Hilary Hahn goes crowd-sourcing for album cover

Hilary Hahn goes crowd-sourcing for album cover

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norman lebrecht

July 24, 2017

The US violinist is asking fans to design her next DG album.

Read here.

Comments

  • Anon says:

    It’s a cost saving measure by DG and it hasn’t worked so well in past cases. Good luck this time.
    Next step is crowdsourcing the recording itself.

    • Pianoman says:

      That’s exactly DG have done with the upcoming Kissin/Beethoven album. I know one of the “contributors”.

  • LN says:

    Artists should be paid properly for their work! Shame!

  • John says:

    Brilliant idea. Ms. Hahn is always a step ahead in her thinking. (And to folks commenting elsewhere, cover art is the least costly aspect of producing an album. And really, don’t get so ‘sniffy’ about the fee! This is on a wholly different scale.)

  • LN says:

    You are so right . Artists should not be ‘sniffy’ (?) about fees ,they should accept whatever is offered for the “privilege “.

    • John says:

      It was stated up front that a fee would be minimal. If you didn’t like that, you can simply pass on it.

  • Robert Roy says:

    As I understand it, the ‘album’ is a compilation of her previous DG discs with a live performance of a Mozart Sonata. So, if you want this new recording you have to buy bits of other works you will probably have already.

    This is a con that’s been done before by other artists and it’s a bit cheeky on the part of the record companies.

  • Robert Holmén says:

    Poor example for a recording artist to ask other artists to work for free, which is what all the ones who create and submit ideas will be doing.

  • Ravi Narasimhan says:

    The link indicates she’s asking fans, not professional artists. I’d hope that if she wanted professional cover art, she or DG would pay a professional rate for it. This is assuming that the composers who wrote pieces for her to play as encores a few years ago were properly compensated.

    There is a separate, disturbing trend of well-known organizations and celebrities using crowdfunding to raise money they could find between their couch cushions.

  • Marg says:

    Taking a leaf out of Joyce DiDonato’s book. Gets fans engaged if nothing else.

  • Pianoman says:

    It amazes me that a giant recording company such as DG has to resort to such cost cutting measures. They did the same thing with a recent Anna Netrebko album. The up-coming Beethoven album by Evgeny Kissin contains performances recorded by people in the audience….talk about cheap labor. Praise must be made for their current pianist roster in any case.

  • C.F. says:

    I can’t say that this is a very fair viewpoint. This contest was developed under the idea that existing fan art and recent contributions would be considered for the album cover and sleeve. This was a gesture of kindness that Hilary Hahn herself put forward to honour all of her devoted fans who willingly created something unique and special as a way to say thank you and to honour her as a musician and person. And now, she wants to honour her fans. I don’t think it’s about money as much as an artistic exchange and a beautiful way to showcase all of the artists that created something out of inspiration. I wish this world would stop seeing things from such a negative standpoint and understand that sometimes, it’s ok to do things that sometimes don’t lead to personal gain because there is nothing more rewarding than the act of freely creating and giving. The reaction, the smile is worth way more than a modest paycheque.

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