I was going through youtube and came across a video of one of Mozart’s pieces. I found it interesting that the comment section included a discussion about subsidies. All of them arguing that “without state subsidies classical music would disappear”. Some praised the protectionism as “the only good thing communism did”. I think their argument could be defeated in a few moments, yet it is curious at least to see things of an economic nature being debated in the oddest of places, despite in my view being ripe with fallacy.
My own view is that orchestral music is far from dead, there is a market for it… Just not at the price. The fact that the music featured on this video was from the Film Amadeus of which the soundtrack topped the sales chart in '86 was especially ironic. It would seem that movie and the video game industries have been producing the more popular orchestrations. One could make the point that subsidies actually hurt the production of any musical, that being the cost of putting such a venture together… Musical artists fee top dollar for playing an instrument, thanks to unionization, and generally discourages all but the most wealthy patrons, and most of time, even them. Why not offer music at a better price? You can’t undercut with the labor protections in place… =]
There’s plenty of other points, such as intellectual property, etc. which are key to the problem but I am preaching to the choir here.
The so called “high culture” is heavily subsidised, no doubt about it. Particularly in Europe with all the culture ministry owned operas, theatres and concert halls. So without the state it would lose a part of the benefits which it enjoys now. But like with everything else when unleashed from all the regulation and control it would possibly become more vibrant and lively and ultimately better off.
What the state does is chains everyone up and then spoon feeds them. High culture is among those who gets fed very, very well but it is stil chained.
Maybe unchained it would be able to find for itself more food than it receives now.
This is the kind of subject that one cannot tackle without knowing history. Perhaps classical music is subsidized. In Europe the church is also “subsidized”, the universities are “subsidized”, but that does not mean that the political class suddenly decided that the people needed those things and the market failed at producing them. The reality is that these were once fully independent institutions whose foundations were destroyed in the revolutions of the 19th century and taken by the state.
Classical music was funded by the aristocracy. When the aristocrats were expropriated, the classical musicians pled with the new powers to spare them. The church was a major land-owner and its lands were taken in tenure reforms. The universities made a pact with the devil and eventually became just a mouthpiece for the state.