James Purnell's speech to the Association of British Orchestras

Published: 31.01.2020

Check against delivery

Introduction

Thank you - it is a real pleasure to be here.

It is one of the great joys of my job that I get to spend so much time with such talented and creative people. It can also be rather intimidating and rarely more so than today. There is probably no artistic discipline in which I was found as wanting as in yours.

My parents’ dream of a son in the woodwind section was left, quite literally, dashed against the wall, in the form of my splintered recorder.

Like I think a lot of people, it took me a while to return to classical music. For a time, I was more likely to find Chopin sampled in a Radiohead song than on Radio 3.

But then I began to see the light. Or, rather, hear it. Not just seeing classical music as beautiful music in its own right - though it is; not just seeing it as the underpinning of every other form of music we know and love - though it is that too; but seeing the extraordinary new directions in which it is heading - through artists like Anna Meredith, Erland Cooper or Caroline Shaw, artists who combine traditions to create music that is both radical and classical, at home in both concert halls and nightclubs.

And that isn’t a bad description of what we, Alan Davey, David Pickard - and of course Simon Webb and the BBC Philharmonic who are hosting us with the Halle so wonderfully this week - are all trying to do, with our other BBC orchestras and their teams too.

Bringing the best classical music, old and new, to the widest possible audiences, old and new.

Not my words, but those of Henry Wood, when he was describing the mission of the Proms and its democratising role, bringing the best to everyone.

Our role hasn’t changed, but how we deliver it is always changing, and that’s what I’d like to talk about today.

Change at BBC radio

To do that, I have to start with what we are doing at BBC radio. Last year was a big year for us, perhaps one of the most significant in decades.

I want to talk a bit about what we have done and I also want to talk about why: Why we think the changes we have made and the decisions we have taken are the right direction for BBC radio, the right thing for our audiences, and how they create exciting new opportunities for everyone in our industry.

Listening is changing

The context of course is that the world of audio is changing, creating both challenges and opportunities for radio stations.

When I say that the world of audio is changing, what I mean specifically is that the way that audiences listen - probably the way that all of us in this room listen - is changing.

I think the way we listen can be separated into three different types:

First, 'mass radio'
Then, 'specialist radio'
And finally, 'chosen moments'

Let me explain what I mean by these:

'Mass radio' is radio as it always has been: stations broadcasting through your radio set, and now online too
'Specialist radio' is the emergence of radio that focuses on a specific genre or interest: a rabbit hole that listeners head down to indulge and further explore their passions
And 'chosen moments' are where a listener takes advantage of the extraordinary wealth of audio, music and otherwise, that is now at our fingertips, to choose exactly what they want to listen to

A golden age for audio; a challenge for radio

Traditional radio listening continues to have widespread appeal. But where once it was everything, now it is not. In fact, for many listeners, it is no longer their default.

In the early days of radio, we had one choice. Switch on the radio and put yourself in the hands of the schedulers and presenters.

Radio used to be a background medium, often put on without thinking. But not any more: now it needs to earn its place in someone’s day.

The reason is that today the whole archive and history of music is available to us - not to mention all of our podcast.

A listener can now satisfy any and all of these three types of listening whenever and wherever they want. We are living in a golden age of audio.

Apple Music recently updated its advertising to say it has 60 million tracks - it had been 50 million as recently as February 2019. 40,000 tracks are added to Spotify every day - this time last year it was 20,000.

But amongst this embarrassment of riches, radio is challenged.

The centre of gravity has moved away from us, and towards a more powerful listener. They no longer have to limit their options to our running order or schedule because they have it all at their fingertips.

But then within this same embarrassment of riches, our enduring importance lies.

It is simply impossible for any one listener to keep across all of the options in front of them.

What this means for BBC radio

That is what leads us to the role that I believe BBC radio plays.

With our expertise we can help our audience make the most of their listening time. But to do so, and to stay relevant, we have to change, and offer options within each of the listening types I have mentioned.

Of course, we have 'mass stations', and we never take their enduring popularity for granted - they are at the heart of what we do. Nearly the whole radio budget goes into them, and we will continue to invest in them, as well as evolve them.

But for us to serve all our audiences, and to attract new listeners, we must invest in specialist music stations and streams, giving our listeners new rabbit holes they can drop into to discover more of what they love.

And it means creating amazing content for "chosen moments", like our investment in podcasts and playlists.

Taken together, this brings us to Sounds, the single app for all BBC audio that we launched a year or so ago.

Our old iPlayer Radio app was brilliant for those who wanted to listen to our stations online, but it didn’t help audiences find the perfect next programme from the 80,000 hours of audio we have available.

Sounds was the centrepiece of the change at BBC radio last year, and it was created to be a home for all three types of listening.

