How Would You Improve the Classical Music Industry?

If you had a magic wand and could change something about the classical music industry, what would it be? Here are the responses from community on social media… To take part in our next poll, follow us @alterclassical on Instagram, Threads, Twitter or Facebook.

- “Get it funded!”
- “Funding to bring performances into the public space, in an effort to make ‘Classical’ music a bigger part of everyday life!”
- “Breaking the ridiculous funding cycle and fund more proper music. The relationship between cost and income for concerts is absurd.”
- “Low streaming fees, public funding cuts and limited opportunities for composers to financially support their work 🪄”
- “Proper contracts for orchestral musicians”
- “Support freelancers”
- “The fact that people are never paid what they are worth!”
- “I’d like to see more collaboration between the traditional and the contemporary ends of the field”
- “For venues to take chances on artists/programmes that are even slightly ‘out of the box’”
- “Stop playing so much music by dead people”
- “Improvisation”
- “Concert black. Dress how you like”
- “The old guard strict composer standard, written for ____ instrument, no interpretation forever and always, yawn”
- “More female conductors”
- “The name”
- “The perception that it's stuffy and for old people. That's not my experience at all.”
- “Reprioritize the user experience”
- “You can't grow or rebuild an audience and supporter base without first addressing the full range of bias-driven decision-making. This needs to be equally applied at the governance, administrative and artistic levels”
- “The attitude. The relentlessly rarified air that has become the tradition in classical music is intimidating to new listeners. It also makes performers reluctant to get their hands dirty with the music, often leading to dull, dispassionate performances.”
- “Trust and don't apologise for their history. The wonder of the journey from Monteverdi to Cage/Reich. Then innovate, (so-called) classical music has always innovated. Change now, new forms, new relationships with the musicians, with the audiences.”
- “You can't grow or rebuild an audience and supporter base without first addressing the full range of bias-driven decision-making. This needs to be equally applied at the governance, administrative and artistic levels”
- “The disconnect between marketers, practitioners, and audiences”
- “Stop making most of the opportunities for young people; some of us have come to understand our musical strengths later in life.”
- “Start putting “excellence” and “disability” in the same sentence, ie recognise and support that mass of disabled talent out there that is habitually overlooked by the mainstream classical music industry”
- “I’d probably just make it more accessible somehow, not even sure how. Magic, tho.”
- “I'd give opera singers the ability to act. If they were all as good as Dessay we'd be onto something.”

Hannah Fiddy is the Founder of Alternative Classical and a freelance marketing consultant, developing audiences for classical music. Described as a "classical innovator" by Classical Whisper, Hannah has created and promoted numerous concerts outside of traditional spaces, including warehouses, pubs, clubs and museums; interviewed some of the world's most famous composers; and guest lectured on innovation in the classical music industry. Hannah has managed the digital marketing for many music organisations and artists including choral composer John Rutter and The King’s Singers. In a past life she founded London Flashmob, producing quirky events from wedding proposals to cultural pranks for up to 1,000 people.

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