Text | "Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Tao Tao
editor | Li Wei
header image source | Visual China
Orchestras with the titles of "Royal" and "Philharmonic" cannot always be equated with high-end orchestras.
On December 30, 2023, the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra issued a clarification statement on its official account regarding the fraudulent use of its name by the Hubei Yangtze River Philharmonic Orchestra:
Performance at Luojiashan Theater on December 31, 2023 published by Damai.com 2024 The Wuhan New Year Symphony Concert has nothing to do with the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra. The Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra's 2024 New Year Concert will be performed at Wuhan Qintai Concert Hall on December 31, 2023, and tickets will only be sold on the official website of Qintai Concert Hall. The performance band in the ticket sales information of Damai.com is marked as "Hubei Yangtze Philharmonic Orchestra", but the introduction of Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra is used, which is false information.
Coincidentally, as the New Year's Day holiday approaches, on December 22, the "Royal Belgian Philharmonic Orchestra" performed a New Year's concert at the Hebei Shijiazhuang Grand Theater. After the performance, many audience members shouted "ticket refund", causing an uproar. Afterwards, the Shijiazhuang Grand Theater issued a full refund on the grounds that the actor was "physically ill".
As mentioned above, deliberately mistranslating the Chinese name of and selling dog meat to others is a common trick used by many "water groups".
"Some amateur performers or students from European countries may want to travel to China. They will find some recruitment information for touring orchestras in China, and they can make money while traveling." A man who has worked in a symphony orchestra for more than 20 years Musician Li Jue said.
From the perspective of external factors, there are many reasons why “water ball” is so popular. "The general audience's lack of ability to discern the qualifications of the orchestra is one of the reasons for being 'cut off'." Li Jue added.
From the perspective of the industrial chain, some characteristics of the theater's business model and operating indicators also restrict the quality of the orchestras and song and dance troupes that cooperate with the theater.
youth performance planner Sun Tong revealed: "In order to achieve the theater's revenue goals, domestic theaters will have certain assessment requirements on the number of performances within a certain period of time. Cooperation with 'Water Group' can objectively reduce the pressure on theater operations. Domestic A large number of theaters cooperate with orchestras on a rent-based basis, and the orchestra's box office will not affect the theater's income. Therefore, it is difficult for theaters to directly control the quality of the orchestra."
The existence of "water group", is also due to the basic qualifications of the ticketing platform for performances It failed to play a basic check-in role. Regarding the aforementioned Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra selling performance tickets with false introductions, Damai Wuhan’s official Weibo did not provide any explanation after the incident. "China Entrepreneur" contacted the relevant person in charge of Damai, but the other party did not reply.
Although "Water Group" continues to survive to this day, industry insiders are still optimistic about the future development of theaters and orchestras.
"Today's theaters often carry out music appreciation courses on weekends to enhance people's music appreciation. Through education that benefits the people, they can avoid pitfalls as much as possible for the audience." Sun Tong introduced.
In Li Jue's view, the market itself can also drive good money away from bad money: "From a management perspective, the identification of 'water balls' actually has professional difficulties, not only due to translation issues, but also to the demo (sample) ) appreciation. However, the fermentation of 's word-of-mouth can make the touring 'water group' gradually lose the market, which will be the best way to eliminate."
Foreign monks chant sutras
On New Year's Day 2024, Xu Li gritted her teeth and supported her family of three I bought three tickets for the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, and each ticket cost as much as 880 yuan. She was filled with joy, thinking that her daughter's wish to see a famous band was fulfilled, but she didn't know that she had been deceived by an imposter.
According to Xu Li's inquiry, the full foreign name of the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin is "deutsches symphonie-orchester berlin". It is a famous symphony orchestra in Germany. However, the foreign name of the orchestra is not included in the promotional poster of the "Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin" purchased by Xu Li. The word "symphonie".
After learning that she had been cheated, Xu Li first applied for a refund from Damai, but Damai refused on the grounds that "the tickets are valuable vouchers for watching performances, not ordinary commodities, and the cultural services behind them are time-sensitive and scarce." Refund. After that, Xu Li called 12315 again, but there was no way to complain.
Xu Li’s experience is just a typical case of many middle-class people being deceived by copycat bands. Searching #水团# on Xiaohongshu shows that related topics have received 828,000 views.