You can listen to our mass radio stations there, you can listen to music mixes and digital-only specialist stations there, and you can seek out a podcast or something from our archive to deliver your chosen moment.

The critical shift for everyone in BBC radio has been to stop thinking of ourselves as a series of isolated stations and instead as part of a wider portfolio: a place where a listener can find audio that suits their tastes, regardless of the moment, whether it’s live or on demand, something on air or something only on Sounds.

To succeed in this new world of greater choice and increased competition, at BBC radio we must pool together as a single team to help audiences make the most of their listening.

Try to do anything new and you are, of course, guaranteed to run into opposition. That is truer perhaps at the BBC than most other organisations.

Quite rightly, people feel a sense of ownership over the BBC and the direction it takes. But I am pleased to say that Sounds is doing precisely what we hoped it would do.

With 3m weekly users, it has already brought many more people to us than iPlayer Radio was able to. Our stations are at its centre with two thirds of listening hours being live, and on demand is flourishing.

Listeners are able to catch up on their favourite shows they might have missed on air. We’ve seen record plays for our podcasts and radio programmes with more than 100 million plays during the final quarter of 2019 alone.

During the same period we also saw a record 1.8 million plays to our Music Mixes, and you’ll be pleased to hear the classical ones - our Mindful Mix and Classical Focus - were some of the most popular ones with both of them in the top five.

And then, of course, Sounds is personalised, so it helps people find something that is perfect for them, as well as encouraging them to discover new things too.

What must not change at BBC radio

Inaction, it should not be forgotten, is often a far riskier path than innovation and re-invention.

We have seen in other creative industries what happens when incumbents are disrupted by new players and new technology - and the incumbent who moves last falls hardest.

This is of particularly acute importance for a public service broadcaster, because our very existence is conditional on serving the public.

In the case of the BBC, that means reaching audiences that otherwise wouldn’t discover the best of science or classical music, history or jazz, literature or electronica.

And it means doing so in a way that delivers our founding purpose: not just to entertain, but to inform and educate too.

These things don't change, but if we are to continue delivering them, the way we go about them must.

Burke said that: "[A] state without the means of change is without the means of its conservation." The same is true of any institution and the same is true of BBC radio. To continue doing what we have always done, we have had to change the way that we do it.

BBC: Broadcasting classical

When it comes to classical music, the BBC’s goal is simple: To bring the best of it to the widest possible audience.

BBC radio is a central part of this, of course.

Two million people choose Radio 3 each week, discovering or returning to one of the best music stations in the world. I love what Alan Davey and the team are doing there - raising the ambition of the station even higher, and redefining what Radio 3 can mean in a world with so much music, so much art, so much culture fighting for our attention.

That means working even harder to get audiences to choose Radio 3, by creating a place away from the frenzy of everyday life, to revel in classical and cultural content.

Jess Gillam is a brilliant example of this - a classical saxophonist, a BBC Young Musician, with a musical taste that ranges from the canon and on to jazz and pop.

If you listen to her brilliant show, This Classical Life, you’ll hear her and one of today’s leading exponents talking about what they love. It shows that classical music is full of life - with delight at discovering what’s new and enjoying what’s best.

That delight is obvious across the network: From peak times, on Breakfast or Essential Classics; to someone like Elizabeth Alker, who co-presented the awards on Wednesday, exploring music on Thursday nights that goes beyond classification.

It’s that richness of content, those incredible programmes, that then feeds into BBC Sounds, reaching the other types of listening I mentioned before.

That could mean more music: Our Classical Focus playlist, for example, or Erland Cooper’s beautiful migration playlist, which he described as music to travel to, as I did, while writing this speech on a train from London to Manchester.

And it can also mean mixing music with a little education, whether hearing someone’s Private Passions or learning about Donald MacLeod’s Composer Of The Week.

So that’s 'mass radio' and 'chosen moments', and we’re also looking at ways we can provide more specialist radio options on BBC Sounds for classical music, whether adding classical streams or further complementing Radio 3 and the Proms on the app.

These plans are all being developed, but I can say that we are looking at how we can bring the best of classical music to all our audiences, however and whenever they like to listen.

And Sounds is the perfect classical destination - with nearly 150 episodes of The Listening Service and daily live concerts. And of course our music mixes - we’ve only just begun.

BBC orchestras: Reaching new audiences

But broadcast is just a part of the role that we play when it comes to classical music.

You’re never too young or too old to fall in love with classical music, and it’s our role to bring classical music to new audiences, however we can.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Singers, for instance, are moving their own base, taking the legacy of Maida Vale to a new generation in the east end of London. They will be part of a new creative quarter, East Bank, as part of the legacy of the Olympic Games.

