Orchestra Apps: The Symphonic Future?

Written by Joe Peterson of Fein Violins

1.08 billion people. That's around a fifth of the worlds population, and also the number of people who use smartphones (Here's an info-graph showing worldwide Smartphone usage). Nowadays, it's hard to think of a business that can't be accessed on a smartphone through the use of an app or a mobile site, because, chances are, they have one. You have a Chipotle Burritos app, a Starbucks app, a Netflix app, a Best Buy app, the list goes on for miles. Oh yeah, and Fein Violins has one. Go ahead, click to our mobile site.

a bassoon app, a conductor app...

But now, amidst all of the burritos and Frappes and Batman and TVs, there are
violins, bassoons, tubas, and timpani: There are apps for for the Berlin Phil, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others (Unfortunately, no orchestras from the good ol' MN right now).

Orchestras are jumping on the smart technology bandwagon and offering apps (quite a few are offering them for free) to keep you up to date on all of your orchestra fixings, and most of all, to increase the orchestras' accessibility. The apps provide users with a calendar of upcoming events (so that "I didn't know there was a concert, or I would've gone" is no longer a valid excuse), ticket sales, orchestra news, and even live broadcasts.

The bandwagon

These orchestra apps keep users up to date from their pockets, and have great potential to bring in more music lovers to concerts. This use of technology, along with the orchestras using Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, is a great sign of orchestras "gettin' with the times," the lack of which has been the complaint of many for years. Now if only they could get rid of that pesky "no clapping in between movements" rule...

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