Classical music in itself is not elitist, but the way it has been presented and written about in the past often has been. When I started my blog in 2004, the medium's early days, my idea was simply to write in an engaging, community-focused way that was readable, personal and gently irreverent, hoping it might draw in new audiences. Now there's Opera Chic, posting streetwise, sassy material in more than up-to-date lingo, often the first to break the big opera stories, not to mention the gossip. Alex Ross, currently blogging at Unquiet Thoughts for The New Yorker, became a musico-literary star through a beautifully written blog that cross-fertilised his award-winning book The Rest is Noise. Musicians, too, have struck blogging gold: try Joyce DiDonato's blog YankeeDiva, as effervescent as her singing, or the off-the-wall literary acrobatics of pianist Jeremy Denk at ThinkDenk.
The resulting sense of an open, inclusive community is hugely significant because classical music lovers can feel so isolated. Concert halls are not always friendly places and listening to recordings is often a solitary activity. Now we're hooking up. We share views on Facebook, or tweet to exchange frustrations, opinions and jokes. And there are practical concerns. Maybe you play an instrument and want to find chamber music partners. Maybe you're a composer — how on earth do you get your music heard? Or visiting a new city, how do you find out what's on?
The internet is answering the lot. To find a concert or opera, searching by composer, artist, date, location, etc, go to BachTrack, which will tell you in seconds, and has launched a mobile phone "app" to provide information on the move. Looking for like-minded musical people? Join MusBook — social networking, forums, job ads and more for the musically-oriented. Or do you want all the info about an artist in one place, with biographies, videos, interviews and downloads to buy? Plushmusic may have the solution.
Dilettante Music offers yet another concept, aiming both to support musical careers and attract new listeners. Its founder, Juliana Farha, explains: "Dilettante was conceived as a space where classical performers could find a platform and a voice. I was alarmed by how intimidating classical music can be for people who haven't been exposed to it. The snobbishness of some of its gatekeepers doesn't help, but as an avid listener I was convinced more people would listen if they could find a way in." She sought an approach "that doesn't dumb the music down or make it ‘cool', but which is both pleasurable in its style and irreverent in its tone so they'd be seduced".
But maybe most valuably, Dilettante has a foot in the real world, with initiatives like a classical club night in East London in July 2008, or a recent competition to find a Digital Composer-in-Residence project, culminating in a concert by the London Sinfonietta. As Farha points out, "The internet is a tool, not an objective."
Exactly. With online growth proceeding at such a pace, it's too easy to forget that music is best experienced as a live, practical experience. Next, perhaps paradoxically, the internet should tempt music lovers away from their computers into shared real-time, whether to concerts, discussion groups or beyond. Still, I've no doubt that the spirit of openness online is the most encouraging development to enter the musical world in decades. It puts the future into our own hands: let's make it bright.