Compared with previous years, international "water groups" are particularly rampant on New Year's Day this year, which is related to the trough of domestic performances for several years, especially the silent period of overseas performances - the audience's consumption demand for foreign orchestras has exploded, but Holiday market supply cannot meet consumer demand.
public data shows that during the 2024 New Year's Day holiday, a total of 153 theaters in Beijing held 268 807 commercial performances, attracting more than 216,000 viewers and generating box office revenue of approximately 53.538 million yuan. Year-on-year increases of 166.3%, 263.7%, and 442.8% respectively in 2023.
However, in Xiaohongshu’s notes on avoiding pitfalls, many people in the industry mentioned that the global tours of well-known overseas dramas and orchestras usually do not focus on the Christmas-New Year’s Day cycle, which is generally the top stage in Europe and the United States. The orchestra has holidays, or some of the orchestra may play in high-quality concert halls in the country.
Looking back further, "water troupes" have taken root in China because of the development of the domestic economy and the audience's spiritual pursuit. However, there is still a lack of discernment about whether the performing group is a well-known orchestra and the performance level of the orchestra.
Overseas "water groups" harvest the middle class, which does not belong exclusively to China. In the 1970s, Japan's economy took off after the war. At that time, the Japanese's demand for Schubert's 15 "String Quartets" was as strong as their demand for Dior. However, the Japanese people's appreciation of music was not enough. The soil is provided for the growth of "water masses".
At the beginning of this century, the development of China's music industry entered a similar trajectory. According to the "2022 China Music Industry Development Report", from 2013 to 2019, box office revenue from music performances in my country increased from 4.36 billion yuan to 7.379 billion yuan. Among them, from 2016 to 2019, the average annual compound growth rate of performance box office exceeded 15%. In 2021, the box office of the music performance market has recovered to 4.7 billion yuan.
The proportion of petty bourgeoisie young people continues to grow, and aesthetic education is increasingly valued among domestic middle-class families. Listening to concerts has become a way for more middle-class people to cultivate their sentiments, but the popularization of music theory has not yet been achieved. In addition, some audiences have a prejudice against "foreign moons are rounder", which has created conditions for the invasion of overseas "water groups" .
"New Weekly" quoted music critic Xu Yao as saying: "Since the 1990s, domestic performers have been doing the 'water group' business. They have taken advantage of the Chinese audience's yearning for foreign orchestras and believe that as long as they are foreign Just come. Just like that, a lot of foreign bands who pretended to be impostors and randomly changed their names and resumes came to China to make money."
The pressure to survive in offline theaters
In addition to the lack of audience discrimination, offline music The current regulatory and operating status of the industry is also related to the fact that "water masses" can still survive in the cracks. The difficulty in reviewing the qualifications of the
orchestra mainly lies in the lack of professionalism of the practitioners. Li Jue said that before any performance, comprehensive procedures will be completed locally: "The name of the orchestra, the qualifications of the cast and crew, identity information, and performance demos are all included. However, for reviewers, not only must they clarify The basic information of the orchestra also includes the translation of the orchestra’s original name and the content quality of the demo.”
“For theaters, out of survival needs, they have to complete a certain number of performances throughout the year, which objectively leads to conflicts with the theater. It is difficult to guarantee the content quality of the collaborative orchestra, and the demands of the theater and the audience are not completely consistent," Sun Tong said.
"Especially for second- and third-tier cities, the cost of cooperation with well-known orchestras and song and dance troupes is very high. 'water troupe' has become a way for many theaters to improve their performance. " Li Jue also told "Chinese Entrepreneur".
In addition, the cooperation model between theaters and orchestras also determines to a large extent the lower entry threshold for orchestra performances.
Li Jue introduced that at present, there are three main cooperation models between theaters and orchestras: the venue rental model, which is also the most common one, in which the theater only charges venue rental fees from the orchestra; the package cooperation model, in which the theater does planning and organizing work and pays After giving the orchestra a fixed performance fee, the remaining box office revenue belongs to the theater; the theater and the orchestra share the box office revenue.
