Performing arts draw viewers to web content in pandemic
When the iron curtain of COVID-19 fell between performers and audiences in March, arts organizations large and small began cranking out free digital content to remain connected with their communities while stages were dark.
Concerts, conversations, classes, collages, child-friendly shorts and more filled arts websites and social media channels daily as institutions and individuals worked to preserve relationships and remind audiences of the arts’ societal importance. Was anybody watching? In Pittsburgh, the symphony, ballet and opera recorded encouraging numbers of viewers. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra said videos produced during quarantine drew roughly five times the number of views compared with similar video posts in 2019, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s professionally produced “PBT En Pointe” video drew more eyeballs in June than the average ballet performance in the Benedum Center.
Pittsburgh Opera hosted a streamed gala that sold about as many tickets as its live galas (about 300, though at a vastly lower cost, of course).
“We basically broke even between ticket sales and the costs of the video,” said Christian Cox, marketing and communications director at Pittsburgh Opera, who described the gala film as the closest approximation of an in-person event the opera could create — replete with a live, virtual red carpet, a chat feature and more.
“It wasn’t a revenue generator and wasn’t intended to be. This was about keeping up engagement,” he said.
Divergent streams
Not all content is created equal. Certain kinds of videos performed better than others, and social media is king in terms of content sharing. For example, Pittsburgh Opera launched a series of 50 daily videos wherein singers or staffers introduced a short clip from the opera’s video recording archives.
Mr. Cox said these videos pulled in about 1,000 views on average, primarily from being shared on Facebook. The videos also appeared on YouTube and
the opera’s own website, but those sites pulled in much lower numbers of viewers.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra also published videos from its archives but declined to share details about viewership for the “Friday Night Concerts” series. The Pittsburgh PostGazette also reached out to Pittsburgh Public Theater and City of Asylum, both of which offered digital content. Neither could provide data by Friday afternoon.
Content produced at home seemed to do well. The PSO published daily videos featuring musicians at home that averaged around 7,400 views, while the PBT’s dancer-produced videos averaged more than 1,000 views on Facebook and Instagram. Several went mildly viral, drawing thousands of additional views.
“What we did in our movement is sort of like a leap where you put your legs together in midair and after a couple turns come down facing in a different direction,” said Christine Wingenfeld, external affairs analyst at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
“I feel like we landed strongly at the end of our season.”
Culture Track, an arts-focused research group, released a report Tuesday about the impact of the coronavirus on the arts. It notes that of more than 2,500 individuals, about half said they participated in digital offerings provided by arts organizations. Only about 13% of respondents reported paying for online content. The report also identified online activities for kids as a high priority.
“Our mission is still to keep great music in every life, and we wanted to continue to provide music to the community and stay out in front of them,” said Aleta King, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s vice president of marketing and sales.
The symphony’s practice tip videos drew more than 5,500 views on average, while videos aimed at children ages 3-8 averaged about 2,200. The ballet’s Zoomstreamed community classes and adult fitness classes attracted comparable numbers to pre-shutdown, in-person classes.
A view on Facebook does not mean someone watched an entire video but rather passed a minimum threshold of a few seconds. And while views and engagement do not necessarily translate to direct sales, the symphony has seen an increase in annual fund donors since COVID-19 struck.
Contracts, futures
Part of the difficulty in pivoting to digital content lies in contractual issues around the rights to performances, as different entities can hold rights to the music, choreography and performance itself. Around the country, organizations rushed to simplify the process and remove some of the restrictions to allow companies to stream additional content, but it remains difficult.
“The agreements make some things we want to do impossible, but our musicians work with us however they can on this,” Ms. King said. “When it had to happen quickly, that’s when you say, ‘Boy, I wish we were farther down the road in terms of digital production.’”
Pittsburgh Opera is not allowed to post or stream complete arias from operas without compensating artists, but this restriction was waived during the pandemic. For many arts organizations, this relaxation in regulations could lead to continued digital initiatives in the future.
“I’d be very surprised when we’re post-COVID if all the kinds of digital engagement initiatives we were doing lately just vanished,” Pittsburgh Opera’s Mr. Cox said. “Some things will continue; some won’t. It’s very important to resist the temptation to just throw content out for the sake of throwing up content.”
And while the content is free at the moment to foster community, that could change down the road when organizations begin to rebuild.