Snapshot: Marketing Classical Music

Most scholars of consumer culture agree that the distinctive features of a mass market—mass production, national distribution of standardized products, the creation of distinctive corporate logos, media advertising—first came together in late-nineteenth-century America (Strasser 1989). Nationally advertised brands either displaced locally distributed staples (Uneeda Biscuit, Ivory Soap) or created huge new markets for previously exclusive luxury items (Eastman Kodak, Ford). Music, in its live performance...