Solving The Symphony Crisis
Symphonies and orchestras are facing a major crisis. The San Francisco Symphony has been on strike for over two weeks with musicians demanding higher wages while concert attendance has faced significant decreases. Earlier in the season, Chicago had its own strike. According to Musician Wages, “both the musicians and the management of our major orchestras are overpaid” and this is causing many problems. However, he does propose a solution that may help. See what the solution is on Music Think Tank.
“Over the past 30 years they have demanded higher and higher paychecks while ticket sales and recording revenues have continued to drop dramatically. There is no business in the world that can sustain a negative revenue model like that.” (Read On)
The SFS has seen an 11% INCREASE in attendance this year, if I’m not mistaken. Their endowment is higher than ever and second in size in this country, between 240 and 270 million (depending on who you ask)