Old-time musicians

"Nice track, but is this some new marketing trick?"

In the office of the manager of the comprehensive operations department, Congreve faced the invoicing worksheet on the table and fell into endless thoughts.

Olga, the financial manager standing opposite him, also looked stunned: "The average ticket price of this ticketing plan is 25, which means that our total box office is about..."

"...a penny, which is equivalent to more than 90 pounds."

"Double-digit revenue?" Congreve was running his business brain that had been used to make money from customers' pockets for many years, thinking about how this new method would be realized in the future.

Olga had similar thoughts.

[Writing this, I hope readers will remember our domain name Taiwan Novel Network→𝚝𝚠𝚔𝚊𝚗.𝚌𝚘𝚖]

She has already concluded from her experience working with Fan Ning that every time the music director comes up with an idea or launches a new set of moves, even though no one may understand it when they first hear it, they can always understand it later. He discovered that all of them were "killing moves". Not only did he make a lot of money, but he also gained his reputation along with it. Customers even paid for his job and praised him for doing a good job.

"This is the fact." Lausanne, who was standing aside, said, "Mr. Fanning said, 'There is no trick this time.'"

"Are there any other reminders?" Congreve hesitated for a moment and said, "Well, as a personal comment to express my respect, I never believe that Mr. Fanning has no tricks..."

"No more." The female composer shook her head, "It's not like you don't know that although Mr. Fan Ning still arranges all the work in a tight manner, he basically no longer accompanies us for any leisure social activities, and he speaks like gold. , If you can write it clearly on the instruction sheet, you don’t need to talk to someone in person. If you can explain it clearly in three sentences, you don’t need five sentences. They still give us guidance, but they don’t talk about anything else. After finishing the explanation last night, they left in a hurry. ”

"Is it a 'fresh taste' before the price rises to normal?" Congreve tried hard to explore all the possibilities of making money, fearing that he had missed Fan Ning's intention, "After all, the Youth Symphony Orchestra's performances will gradually become normal... By the way! Did he mention the pricing, repertoire and promotion plans after the first show?”

"This was mentioned earlier in the explanation, and we will all price based on this from now on."

There was a silence in the air.

"I get it, he's not interested in money."

Olga suddenly enlightened and said: "To be precise, I was very interested when I didn't get it before, but now I feel it's boring. Maybe I just want to get the boys and girls to practice. I guess... Kanger Mr. Reeve, don’t think too much, just let it go like this. The financial side is direct. At present, such small-scale projects are already a very minor part of our revenue. "

Her tone was rather wealthy.

As early as late January, the media reported very keenly that Turner Hall was about to make a lot of money from box office performance, record sales and art exhibition auctions.

In fact, the revenue in these three months was more than 200,000 pounds, more than 300,000 pounds, and more than 400,000 pounds respectively. The pitiful balance after the New Year's concert has increased more than twenty times, and the current liquid assets have directly soared to one million. As mentioned above, a new round of functional venue expansion and filling, as well as the purchase of top-notch pipe organs, have begun to be put on the agenda.

The reason can be seen from the business structure that is about to close in the first quarter:

The share of music score publishing and record sales accounts for more than 40%. Needless to say, the number of musical scores is abundant, and there are currently seven records on sale: "Live at Santa Ramburg Music Festival", "Fanning's Piano Solo", "Fanning's "First Symphony"", "Greek" "Lan's three violin concertos", "Luo Yin's two cello concertos", "Qiong's two flute concertos", and "from 'Li's' piano concerto to Impressionist orchestral music". In the end, this set of records was priced at the highest, reaching 40 pounds, and it was somewhat bundled. However, due to the strong appeal of "Lee", its sales volume has surpassed that of "Symphony No. 1".

Concert box office accounts for 25%;

The museum’s revenue accounts for 20%, including secondary items such as “exhibition and auction commissions”, “daily tickets”, “album and souvenir sales”;

Third-party income accounts for 15%, including secondary projects such as "art naming", "regular donations", and "government subsidies";

It can be seen that under Fan Ning's series of tricks, although concerts are the main form of artistic activities, they are no longer the main revenue channel. In the eyes of traditional concert halls and theaters where "performance income ≈ operating income", this It’s simply impossible, but it actually happens!

This has long attracted the attention of other colleagues in the empire. References and analyzes have come one after another. Even the cultural departments of two counties came for an on-site inspection last month. However, these dignitaries found that they could not learn Fan Ning’s gameplay at all. .

record? Everyone in the industry knows that today is the golden age of the record industry! But the initial period of wild growth has passed. There are already a lot of high-quality records in stock. Music fans who have access to gramophones are extremely picky. Now the only things that can be called "making big money" are "outstanding new works" or "masters". "Superb performance", but the relationship between the academy and the composer is usually just a cooperative relationship. Recording an excellent new concerto is enough for a year. Who can release so many pieces in half a year like Fan Ning, and still make money for himself? ?

