert accessibility (Goldstein, 2017). However, the majority of the industry is still disempowered or resistant to change (Wood et al., 2020). Therefore there is a considerable scope of opportunity for us to support the development of the industry towards a progessive, self-sustaining business model.

Mission: To revitalise the classical music concert industry by supporting clients to attract the primary and secondary consumers we have identified and achieving high audience satisfaction levels at live performances as a result of our concert experience-design.

Values:

• Impact driven innovation
• Delivering realisable solutions
• Human-centred design
• Modernisation through effectual logic
• Facilitation with integrity

Targets:

1. To achieve a 90% realisability rating on our ethnographically-researched concert design proposal and budgeted marketing plan, submitted to at least one orchestral client by January 16th 2023 (i.e. the client agreed for our Demonstrator concert). Clients will evaluate the proposal based on its desirability, feasibility, and viability. Achieving high scores on these elements will demonstrate our team’s credibility as a consultancy for new clients.
2. To increase the ticket sales of our orchestral client by 40% for our Demonstrator concert by researching a marketing plan and enabling our orchestral client to execute it. Achieving high ticket sales will assure our orchestral client that experience-based concert innovations are desirable, feasible, and viable.
3. To sell 20% of tickets to both our primary and secondary consumers by creating and marketing an attractive new offering of the concert experience. Achieving an increase in ticket sales to these demographics will demonstrate that our experience-based concert design is marketable to them and therefore desirable for orchestras looking to increase the accessibility of their concerts for younger generations.
4. To achieve a 90% satisfaction rating from concertgoers at our Demonstrator concert by executing an experience-design methodology which creates value for time and producing a response form for audience members to evaluate their experience. Achieving a high satisfaction rating will prove to our orchestral client that experience-based concert innovations are desirable.

Audience:

The stakeholders we will consider fall into two categories, consumers and customers:

Consumers are those who have varied levels of interest and appreciation for classical music, as well as different motivations for engaging with it. Our identified consumers range from those who lead a lavish lifestyle attending prestigious concerts on a regular basis, to those who show little engagement with music but enjoy music-based experiences. Across our varied personas, two broad groups emerge under a 18-25 demographic:

1. Primary Consumer: Individuals who hold an existing interest in classical music, but feel that classical-concerts are inaccessible or undesirable.
2. Secondary Consumer: Individuals who do not engage with classical music in any meaningful way, yet display an inclination or openness towards experiences which classical music and its live performance could offer.

Customers, also known as clients, will be those with decision-making power within venues and orchestras for paid concert events.

We have identified the following key shifts that will need to occur to achieve our outcomes and realise our potential impact.

Key Shifts:

1. Primary Consumer: They will feel welcomed at classical concerts and excited by the live experience of listening to music.
2. Secondary Consumer: They will have increased awareness of live classical events and be incentivised by the value of the wider experience surrounding the concert.
3. Customers: They will be audience-focused and feel eager and empowered to innovate the concert experience in line with new audience trends.

Given the primary component of our project is consultancy-based, we have already secured the interest of an orchestral client. Pending ethical approval, they have already agreed to commit one of their orchestras and its audience to be a focus group for the aforementioned methods. They will allow us to propose and prototype our new concert experience-design methodology.

Key Methods:

• Secondary (desk-based) research: establish case studies of progressive concert-based orchestral initiatives.
• Expert Interviews: semi-structured interviews of all personas to nuance and expand our demographic profiling, stakeholder mapping, and ideation process.
• Ethnographic design research: observational and contextual interviews of all personas during their concert-going, rehearsal, or management-based practice.
• Consultancy-based practice: regular iterations of proposals for our orchestra client.
• Demonstrator concert: culminating event with concepts tested by live audience.

Given the primary component of our project is consultancy based, we have already secured the interest of an orchestral client. Pending ethical approval, they have already agreed to commit one of their orchestras and its audience to be a focus group for the aforementioned methods. They will allow us to propose and prototype our new concert experience-design methodology.