Classical Music Growing in Popularity?

Jim Ginsburg, on the blog Chicago Classical Music, reports that classical music seems to be growing in popularity.

He excerpts Mark J. Penn's book "Microtrends". Here's an excerpt of the excerpt.

Classical music is growing in popularity, not shrinking. And in the coming years, we should expect it to grow even more.

The reasons are empirical, demographic, and cultural. Empirically, the doomsayers are ignoring some key numbers. In 2000-01, there were over 32 million concert tickets sold, up more than 10 percent from a decade before. Whereas season subscriptions dropped--for example, by 5 percent in Baltimore--single-ticket sales rose 46 percent at the same time. That suggests not only that classical music regulars, including retirees, have busier lives than ever, but also that more people than ever are dabbling in classical. Most industries would call that growth.

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Even putting aside, for the moment, all the proof points that classical music is thriving and not withering, the big takeaway here is that the doomsayers' key metrics --CD sales and presence on TV and radio--are completely irrelevant. Musically speaking, the Internet is the place to be. And apparently--even though the cliche' classical music listener is stodgy and gray--classical music is more popular on the Internet than it was in stores. Whereas classical music made up only 3 percent of CD sales in retail stores, it actually accounts for 12 percent of all sales on Apple's iTunes.

More here.