As reported by preeminent arts blogger Drew McManus, the San Antonio musicians and management have narrowly averted a strike by settling on a tentative contract (which will be voted on by the musicians today). What is most interesting about this settlement (aside from the typical brinkmanship which characterizes the poor relations between this orchestra and their management) is the role that electronic media played in the settlement. From the musicians’ press release:
Under the terms of a new electronic media agreement, which is part of the overall contract, any Symphony concert can be broadcast on local radio up to four times, and any four Symphony concerts can be telecast on local television up to four times each…The new electronic media agreement,” Petkovich said, “will make the orchestra more accessible to the community. The ability for multiple radio and television broadcasts of concerts can introduce the Symphony to a much wider audience and help us build a new group of future ticket-buyers and patrons.
In exchange for this the players will receive four added weeks of employment (by the end of the 4 year agreement), and approximately 4.6% increases in pay each of the four years of the contract.
It’s hard to say who got the better deal. Clearly the orchestra’s management thinks that they will reap major marketing and outreach benefits from the increased exposure and opportunities that broadcasting and recording will supposedly produce, and the players have gotten concrete gains in both length of season and compensation in return for something whose value is indeterminate.
I like the fact that the electronic media agreement is couched in terms of being a marketing and outreach tool rather than as a revenue stream. The management and board see the opportunities in the media, and the players see the value it adds to the orchestra, and both were willing to pay for it – the players by giving up both up-front payments and the back-end royalty structure (presumably, I’ll have to see the details to see what they’ve actually agreed to), and management by increasing compensation as a sort of advance on future benefits to the organization. I think it’s the wave of the future: a realistic, rational way of looking at the place of recordings and broadcasts in the orchestral mix.