PageFlakes...My New Guilty Pleasure

RSS feeds have become an extremely popular tool on the internet. They allow us to keep up to date with information we are interested in. With so many feeds available, it is sometimes hard to keep them all straight. As a result, a website was created to help users keep track of all of their favorite RSS feeds in an organized, and fun, fashion. Pageflakes.com has given users an entertaining experience where they allow users (for free I might add) to add links to their favorite RSS feeds. I have created my own page that is meant to help me find information about the classical music world, all of which I hope to share with you.

RSS FEEDS NEWSPAPERS/JOURNALS
I have chosen several RSS feeds that are based off of popular news papers from around the country. In all, I have selected The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The L.A. Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The New Yorker. Now, I do realize that all of these newspapers and magazines do not pay attention only to classical music. That is actually the reason why I chose them. They do all share what is happening in the classical music scene, but they spend much of their time looking at popular culture. This is beneficial for my blog because I am interested in finding ways to bring classical music to the forefront of the music scene. The only way to do this is to investigate what it is about popular music that connects with listeners today.

I picked newspaper sources from around the country so I could see just how different, or similar, different parts of the country are from one another. In New York, for example, there is a fairly large emphasis on musicals, as New York is the home of Broadway. In Los Angeles, however, there is a huge market for popular music since so many of today's hottest stars reside in this area. Marketing will therefore have to be different in each geographic location because the people are different (at least in theory). Marketing is everything in our society today. It is unrealistic to believe that anyone who is not an avid listener of classical music is all of a sudden going to say to themselves, "I think I will take a moment today and listen to a Beethoven symphony. That sounds like a lot of fun." Classical music needs to be presented in a fashion that will capture the attention of society. People know that is there, but they have no reason to change their radio stations when they know nothing about classical music. Overall, my point is that (as sad as it may be, we must accept this) classical music is a product. It needs to be treated like a product.

BOOKMARKING SOULMATE
Another section of my Pageflake page is my bookmarking soulmate. I set up an RSS feed to the Russel Library bookmark page because I wanted to get the view of academic personnel in the music field. They have provided their users and students several links to websites that are very useful in learning about classical music and keeping up with what is happening in the industry. For example, they provide links to instruments association websites, as well as helpful websites that go into detail about the history of classical music.

RSS FEEDS
One of my favorite feeds that I came across was actually already set up by another Pageflake user. The feed is entitled Music Industry News and is designed to provide news about the music industry as a whole. Much like my reasoning for setting up several feeds for high profile newspapers, I think this is a great source for finding ways to help create a marketing plan for classical music. This feed is strictly about the music industry, so there is never any other information that is non-related to sort through. In the future, I hope this feed will provide information into popular culture that can then be transformed to fit with the classical music industry.

To go along with my idea of marketing, I found a flake (also created by another Pageflakes user) that was all about marketing (entitled Marketing News Feed). Though the flake provides information about products other than music, the concepts (price, placement, target audience) are still useful when creating a marketing plan for music. The concepts may need to be tweaked from product to product, but the basis for all these ideas are the same.

Though they are becoming less an less popular, music labels are important in creating music products. I came across a label that is entirely devoted to classical music called Naxos. A great aspect of this website is that they list all of their artists. Therefore, once you find one that you enjoy, you can get a list of all their recordings and works. Artists are broken down into performers, composers, ensembles, and even conductors. They also have a news section which I found to be useful because it is entirely based off of classical music news. Within this are links to articles having to do with marketing as well as other reviews of events.

Within my page I have included a few RSS feeds for blogs that I have liked so far in my blogging career. They include my soulmate as mentioned before, as well as a blog from the Chicago Classical Music page, a blog entitled Interchaning Idioms, an arts journal blog written by Greg Sandow, and finally a blog entitled BlogCritics Music. I especially like BlogCritics and the Chicago Classical Music blog because they give the point of view of everyday classical music listeners as well as those who make their living off of the classical music industry. BlogCritics also provides its' viewers with blogs pertaining to other genres of music other than classical. In fact, most of their material is on non-classical music. I think this is still useful, however, because the blogs on this page may entail insightful information as to why pop music is striving today while classical music is not. Though the writers will not directly come out and say it, I hope to find some subtle hints within their posts as to why they like, or dislike, certain groups, shows, and events, beyond just the music itself.

SEARCH FLAKES
Another important aspect of my page are my two search flakes. I chose the Universal Blog Search as well as the Universal News Search flakes to help me find news and other information that might not come through on my other flakes. My keywords for each flakes are classical music, education, and marketing. I feel that these three keywords/phrases best encompass what it is that I am researching for my blog. Classical music in today's society will not survive unless there are drastic changes in how the genre is marketed. Also, children should be taught from an early age how to appreciate the genre. Teaching children the wonders of classical music from a young age might even be considered part of a successful marketing plan.

DIIGO BOOKMARKING
Finally, I have provided feeds for my Diigo bookmarked pages, as well as a bibliography of books and online sources that I have found to be useful (marked as Zotero). As I continue venturing around the Internet, this will be a great way to keep everyone informed of websites and literature that I come across pertaining to classical music. The books and journals that I have listed under my Zotero bibliography all caught my attention because they revolve (for the most part) around perception of music and marketing. When I say perception, what I really mean is that the writers investigate the workings of society's minds and what it is that triggers certain feelings and emotions when we listen to classical music. Many of the journals I have cited are reactions to successful marketing plans, my favorite of which is the story of how classical music has started to make a strong come back in Germany.

I know that once I have some more time on my hands, Pageflakes is going to become a huge part of my daily life. It is a great way to keep informed on events, not just about classical music. I have, in fact, already created another Pageflakes page with some personal RSS feeds that I liked. Life has been somewhat hectic recently, so I wonder if I can come across a feed that acts as a personal assistant?.......Well, I can dream.