Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

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jodha
Posts: 146
Joined: 07 Aug 2009, 12:32

Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by jodha »

It is really disheartening to read about the poor attendance in concerts.Will it be O.k if a box is kept where people who feel like can offer their might.
No doubt artists whether new comers or seasoned will feel hard to present infrontof a near empty hall.

ram1999
Posts: 534
Joined: 26 Nov 2015, 17:20

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by ram1999 »

Good artists attract less crowd and they are least bothered about who is sitting in front of them as they sing for their own satisfaction. So do not ponder too much about how they would feel :)

Pratyaksham Bala
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Joined: 21 May 2010, 16:57

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by Pratyaksham Bala »

Poor audience? As long as the remuneration is not linked to ticket sale, the artist won't feel bad !

And, ‘Box’ may not be a good idea. It may turn out to be a ‘scare-crowd’ !

CRama
Posts: 2939
Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by CRama »

Regarding miniscule audience in concerts.
During season, Chennai Cultural Academy (earlier Nungambakkam Cultural Academy) holding concerts in Rama rao Kalyana mantap In Habibullah Road, Nungambakkam is infamous for single digit audience for most of the concerts (ticketed) except stars. The sabha, while giving slots to the musicians, make it clear that they can only give the slot. But not guarantee the audience.

While talking to musicians, I could make out that at least some of the musicians who have not many opportunities, are happy that they got a slot in the season- irrespectful of the size of the audience.

Last year, daughter of one famous musician performed in a morning slot. There was single digit audience only. The father musician brought two persons with him and the review of the concert appeared in Hindu. I presume the reviewer was brought in by the father musician.

But I should say that, unmindful of the number in their front, the musicians strive to give their best.

Sachi_R
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Joined: 31 Jan 2017, 20:20

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by Sachi_R »

Recently the well known Unnati Gokulashtami series took place in Bangalore. They moved the venue from the Unnati Hall to the Odakattur Math (apparently some local citizen forum has taken them to court for creating difficulties by conducting well-attended concerts at Unnati).
I did not attend a single concert, for a variety of reasons. Those who did go reported very meagre audiences even for SK's and future SK's.

I think we folks are having too much of a good thing by round - the - year webcasts, TV, radio, You Tube canned stuff etc. It seems too hard to commit and attend concerts. And eventually the glamour value of attending and being seen at "happening" concerts rubs off too.

rapper
Posts: 26
Joined: 22 Apr 2010, 08:02

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by rapper »

The influx of social media like Youtube and other sharing websites like Vimeo etc have brought the younger audience to that medium. Older audiences as they get older prefer not to venture out due to health and age reasons. In addition, there is a much higher flow of musicians who want to perform but do not want to listen to fellow musicians starting from a 5-year-old. This is redefining the industry as a whole. if this continues, one can foresee a big shakeup in the industry as there are not many avenues of funding these, especially by overseas sabhas. Currently, most of these are funded by over-enthusiastic fans but will soon taper off.

Given the finite audiences, I would expect that the supply for the artists would also need to be limited.

parivadini
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Joined: 22 Oct 2013, 22:44

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by parivadini »

Sachi_R wrote: 14 Sep 2018, 23:18 Recently the well known Unnati Gokulashtami series took place in Bangalore. They moved the venue from the Unnati Hall to the Odakattur Math (apparently some local citizen forum has taken them to court for creating difficulties by conducting well-attended concerts at Unnati).
I did not attend a single concert, for a variety of reasons. Those who did go reported very meagre audiences even for SK's and future SK's.

I think we folks are having too much of a good thing by round - the - year webcasts, TV, radio, You Tube canned stuff etc. It seems too hard to commit and attend concerts. And eventually the glamour value of attending and being seen at "happening" concerts rubs off too.
Sachi: I attended Ramana Balachandran's concert. It was on a weekday and rains weere lashing.Despite those factors, I found the audience turn out was quite decent. The size of Unnati hall and their own student crowd may give a feeling that the crowd is more at the Sadananda Nagar Venue.

