BBC Young Musician 2020 – all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right places
From watching the first episode last night I have very mixed feelings. This is partly because there was so much good and so much potential.
I always expect to be incredibly impressed by the musical ability of the young musicians, but what I was totally blown away how they spoke on camera about themselves and music. Mature, engaging, and captivating, each brought something unique and it felt like they had a clear sense of what they wanted from their performance that was something greater than winning a competition. As well as making for a great programme and potentially great content, if these musicians are our future we’re in good hands.
The programme also saw the TV presenting debut of 24-year-old Anna Lapwood, the organist, conductor and initiator of #playlikeagirl. Anna’s best moments came during interviews and discussions where there was license to go off script and gave opportunity for her genuine passion of the music to come through. If you’ve seen any of Anna’s posts on social media you’ll know about #playlikeagirl, as well as the more light-hearted but equally engaging toilet roll challenges during lockdown. For me, letting Anna have more freedom can only be a good thing.
We also had the start of an interview series with Jess Gillam who’s fresh off the back of her “virtual scratch orchestra” and is clearly resonating with people far and wide.
There was so much good about the programme that it should have been great, but to me it misfired. To misquote Eric Morecambe’s words to André Previn…
“All the right notes, just not necessarily in the right places”
BBC Young Musician both could and should be an opportunity to connect with and inspire young people through classical music. We know that there is a great appetite for classical music on streaming platforms from young people, and combining this with articulate and passionate young finalists and great presenters results in having so many right notes to make something great. Sadly, these right notes aren’t necessarily in the right places for young people.
The press release for the programme described it as “of the BBC cross-platform digital arts festival Culture in Quarantine”. It then went to say that coverage would be on BBC 4 and the BBC iPlayer, with “complementary coverage on BBC Radio 3” and more on the BBC Young Musician website. In addition, there is also a tiny amount of social media content, but the only BBC Young Musician accounts are on Facebook and Twitter. There was also some press coverage in the Times and The Telegraph.
Now I’m not sure if you’ve spoken to a young person recently, but most of them aren’t watching BBC 4, or iPlayer, or listening to BBC Radio 3. They’re also not using Facebook or Twitter that much either, and not certainly looking at classical music news in a broadsheet paper.
On top of that, YouTube’s 2 billion, Instagram’s 1 billion, and TikTok’s 800 million actives users totally eclipse Twitter’s 386 million, with all three of those platforms having younger demographics. It then seems totally mad that BBC Young Musician tweets but doesn’t at least have an Instagram account, especially when the BBC Proms does and even posted 5 days ago!. Also, the BBC’s YouTube account has tons of video content from the Proms, so surely there’s the chance to showcase BBC Young Musician there in addition to iPlayer as there will be a significantly greater chance of young people actually watching it.
As a side note, you may be thinking why should someone like the BBC have a TikTok? Surely that’s just for kids. Well, apart from 800 million users, adults and companies from all walks of life are getting involved and doing it well, including The Washington Post and the musical Hamilton… even doctors and lawyers have been using it to give advice.
And this is before going into BBC Young Musician’s efforts on Facebook and Twitter being by the numbers generic content with little engagement or thought. Posts are copied and pasted onto each platform so are totally identical and seem to lack any sort of strategy.
In fairness, the launch of BBC Ten Pieces “At Home” launch has been solid, but again is restricted to Facebook and Twitter and relying on others to post on platforms where young people are more likely to be.
This isn’t the first case of this happening though. Last year I wrote about how BBC Radio 3 needed to do more to attract young listeners than hire Jess Gillam, basically highlighting the same issues that BBC are failing to put classical music for young people where young people’s attention actually is. Fun fact, BBC Radio 3’s last Instagram post was in 2014. On top of that, most BBC orchestras struggle with social media output when compared to other orchestras, and the Proms continues to be hit and miss with online content.
It’s also worth remembering that social media isn’t just for young people. When it comes to the 50-64 age bracket, 68% use Facebook and 17% use Twitter. When thinking about whether the BBC should use Instagram for classical music content, 23% of the 50-64 group use Instagram… 6% more than Twitter!