Art gallery? One of the cultural industry models with "money prospects", but it is not the same as a concert hall! Is there anyone who is good at running both an art gallery and a concert hall? After thinking about it, there is only one person in front of me.

Art sponsorship? Excuse me, I don't know how he came up with those endless courtesies! It's not that no one wants to learn, but if you can't learn it well, the sponsors will not buy it!

Just talking about the 25% box office revenue, the price is comparable to the top ten orchestras and every show is full. Those marketing methods are difficult enough to learn!

"Okay, he is not interested in money." Congreve accepted this point of view, "So this...how to promote it?"

"Ah, I don't understand this."

"Isn't this your forte?"

Lausanne and Olga were confused by the question of the operations manager.

"Promotion is to set a relatively high price, and then use means to attract others to pay..." Congreve felt the blind spot of cognition, "This, uh, it's so cheap, maybe, maybe it's easy to sell??... I'm good at challenging difficult problems, but Mr. Fanning came up with 1+1. I thought about it for a whole morning and felt that I couldn't even write 2..."

"How about it, you do whatever you want?" Luosang tried to give suggestions, "Aren't you working on the performance schedule posters for the second quarter? For other performances, you can just copy and modify the text of the poster folding display stand, including the ticket price."

"I can already foresee that fans will see "After seeing the poster, he looked as if he suspected that there was something wrong with his eyes." Congreve shrugged, "But a new type of performance always has a new series name, such as "Concerto of the Principals", "Impression of Sound and Picture", "Joy without Regrets", "Intimate Dialogue of Ensembles", etc. According to Mr. Fanning, this can "highlight the systematic nature of the performance plan and cultivate a fixed audience in a segmented field"... So, how should the performance of this youth symphony orchestra be named? Let me refine the characteristics, "4 pence enjoyment"? "

"People who don't know think it is a promotion of a low-quality red-light district." Luosang pouted and commented.

"I was careless, Miss Luosang." Congreve sighed and held his forehead.

"The problem may be that the lowest ticket price was chosen. Why not change it to "2 shillings enjoyment"? "Olga tried to contribute ideas.

"A slightly higher-grade red-light district promotion." Luosang continued to pout and comment.

The air fell into a longer silence.

"Born to love music." Fanning's voice came from the door.

The three of them looked at him together.

Congreve heaved a sigh of relief as if he had been pardoned: "Thank God, you have made our inspiration return to nobility."

"Learning music is everyone's birthright, which is an objective 'ability'. Born to love music is everyone's instinct that has been stimulated or not yet stimulated, which is a subjective 'want'. The former is the performer, and the latter is the listener. Together, they constitute 'art popularization'."

Fanning pressed two pieces of paper on the desk while explaining: "Add these contents to the repertoire list, and the size can be slightly larger."

"Repertoire guide?" Congreve subconsciously lowered his head and saw Fanning's dense handwriting in pen.

Just like the guide at the Impressionist Art Exhibition, he gave an inspiring reminder for each piece of music in the most popular language possible.

There are also "little knowledge about watching performances" and "fine-tuning plans" at the back...

"Such pricing makes it affordable for groups with more difficult economic conditions." Fanning continued, "but those who have not been exposed to serious music may not pay attention to the news or even become interested in it at the first time. We need to let more people in need know about it and buy it."

"Let those in need know about it and buy it. But Mr. Fanning, their free time is often extremely scarce..." Congreve pondered this request, and when he looked up, he found that Fanning had already stepped out of the door after giving a few words.

"Who has extremely scarce free time?" Lausanne spread his hands and shook his head.

So in late March, many citizens of Uvransell learned about the summary of Turner Hall's performance plan for the second quarter while reading newspapers on their way.

Then almost everyone stared at a few of the performances and rubbed their eyes desperately.

"Born to Love Music Turner Hall Youth Symphony Orchestra Concert... Ticket Price... Ticket Price?"

"4pence, 8pence, 1shilling, 2shillings?" After reading this, some people looked at other performances in disbelief, "6 pounds, 10 pounds, 14 pounds, 18 pounds, 24 pounds..."

"If the unit symbols of those performances were printed incorrectly, then it doesn't make sense that the numbers are large first and small later?"

On this day, in addition to the main streets, the alleys of Uvlansel, especially the labor settlement areas, industrial areas, dock areas or the streets connecting these areas, were specially posted with separate posters for the first "Born to Love Music" concert on April 15, and the ticket opening time, performance time, viewing instructions, various ticket sales outlets, the address of the concert hall and how to get there, and the rules for releasing tickets in batches were carefully circled.

"For as little as 4 pence, you can listen to an elegant symphony?"

"I know Turner Hall. It's a noble and sacred place, where noble young men and young ladies go, and a social place for the upper class."