"For the first cooperation model, the theater does not bear the risk of box office, so it will not be too involved in the orchestra's content review. During holidays such as New Year's Day and Spring Festival, when the venue rental fee is high, the more cooperation the orchestra has, the better. Chapter 2 Under the second model, since the theater bears all the revenue risks and is responsible for planning, the theater may also be sidelined in external publicity. The third model does not rule out the possibility of theaters and orchestras jointly doing exaggerated publicity," Li Jue revealed. .
"As for theaters that independently plan performing arts brands, in order to maintain the lasting influence of the brand, the quality of the performances is relatively high." Sun Tong introduced.
It is understood that is also under pressure from KPIs as well as major ticketing platforms. According to a staff member of a ticketing platform, the ticketing platform will also issue relevant indicators for the number of online performances every year. "Towards the end of the year, especially when KPIs are being rushed, the 'water group' may be used to rush year-end performance." In addition to the performance pressure that
has been facing all year round, since 2023, the performance pressure on theaters and platforms has also increased further after the special period.
How to make "water balls" withdraw from the market
Although there are many factors causing the spread of "water balls" in the country, in the eyes of many people in the industry, the survival space of "water balls" in the market will definitely decrease over time. gradually compressed.
First of all, in Li Jue's view, after the audience consciously improves their ability to discern "water balls", the market has a strong ability to drive out bad money with good money.
Li Jue gave several simple ways to avoid pitfalls : "Use a search engine to query the original foreign name of the orchestra, not just the Chinese name; search for the conductor's resume; find out whether the orchestra's soloists and soloists are famous Musicians, such as Lang Lang and Yuja Wang."
According to Music Weekly, consumers can start from three aspects when selecting bands:
First, select overseas famous groups competing to attend concerts during the peak period of visits to China. For example, Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, Chengdu International Music Season in Chengdu Autumn, Harbin Summer Concert, Beijing International Music Festival, etc.
Secondly, if you want to choose a New Year's date, you need to be aware of the New Year's concert brand. It is best to have a deep bundle of well-known theater concerts. For example, the Great Hall of the People Beijing New Year Concert, National Center for the Performing Arts Beijing New Year Concert, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Xinghai Concert Hall Guangzhou New Year Concert, etc.
Third, in second- and third-tier cities, consumers need to pay attention to whether the concert they order is within the season announced by the orchestra before purchasing. The music season refers to the annual performance plan of professional orchestras, which is generally carried out and planned according to the New Year's Eve time.
In fact, as social media continues to increase its efforts in word-of-mouth fermentation and teaching "water balls" to avoid pitfalls, the living space of "water balls" has been compressed on a large scale.
Independent music critic "ggtalk" mentioned on Xiaohongshu: "The water group can't be sold, so we have to launch a group purchase sale! A group purchase of a Christmas concert in Beizhan, a ticket of 1,200 yuan is only 60 yuan, 400 yuan The ticket price is as low as 20 yuan!" This is obviously the result of music industry practitioners and senior music fans jointly educating the market.
At the same time, troupes and theaters have also been working hard to improve the appreciation of classical music among ordinary audiences. According to Sun Tong, many theaters will perform some performances to benefit the people on weekends, including guided tours by famous artists, and will provide introductions to the performance content between performances.
Of course, in addition to the audience themselves, managers of other organizations in the music industry are also duty-bound if "Water Group" is to withdraw from the market.
"The professionalism of orchestra planning also needs to be improved urgently. At present, our theater will conduct some relevant training on weekends to enhance the management staff's understanding of art categories and music theory knowledge and improve their professionalism." Sun Tong revealed.
As a performance planner, Sun Tong said that he is also a very important performance gatekeeper."Before I cooperate with a performance group, I will check the performance qualifications of the company behind it, its establishment time, representative works, whether it is on the list of dishonest people, and whether it has operated successful cases." Sun Tong said. These can also be used as relevant references for viewers who know something about the company's operations.
In addition, in Sun Tong’s view, more policy support may be needed for performance venues across the country to completely restore offline performances to their vigor a few years ago: “‘Water Group’ objectively It is indeed a way to make money quickly. When the operating pressure is reduced, the quality will also improve."
Sun Tong and Li Jue are pseudonyms in the article
Reference:
"Don't be fooled, many classical orchestras come to China to make money. "Water Ball"", New Weekly
""Water Ball" is back, how should the audience keep their eyes open? | Argument", Music Weekly
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