“As presenters attempt to sort through the glut of digital content generated by a music business in lockdown, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is offering an option well known to the worlds of radio and television: syndication,” writes Brian Wise in Wednesday’s (7/29) Musical America (subscription required). “This month it began rolling out episodes of ‘Front Row,’ an online performance series, which has been picked up by more than 30 concert presenters in the U.S. and Canada. The weekly series, first launched on the CMS website in May, is an amalgam of highlights from some 900 Alice Tully Hall concert recordings made over the last decade. Each episode is capped by a live Zoom conversation with the featured performers and co-artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han…. Presenters can post the full video episodes to their own websites for a five-day window of their choosing. They can also elect to add their own, customized commentary surrounding the performances … as well as their own fundraising messages…. Shot in HD with multiple cameras directed by a score reader … the ‘Front Row’ series is not intended as a revenue generator…. The fee, Wu Han says, helps cover the streaming and distribution technology costs.”
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