Op-Ed: The Arts Industry Revolution Puts Money On the Backseat

As today's omnidirectional communications have sprung unlimited location insensitive fanship toward basically anything, the arts industry has reached a pivotal point. Where monetary considerations previously played a single decisive role in success making, enabling an enterprise buy advertising attention with mere financial mass, the free resources - now offered by the googles of today - are shifting the attention and attraction toward sophisticated knowledge, ability and education.

Just ten years ago, a one-sheet or press release and an "effective" mailing list with five hundred national or local media addresses were key to having a successful presentation, opening or concert. Media representatives would be wined and dined, and two weeks later a write-up would magically appear in a newspaper or magazine. Weeks or months later the same would be repeated with little change and no objection. Everyone happy. The most affluent presenters would additionally buy top-dollar ad space in target audience publications.

Today, with unlimited free marketing opportunities everywhere online, and the younger audience overwhelmingly preferring handheld devices to paper in the mailbox, the field for attention has changed the parameters for radiating broadcasting. In the 21st century jungle of information, new media network knowledge and ability to communicate have taken a primary role as components to success. While business of the Wall Street-kind will still be resource oriented as the term is known in the traditional sense, arts will catch the audience's attention only through expertise where media savviness and in-depth artistic understanding meet. Where strong artistic directors serve the plug of presentation and one-off marketing, artists and labels will need to guarantee an ongoing presence with easy-to-find solutions to go. Home pages started a platform for the latter fifteen years ago, although much of public was still reliant on tangible information. However, today, monthly subscription-based access to a sea of artistic expression, combined with full length free downloads and not the least fan pages on social networks, make up a combination in which the dynamic real-time based constancy offer a start toward a more conspicuous presence. Add a cloud based occasional press release and invitation as a worm sent to the iPhones and Blackberries - eventually replacing the traditional postal broadcast - and there's a formula under which a younger audience is more likely to be attracted to an occasion, eventually leading to the final step in the multiple steps of conversions in favor of a stable livelihood for the arts.