2010-11-29

Arts in the digital mainstream

Accessing the arts online is becoming the norm for cultural consumers, though arts organisations may struggle to come up with financially viable digital strategies.

Digital access to the arts and culture is extending, rather than replacing, the live experience of the arts, and the Internet is now playing a much broader role in arts engagement than simply acting as a marketing channel. A significant minority use it not only to consume and share artistic content, but also to create it; and over half use social networking sites regularly. These latest findings from a major survey of 2,000 adult Internet users appear to confirm that engaging with the arts through digital media is now a mainstream activity.

The research reveals that Internet users with an interest in the arts and cultural sector use it primarily to improve their access to information and tickets: in the past year, a third used it to find out about a performer or live event, and one in five to buy tickets. The Internet is also used to experience cultural product, and although only eight per cent had watched or listened to a full arts performance, twice as many had done this for clips, mainly in order to decide what live events to see. Perhaps unsurprisingly, music is the artform with the highest online following: over 80% of respondents who had viewed an online clip had done so for a music event less than a third had done so for dance, theatre or the visual arts. Although most people expected this type of material to be free, some would consider paying for unique content offering a high quality experience.

More information: http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/Magazine/view.cfm?id=5328&issue=229