I also think this is why traditional opera and the symphony are failing. People have too much entertainment.
Stage musicals (Hamilton) and film musicals (anything from Disney) are still very popular.
Popular music concerts (Taylor Swift) are obviously incredibly popular, and they're usually not symphony concerts.
While popular tastes have largely diverged from classical art music, a good deal of "popular" (and often excellent, in my opinion) symphonic music is still being produced and listened to as film music and game music.
They struggle right now yes, but the major organizations in the great cities (London, New York, Los Angeles, Vienna, Berlin, etc.) all seem to still stay afloat.
Ballet and classical music were similar, as was classical theater like Shakespeare. They would be presented by touring companies, as well as community groups.
I think that recorded media played a key part in displacing them. The older forms, in their most expensive incarnations, remained as entertainment for the wealthy, as a way to distinguish themselves from the masses who watched recorded entertainment.
But a lot of grand old movie theaters started life as opera houses and classical theaters. They used to be popular entertainment.
It must be horrible if a story of a fight explained all the world you know all your life giving you conversation airsuperiority.. and then that story starts to fade out while you are in it..
I haven't looked into this too much, but I hypothesize this might not be the case due to attendance numbers. Top-line symphony and philharmonics still sell out regularly. I know locally, the LA Philharmonic's shows at both the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl have robust attendance.
I want to explore a different avenue -- donors and patrons. I wonder if the new generations of millionaires/billionaires don't donate the way they once did to the classical arts.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951... -- the LA Phil does rather well for itself, but with $64mm in artists' salaries/fees in 2023 and only $42mm in contributions, one cannot help but wonder if this could be helped out by a couple of more billionaires setting up endowments?