To be honest, it’s now getting to the point of being repetitive and almost a little boring to point out the BBC failing to put any real effort or thought into social media for classical music despite all evidence suggesting it’s where the audience they’re wanting to connect to has most of their attention. If the BBC continue to put classical music only where young people are not paying attention, how can young people be expected to engage and watch?
To put it in context, BBC Radio 1 has 6.2 million subscribers on YouTube and they’re evidently putting in a lot of thought and effort as to what they’re creating online. As another comparison, Classic FM recently became the most liked UK radio station on Facebook, with other 3 million followers so classical music obviously can resonate online.
If only the BBC had classical music presenters who were social media savvy who could create content for them?
Well, good news, they do. Jess Gillam has nearly 20k followers on Instagram, and Anna Lapwood’s videos regularly get thousands of views. If you look wider at the BBC, Proms presenter Greg Beardsell puts out some amazing TikTok videos and is a phenomenal presenter.
If you look even wider you discover BBC journalist Sophia Smith Galer who not only is a fantastic presenter and content creator, but also TikTok star with 79k followers and videos with over 1 million views whose achievements have been recognised in the Guardian. Oh, and on top of that… SHE’S ALSO AN OPERA SINGER.
Then there is also the option of looking outside the BBC to find other content creators who could bring their skills, talent and following. UK based violinist Esther Abrami has 198k followers on Instagram, 74k on TikTok, 79k on YouTube, and 58k on Facebook, as well as experience presenting and interviewing for the Opus Klassik awards and regularly works with collaborates with Classic FM on digital content.
Before the COVID-19 crisis I’ve regularly said that the BBC is in a unique position to be a global leader in classical music online. No other organisation has multiple orchestras, in house visual and audio production, a dedicated classical music radio station, multiple TV channels, the largest classical music festival in the world, and an internationally recognised brand.
Not only do we all need to be on our A game during this crisis to help the classical music world to survive, but we REALLY need the BBC to be on theirs when it comes to showcasing classical music online and helping support the sector. As the world is quickly shifting online we’re now in a space where classical music has to compete with Netiflix and Disney Plus and the whole sector needs to be digitally savvy to do so. So, I’m going to switch things round to a positive note.
I’m my blogs to help musicians go online and work from home I’ve repeatedly said that this is a great time to experiment online as they’re going to find an appreciated, understanding, and forgiving audience. The circumstances are terrible, but there has never been a better time to try things on social media.
You may have noticed a number of lockdown challenges going round at the moment. So… in the spirit of experimenting online and having a forgiving audience I’m going to set the BBC a lockdown challenge…
The BBC classical music social media lockdown challenge
(let’s face it, it needs a better name)
Basically, give classical media on social media a proper go! It costs nothing and you can totally wing it in a couple of minutes on your phone while you’re getting started. Why not create an Instagram account for BBC Young Musician? Maybe aim to put out 1 piece of content a week on Instagram on BBC Young Musician, BBC Radio 3, and BBC Proms…congratulations, you’re already doing on this on the Proms account so that part challenge is done! And I’ll even let you copy the content you’re putting out on Facebook and Twitter to make things easier.
I know music licensing on YouTube can be an issue, so try posting interviews with the young musicians you’ve already created on a YouTube to show us more of their amazing personalities and what inspires them? Experiment with how creating meaningful audience focussed content could work during lockdown – it could be musicians interviewing each other on Instagram live, practise challenges, top tips… anything.
If you want to really go for it, download TikTok and mess around with it in private to see what all the fuss is about. You don’t have to post anything, just explore!
I know it may seem scary. I know that you’ve got quite a bit on its plate right now and that everyone is working remotely. I know there is probably some red tape involved. But you already have so much potential, talent, and incredible content that means you have the chance to do something truly amazing and connect to audiences of all ages.
You have all the right notes, it’s time to start putting them in the right places.
