8 thoughts on keeping in touch with your audiences

Last Friday I held my first virtual room in the Classical music club on Clubhouse. As most of us musicians are done teaching for the summer or rounding up the 2020/2021 concert season and think about going on vacation, even if just for some days, I thought it would be interesting to talk about connecting and keeping in touch with our audiences both on stage and off stage.

There were some really great points brought up in the room, so I just needed to take notes of what was said. Below are some of the ideas I find need to be shared:

Don't be shy or afraid of your audiences. If possible, meet them after the concert, be approachable. We often times forget that the people who came to see and hear us didn't just step out from their house and walked into the hall. They made the conscious decision to dedicate a portion of their day to us and the concert experience starts with them buying a ticket, followed by preparing, arriving at the venue, waiting, listening, having a drink or dinner afterwards, getting back home. Suddenly a one hour concert transforms itself into an entire evening.
There are many ways to grow and interact with your audiences, not only the "old way". There are many examples of musicians who grew a strong and loyal following on Instagram, for example, which allowed them to progress in their careers. One such example is the violinist Esther Abrami, with more than 240000 followers on Instagram alone, who got signed by Sony Classical for a recording deal.
Keep an open mind, only that way will you manage to grasp and grab the opportunities which come your way.
Talk to your audiences, interact with them. But remember to practice what you want to say. As much as I enjoy talking to colleagues about music and our jobs, moderating a room on Clubhouse for the first time was tougher than I thought. If you come out as unsure of what you are saying, the audiences will feel that and in some way the excitement about the concert decreases.
Less is more. In connection to point #4, you don't need to talk for 30 minutes or give a lecture on the sonata form or the life of a composer. You want to get your audiences and listeners into the right mind state to follow you and your music. It can be giving them an image, or telling a very short story, or conveying a mood. It doesn't have to be complicated, keep it easy and relatable.
Embrace the digital world and the audiences you want to reach out to. If you want to increase your Gen Z audiences, you will need the right channels to get through to them. Explore Tik Tok, Snap chat, Twitch, etc to get in touch with them. Chances are that the millenials are on Instagram and the boomers are on Facebook and so on.
The streamed concerts are here to stay. Perhaps you have a fan base somewhere on the other side of the world who are unlikely to be able to make the journey to hear you live near your homebase. The streamed concerts are a great way to get in touch with them. Be sure to create the most pleasant and memorable experience for them. Think of the camera, microphones, what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.
Engage with your audiences and make them become a part of your creative journey. The famous pianist Valentina Lisitsa lets her followers on different social media channels decide one piece on the programme of her next concert. That way her fans feel connected to her.

One more thought from me, invest into your knowledge and management skills. One such investment which gave me a lot of confidence and allowed me to go forward with my career, broadening my horizons, was the BYOM Academy. After I took the base and the sales course I started a database on a CRM platform called HubSpot. If you'd like to learn more and imprive your career with a database, I will be doing a webinar on Saturday 17th of July at 6 PM CET. You can register here.

Have a great weekend!

Ghenadie