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Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study

January 16th, 2008

       In 1994 to 2004, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation set out on an ambitious task to study and fund the world of the American Symphony Orchestra.  The decade long $13 million initiative focused on many activities; some of which are the relationship the organizations had with audiences, fundraising, programming and the role of the musicians themselves.  There is a tremendous amount of information in this prolific endeavour.  I want to focus on a specific study that was commissioned early in the start of this enterprise. 

       In 2000, the Knight Foundation commissioned a study of orchestras and the public that they serve.  The study was called “How Americans Relate to Classical Music and Their Local Orchestras”  It was conducted by the research firm Audience Insight, LLC.  and involved 25,000 people in 15 different markets.  This specific research activity was the largest discipline specific study of arts consumers ever completed in the United States.  The results were quite interesting. 

Here is an excerpt from John Bare on the Knight Foundation website:

“Using different sets of measures to identify potential classical music consumers, the study explored adults’ affinity for classical music and then their ties to a specific orchestra. Crisscrossing these two dimensions, the study produced a market segmentation model that categorizes potential classical consumers into one of eight “prospect” groups. In all, about 27 percent of adults are prospects for their local orchestras. The rest of the adult population has so little interest in classical music that they cannot be considered likely customers for local orchestras.The top prospects fall into a group called Captured Prospects — people who are current subscribers or single-ticket buyers who attended a local orchestra concert more than once in the preceding year. That group is very small. The 15 orchestras attract only between 2 and 4 percent of adults in their communities on any sort of a regular basis. The second group, Low-Frequency Alumni of the orchestras studied, includes consumers who have been to a concert by the specific local orchestra at least once but now attend seldom if ever. That group is larger, about 15 percent of adults in communities of the orchestras studied. They’re considered prospects because they have had a trial experience with the orchestra at some point as an adult.Another 8 percent are the group called Uninitiated Prospects — adults who may have never attended a concert by the local orchestra, but who indicate they have a close relationship with classical music. Some, for instance, have friends and family members who attend concerts.”

       The statistic that had an indelible imprint on my mind when I first was aware of this study is that subscribers and single ticket buyers to the symphony are 2 to 4 percent of the population on average.  Noting that this is a niche marketplace industry, having a 2-4% market share is a tight spot.  This leaves 96% of the population of this country not regularly attending or even thinking about attending concerts.  The classical music industry has a mentality that it is the end all, be all of culture.  Music conservatories add to this false belief that the world revolves around their art form.  Well, here it is folks.  Market share is so important in business and every CEO in the world is obsessed with increasing it.  I guess the good news is that if we increase ours by 1%,  the effects could be amazing.  On the flip side, if we slip by 1% the results could be devastating.  In addition, another amazing statistic is that 74% of orchestra ticket buyers played an instrument or performed vocal music at some point in their life.

       To read the complete study click here. For more information on the Knight Foundation click here. 

Entry Filed under: Music Business