There, they will join organisations such as the V&A and Smithsonian, London College of Fashion, UCL and Sadler’s Wells, working together on community learning and education initiatives in one of the most diverse and poorest boroughs in London.

And our fantastic orchestras are constantly touring and performing across the country, to keep making classical music available to everyone, whether it’s BBC Phil, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales or BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

BBC: Building a love of classical

As a child who struggled somewhat with my own musical education, I am passionate about the role that the BBC can play in giving every child a musical education.

That’s why we’ve recently launched Bring The Noise, a programme that seeks to get 5-7 year old school children enjoying and making music. From which, they graduate to Ten Pieces, our programme designed to open the world of classical music to 7-14 year olds.

If we missed you at school, we will continue to make a bigger and bigger noise until we get you interested.

This year we are marking Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with a celebration all year, which many of you are involved in. It includes 125 hours of in depth Composer Of The Week profiles of different aspects of his life and concerts and contextual programming throughout the year.

And as part of taking Beethoven outside of his natural habitat and reaching new audiences, I can announce today that we will be launching Beat Beethoven, a collaboration with Sport Relief.

The initiative is simple: Runners (and non-runners) will attempt to run a 5k in less time than it takes to play Beethoven’s 5th, raising money for Sport Relief in the process.

The BBC Philharmonic here in Salford will be kicking this off with a live broadcast conducted by principle chief conductor Ben Gernon, and I hope that many of you here will be getting involved too.

The Proms: The jewel in our crown

Our classical programming culminates every summer by inviting our friends round to the Albert Hall to make the biggest noise about classical music anywhere in the world.

The Proms are a jewel in the BBC’s crown and we are incredibly proud that it commissions more new music than any festival to an audience where the best seats in the house - or should I say standing space - cost just £6 and the majority of the Prommers are under the age of 45.

Staggeringly, 25% of the population watched a Prom or part of a Prom on TV over the course of last Summer. And over 300,000 people attended the concerts.

After so many years, it is still bringing the best to everyone.

BBC and classical: Using our platform to promote new talent

That’s the power of our portfolio: Creating, commissioning and broadcasting classical music. Our own incredible orchestras and the equally incredible orchestras we partner with. The Proms and Radio 3 at the heart of it all. But never resting on our laurels, and constantly trying to find new ways to reach new audiences, through Sounds, through Education, even through running...

In the process, seeking to help new audiences develop a lifelong love of classical music, or helping those who are already listening to Radio 3 to go deeper and discover new composers, performers, and pieces.

And that also provides us with another important opportunity: To promote composers and musicians who might otherwise not have found a platform.

We are so proud of our New Generation Artists scheme which we launched twenty years ago, nurturing young musical talent.

And more recently, we have been promoting composers who don't fit the template of a classical composer, such as the five forgotten female composers we broadcast on International Women's Day in 2018: Marianna Martines, Augusta Holmes, Leokadiya Kashperova, Johanna Müller-Hermann and Florence B Price.

And this year we are commissioning seven composers from different corners of the classical world, ranging in age from 17 to 70, each writing a movement for an a capella choral work entitled the Seven Ages of Woman.

The commission will be performed by the BBC Singers as a free concert in February and will be broadcast on International Women’s Day - 8 March - on Radio 3.

The future for BBC and classical

The world of audio is changing.

In a world of near ubiquitous TV, it wasn’t a given that audio would be able to hold its own, let alone thrive as it has. And yet today we find ourselves in a golden age of audio.

For all of us in that world - whether we are creating, commissioning or broadcasting - this shifting landscape is cause for excitement.

Yes, it has forced us to change how we reach our audiences. But in the process, it has forced us to do more to win them over and earn their loyalty.

It means seeking out new audiences and inspiring in them a passion for classical music.

It means treasuring the jewels in our crown - Radio 3, the Proms and our orchestras and choirs - making them as appealing to new audiences as they are to existing ones.

It means using the full potential of Sounds to deliver classical music for all occasions.

It means addressing the perennial challenges of any art form:

How to promote greater diversity
How to reach new and younger audiences
How to provide platforms to composers, orchestras and artists who are pushing the artistic boundaries of the form

Conclusion

Alas, I was never going to push those boundaries myself. My recorder was better splintered on the floor than in my hand - I think even my parents knew that.

But you’re never too old to learn and my daughter and I are now starting our musical journey together, learning the piano and developing that joy of music that is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

The BBC’s job is to give that chance to everyone, throughout their lives. To bring the best of classical music to the greatest possible number.

That’s the mission we chose when we were founded in 1922. And it’s a mission that we believe in just as much today.

But we can do it even more effectively with the tools we have today, with the treasure trove of Sounds and the expertise of our stations.

So with those new tools, our enduring commitment and your continued help, we are sure we can make the next century even more exciting for classical music than our first one.

Thank you.

Accessibility links