Classica l unclassifed

With the proliferation – and success – of recordings by non-standard ‘classical’ artists, how can record labels successfully market them if the charts don’t recognise them?

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KEVIN COWARD

Two recent recordings by string artists have been deemed ineligible for the UK’s Official Specialist Classical Chart in the past few months. This has raised questions about the inclusivity and relevance of today’s classical album charts. There are also implications for record labels that want to give boundary-pushing emerging artists the widest possible platform.

In September the Official Charts Company ruled South African cellist Abel Selaocoe’s debut release for Warner Classics, Where Is Home? (Hae Ke Kae) ineligible for its core-classical specialist chart. The album was deemed to have too many African folk influences, with its overall sound and aspects of its instrumentation straying outside the chart’s eligibility guidelines. However, the album did launch at number 4 on the much broader Official Classical Artist Album Chart. This chart includes crossover acts and compilations, and tends to be dominated by catalogue releases (traditionally defined as recordings released at least 18 months previously), making it difficult for more specialist artists to top it.

In October The Playhouse Sessions, Baroque violinist Bjarte Eike and Barokksolistene’s raw, rip-roaring take on English 17th-century music by Purcell, Playford and others, came out on Rubicon Classics. It shared the fate of its 2017 predecessor, The Alehouse Sessions (which launched at number 5 on the Official Classical Artist Album Chart), in being excluded from the specialist chart, with its sound deemed too folky and not classical enough.

In each case the record label challenged the Official Charts Company ruling, but after consideration by a classical advisory panel drawn from members of the British Phonographic Industry’s classical committee, the decision was upheld. Rubicon Classics director Matthew Cosgrove believes the specialist chart is a strong asset for the UK classical recording industry, but argues that its inclusion criteria should be re-examined: ‘Given the challenges that the classical business faces at the moment selling its recorded music, we need to make the chart as inclusive as possible – within sensible boundaries – to make it more relevant and more exciting.’

The director of Warner Classics UK, Sean Michael Gross, says that the industry needs to find a better way to showcase boundary-pushing artists like Selaocoe. ‘To create a separate chart for classical renegades would send the wrong signal entirely,’ he says. ‘It would look like these artists don’t belong. What we should do as an industry is either reform the existing specialist chart rules to be inclusive of artists and repertoire that are redefining the genre today, or find a way to foreground new releases through the already more inclusive – but largely catalogue-dominated – Classical Artist Albums chart. We also need to bring renewed visibility and attention to the charts themselves, to make them more relevant.’

‘With today’s media saturation, breaking through the noise has never been more difficult’ – Sean Michael Gross, director, Warner Classics UK

For labels that focus on core-classical releases, having a chart-topping album can be a powerful marketing tool. ‘If you exclude albums that are obviously popular,’ says Cosgrove, ‘you deprive the record company of shouting about them and getting more people to buy them.’ When a boundarypushing artist is denied a potential number 1 on the Official Specialist Classical Chart and can only rise so high on the Official Classical Artist Albums Chart, where does a record company focus its promotional push? With artists like Selaocoe, Gross says the best way is to get their music in front of as many people as possible, using the traditional channels of TV, radio and print but also digital media, where videos and social media strategy are allimportant in an age of sophisticated targeted marketing by the likes of Meta, TikTok and YouTube. Not fitting into a traditional classical mould can be a strength in itself, adds Gross: ‘In today’s era of incredible media saturation, breaking through the noise has never been more difficult, but having a compelling story and being unique in one’s artistry are ways in which an artist can rise above the noise and get noticed.’

With some genre-bending artists, record labels can face practical challenges in getting them credited and categorised on streaming services, and in getting them on to official playlists. Asta Cornelius, marketing manager at Danish label Dacapo Records, says: ‘Often the artist is both the performer and the composer, and there can be confusion in how the recording is labelled.’ In June of this year Dacapo released the album Atrium by Danish cellist and composer Josefine Opsahl, who combines her acoustic cello with live electronics to create unusual effects and noise from her instrument. Cornelius says that Opsahl’s strong credentials as a performer and collaborator with an established international fanbase gave an immediate boost to the label’s marketing of the album. She adds: ‘Artists like Josefine are usually very active on the live stage, and they know they have to build a personal brand because they can’t rely on the traditional audience. For us as a label, working with these artists is a great way to expand our audience, and to get our main audience in Denmark used to seeing genre-bending releases and having their curiosity awakened.’

RAPHAELA GROMES/JULIAN RIEM