Sachi_R
Posts: 2174
Joined: 31 Jan 2017, 20:20

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by Sachi_R »

Thank you Parivadini. This is good news. I heard otherwise from my neighbour about two other concerts of famous vidwans.

You're right. Quality of the audience is more important than quantity, especially non-music students' attending the programme as a part of some curricular arrangement.

Sivaramakrishnan
Posts: 1582
Joined: 02 Jan 2010, 08:29

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by Sivaramakrishnan »

I wonder what's the state of affairs up north for Hindustani music!

sureshvv
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Joined: 05 Jul 2007, 18:17

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by sureshvv »

I have heard this analogy:

In front of the provision store, you will find large crowds. But there will be plenty of parking place in front of a diamond merchant.

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by SrinathK »

It's a strange world where you lament about an artist who doesn't get enough crowds, but also criticize an artist who tries to work on publicity for 'clever marketing'.

In fact it is a pervasive myth floating around that music alone will bring in the needed publicity (and a lot of resentment when it doesn't) -- music alone brings in great music. But if an artist wants publicity, one must actually work actively for it. Musically, they need to make an impact on the audience that they won't forget.

Having said this, the rise of an artiste tends to follow an exponential curve, for the first several years (give it even 2 decades or more), almost nothing seems to happen. Practically all the stars of today were singing to empty halls in the beginning. Then when their fanbase reach a critical mass, and are able to compete with the top of the pyramid, all of a sudden they become crowd favorites.

RSR
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Joined: 11 Oct 2015, 23:31

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by RSR »

I am puzzled.
@5 sachi Sir reports very meager audience to a concert. But there is a guest- writeop in the blog 'music to my ears'.
I think, I had already mentioned aboutit.
Here are some lines from that review of RamNavami festival concerts at Banbalore. Kindly allow me.
https://sujamusic.wordpress.com/2018/05 ... bangalore/

quotes
[i]'Bangalore does not have a concert venue of note, other than Chowdiah Hall, which has now become unaffordable for any Sabha. Almost all kutcheris are held in pandals with the cacophony of Bangalore traffic as the sruti. The sound system at any venue is guaranteed to give trouble, as usual. Facilities are non-existent and commutes are long for any Bangalorean attending concerts. And yet, we went in droves. Season tickets at Fort High School were put up for sale online for the first time and all but the cheapest tickets were sold out even before the season started, unheard of for classical music. Traffic police had to be deployed for the most popular kutcheris. Wow! It is heartening to see the growing interest in classical music here. Not even in Chennai do we see such crowds.[/i]

'The other was a majestic concert by Ranjani & Gayathri at Fort High School. The 3000 capacity pandal was full and people were standing in the aisles – such is their popularity here. And they delivered an absolutely divine RTP in Nalinakanthi. A complicated Pallavi and a thala structure, beautifully supported by the accompanying artistes was easily a classic for the ages. There were 1000 people at Mangalam time at 10.00 PM; I have never seen anything like this in any kutcheri eve
----------------------------------
May be surfeit of concerts at odd times, keeps the rasikas away?

hnbhagavan
Posts: 1655
Joined: 21 Jun 2008, 22:06

Re: Do concerts need to be ticketed or how artists feel when handful of rasikas present?

Post by hnbhagavan »

Very good concerts by Vijaya Siva , OS Thyagarajan,GJRkrishnan and Viji Violin duet attract moderate to medium crowds.When these concerts are held in medium Sized Halls,We get a feeling that Concerts are well attended.Once Sri Rama lalitha Kala mandira organised in a college auditorium a couple of years back as in the year 2016.There were three events- One concert by O S Thyagarajan,One by Neela Ramagopal and one lecdem cum seminar by TM Krishna and a few other experts.Auditorium could hold about 1000 people.One could see at most 100 people attending these events- the highest was in TM Krishna seminar.
There is no correlation between crowds filing halls and quality of concerts.The above named artists like OST,Vijaya Siva and Lalgudi siblings give their best effort irrespective of the crowd attendance.There is mad rush for RaGa and sanjay in Bangalore.

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