"Do those great musicians work there? Can I meet them?"

"Will I be laughed at for not understanding?"

At 7 or 8 in the evening, some people who were changing shifts in factories or working part-time or long-term jobs and going home were attracted by the posters everywhere on the street and stopped to talk in a circle.

Some people can't believe it, some are eager to give it a try, and some are hesitant. In addition to fear and inferiority complex, being stuck in heavy work or housework is also an objective factor.

But there are a few fine-tuned details by the performers, which play a more critical role——

The sales points should be spread out as much as possible; (reduce the time of walking or taking a horse-drawn carriage to buy tickets);

The concert time is moved to 8:30 p.m. (try to meet the 7-8 o'clock work time of most morning shift workers)

There is no lateness limit, and you can enter and leave the venue at any interval between tracks; (to further accommodate listeners with different work schedules)

The repertoire will be short and there will be no encores, and it will end before 10pm; (to take care of trivial housework and child support needs after work)

After the tickets are opened on April 1, the daily number of tickets sold will be controlled to 20% of the total number of tickets; (it will take five days at the fastest to sell out, because workers cannot free up free time immediately when they have their own arrangements. .)

The middle-class employees, nobles, and factory owners did not think about the layer behind the words, but these workers who were watching only felt that all the arrangements and adjustments were taking care of their distressed side as much as possible.

Little did they know that the performers' understanding of their living conditions was precisely the result of Fan Ning's extensive interviews and research in the early stages.

On the first day of invoicing, many workers had already taken action and decided to try to see the situation.

"Sir, may I ask... is there a show on April 15th where the ticket price is 4p?"

At seven o'clock in the morning, there was a long queue as usual in front of a sales agency in the South Pier District. A female textile worker wearing an old gray cotton-padded jacket on her way to work asked the front desk through gritted teeth and pretending to be calm.

After getting a positive answer, she pretended to be nonchalant and took out four coins, quickly selected her seat without even looking at it, and finally carefully put the ticket in her arms and left.

The gentlemen standing behind their walking sticks said nothing, their eyes were calm under their hats, and they did not keep a close eye on them out of courtesy. However, if you look closely at their facial expressions, you always feel that there is something strange.

Later, there were also several people who looked like laborers queuing up, and among them there were some in between, skilled workers, small shopkeepers, and clerks whose families were slightly better off but not yet close to the middle class.

After them, they are gentlemen and ladies.

After ticket sales reach the daily limit coordinated by the overall management, tickets for the corresponding Youth Symphony Orchestra performance will be temporarily suspended, while other performances will continue to be sold normally.

Generally speaking, there was nothing worth mentioning about the on-site conditions at various sales outlets in the first two days.

After all, no gentleman or lady will make radical remarks on the spot.

The problem arises from the ensuing media reports and public opinion.

Today, when Turner Hall of Art has won widespread reputation in society, the mainstream front-line media will not do things that attract attention, but there have been many tactful criticisms.

In the eyes of the upper class, whether conservatives or progressives, the previous dispute between academicism and impressionism was just an "internal" contradiction within the artistic trend...

And this incident is a bit like "the elegant palace of art is stepped on by muddy soles".

The above quotation marks come from the city's number one media, "Uvranser Art Review".

"Tioline Cultural Weekly", which has always praised Turner Art Hall, also published an article saying, "Everyone is born to love music, but music is a broad concept, and the boundaries between seriousness and the market should not be confused." In particular, they pointed out that "nobles and commoners are not distinguished by wealth, but by taste. As a leading art venue, Turner Hall, when its performance prices fall below a certain limit, the effect is not Public welfare, on the contrary, has caused occupation and waste of the empire’s public cultural resources.”

Big media is more or less polite.

The reporting angle of Ufranser's second-tier media "Events" is very tricky.

They directly published a few photos taken at the early morning queue, in which gentlemen and ladies with well-made makeup and workers with embarrassed faces were mixed in the queue.

There is even a close-up of two young women who are painted in makeup and wearing stockings, boots and leg rings in the cold weather. They seem to be dressed as wandering orioles!

The content of the article beside the picture seems to be excerpts from interviews with citizens lining up:

"I bought a ticket for this, yes, I bought it decisively. You know, I am a loyal music fan of Turner Hall. I swear, when these 'music lovers' applauded randomly between the movements, I Will jump out to protect the young musicians."

"The current situation is undoubtedly understandable: for such a show, if we consider the cost, its price reduction is an inevitable result. Because our beloved Mr. Fanning needs to hire at least 20 more people than originally planned. Twice the manpower to clean up the dirt, dust, stains and garbage left inside and outside the symphony hall after the performance!”

"Hey, during intermission, maybe you could interview the pair of prostitutes and ask them what they heard in Mr. Fanning's symphony!"