i smiled today at 5:46 PM


One of the courses we need to take over here at La Salle College of the Arts (www.lasalle.edu.sg) as a music major, is this course called MUSIC CULTURE, which lasts for a whole year.

I was looking through my notes, thinking back of what I learn last year in this course. And I found an interesting topic that was discussed in one of our classes with Mr Lindsay Vickery.

Allow me to share....
Now, quite some time ago albeit not that long, classical music CD covers were designed in such a way that - well - you would know it was a classical music CD as soon as you saw the cover. Why? It was standard. It was boring. Colours were limited. But they were straight to the point. Title, performers, main composers, main song titles, the main stuff that you would need to know about what you would hear in the CD.

It changed after a while, and it started to look better. Still, it was very much what we would simply call: boring.

You'd see the face or faces of the musician(s) on the CD covers. They'd be trying very hard to smile and look good, but they just couldn't. After all, they are classical musicians, how could they look good? Anyhow, it was very much that way. The musicians would appear on the CD covers, all dressed up as though they were about to perform in some huge hall that has some interesting history and some royalty was part of the audience.


OK, I admit, the smiles did improve. But would you buy a CD that had 4 men in penguin suits smiling at you from the CD cover, and calling themselves with such fancy names like "Tokyo String Quartet" (no offence!), and were standing on a bridge near a cottage in the background?

Be honest now.

Things did, however, change for the better (or worse maybe?).

Classical musicians sooner or later realised that they were not making much money through CD sales. Concerts and live performances, yes, good money. CD sales, no, bad money.

People like Charlotte Church, Vanessa Mae, and Maksim were making better money even though they were errrmmm, not really playing classical music? Dare I even talk about Richard Clayderman? No I don't. Not worth my time.

So, the story goes like this: Classical musicians found the secret to selling huge amounts of classical music through their CD recordings, even with keeping the authenticity of Mozart's or Beethoven's music.

How did they do it?


They had a total image-makeover! Would you even know that the group pictured above is a famous string quartet group that plays good ol' classical music pieces? Where did they hide their penguin suits?

Suddenly, money started coming in. And instead of posing in front of cottages or big concert halls, they put graffiti in the background.


Compare the above, with the below:So, classical musicians decided they had to change their image - and more specifically, change their wardrobe on the CD covers, in order to make sales.

Then soon after, they realized something even better. Why not do without a wardrobe?

BOOM! This CD made a few million copies extra compared to some other girl violinist who recorded the exact same songs. Why? The CD cover of course.

Ahhh, the power of knowing how to market your music.