“Over the past year, an increasing number of classical musicians have been launching into unannounced performances in marketplaces and transit hubs — and videos of these impromptu concerts have reached a wide audience on the internet.”

“So what drives musicians to do this? At the heart of it is the pure satisfaction of making mischief and surprising people. But for most artists, the goal is to bring classical music to people who wouldn’t otherwise hear it. Sometimes, as in the case of the video above, it’s to promote an "official” performance. Other times, there’s no profit involved, and musicians just want to reignite the spirit of fun and improvisation that was behind the music in the first place.“

(via Out Of The Concert Hall, Into The Street: Random Acts Of Classical Music : Deceptive Cadence : NPR)

Last month, the simulcast of a live San Francisco Opera “Aida” performance reached some 32,000 Bay-area audience members. That’s an impressive fact in and of itself. What’s even more noteworthy: by holding such events (free for attendees) at a gated venue (AT&T Park), and encouraging audience members to make reservations online in advance (giving them early admission to the ballpark), the SFO is able to capture audience contact information (simulcasts held in the past in public plazas did not) and link subsequent activity (ticket purchases, donations) to it.

The Wall Street Journal says:

“Using that data, the opera says it has been able to figure out that new-patron tickets linked to the simulcasts have brought in about $880,000. That puts the opera – which says it has spent about $800,000 on its four previous simulcasts – slightly in the black with its simulcast endeavors.”

"At least one other opera company has followed the San Francisco Opera in holding ballpark simulcasts. In 2008, the Washington National Opera moved its simulcast from the National Mall to the brand new Nationals Park – home of the Washington Nationals – in an effort to get people to sign up and secure better customer-tracking data.”

Trend likelihood: high (assuming organizations’ live-production/broadcast logistics aren’t overly complicated).

Related: Post about the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcasts, which can be seen in 1,500 venues in 46 countries.