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Audio
Having an audio element as an online marketing tool is not widely practiced by arts organizations. However, utilizing audio can be beneficial. Providing samples of your organization’s previous performances can increase ticket sales and/or sell the recordings of these performances. Using this marketing tool can help your organization expand its customer base and increase their recognition by giving them the ability to listen to your organization’s product.
Two important issues to keep in mind when recording a musical score are ownership and copyright. Although the likelihood of an audience member copying your work is minimal, precautions should be taken.
Five general steps to including audio in your Web site are listed below:
- To include an audio option on your Web site your organization needs to look into various types of plug-ins.
The following plug-ins are available for audio:
- Beatnik (http://www.headspace.com/beatnik/showcase/)
- MacZilla (http://maczilla.com/)
- RealPlayer (http://www.real.com/)
- RealAudio (http://www.real.com/)
- After choosing a plug-in, you need to decide what type of format/file that you want your customers to download to hear your audio product. The format that you chose for your product will determine the level of recording quality. The quality of the recording varies depending on the equipment your organization uses to record the music, the equipment your customer uses to listen to music, the budget for the cost of recording, and the length of the music and download time.
- RealAudio (http://www.real.com), is a browser equipped with a RealAudio plug-in which enables you to listen to news, sports and other programs transmitted from RealAudio servers.
- Wav is a sound that is digitized, stored in the computer and played by a media player software application. This is the most standard and commonly used format. An example of an arts organization that utilizes a Wav plug-in is The Austin Symphony (http://www.lnstar.com/austinsymphony/).
- Once you have decided on a format, the next step is recording the actual piece of music. There are numerous recording software packages that can confuse even an experienced Web designer. To help you through this process, Zdnet (http://www.zdnet.com/products/webpluginuser/garage.html) offers advice and various online tutorials.
- Once you have finished recording, you embed your audio file onto your Web site.