Another sign of the (record label) times

[My Alter Ego]

The Beatles did it when they started Apple. Macklemore did it, and wound up with a fistful of Grammy Awards.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra is now doing it, too — recording and releasing music on its own label, with the aim of calling the world’s attention to the orchestra’s talent and the distinctive sound characteristic of its home, Benaroya Hall.

For full article see this link:
http://seattletimes.com/html/entertainme...elxml.html

I'm glad the SSO is financially healthy enough to do this, and I hope that it works well for the group. It hasn't been that long ago that many arts organizations (including symphonic orchestras) were dropping like flies. (In fact, about 10 years ago the Seattle SO was on shaky ground.) Therefore, it's good news that some of these organizations have been able to reverse that downward trend and begin to take charge of their recording destinies (and profits, if any).

Symphonic orchestras have a specialized audience -- it's not a small niche, by any means, and from my observations the few times that I've been able to attend concerts, I say that at least half of their audiences could be classified, at the lowest end, as upper middle class. In addition, I'm constantly amazed by the number of smaller orchestras within a 50 mile radius that are maintained/sustained in this area. It's remarkable, really.

All of this, just to say, I wish that Haley could do something like this for herself.