ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how classical music performing organisations, particularly orchestras and opera companies, are changing in response to digital technologies and shifting stakeholder expectations. Although the digital space may seem antithetical to traditional classical music culture, orchestras and opera companies must adopt digital technology in response to shifts in the logics that define their industry, otherwise they risk being marginalised in an increasingly techno-literate society. The perspective of institutional logics can help us to understand how digital innovations present challenges to classical music performing organisations, but also offer exciting opportunities for the industry to redefine itself. The initiative harnessed innovations in digital cinema projection and satellite distribution, and reimagined the relationship between opera and its audiences. The classical music industry, then, is a prime example for analysis of changing logics and innovations. Digital innovation presents classical music performing organisations with a series of contradictions and dilemmas.
