Boston Singers' Resource News Bulletin, November 23 , 2006

We take a look at something a little different this week in our interview with BSR subscriber Ed Justen. Ed’s interest in music, history and computers has found a voice via a weekly Internet podcast about classical music. Ed talks about the program that he produces from his home, the technology of podcasting, and he offers thoughts on how singers and singing organizations might benefit from this relatively new advertising tool.

Like an old time radio program, we hear the distinctive tenor voice and the lively strains of a familiar tune welcoming us to another edition of Music Perspectives. The program moves along quickly; first, with unusual Classical Music News Flashes that could as easily be from Australia or Sweden as from California or New York. Then comes the heart of the program which is always a topic taken from the world of classical music. It might include excerpts from an opera by Wagner or a Schubert chamber piece. It might be an interview with a local, New England, musician of note. Then, with a sign-off thanking listeners for tuning in and asking them to send in their comments and suggestions, we hear, once again, the opening melody. End of program.

But this isn’t a radio program we’re listening to. Billed as “The podcast show about classical music,” this is a down-loadable computer sound file and is, currently, the only on-going program of its type on the Internet, as far as we can tell. Whatever the subject or format, it reflects the interest and passion of the program’s creator, Ed Justen. From his home in Haverhill, MA, Ed researches, writes, produces and narrates each podcast show and posts it on his website, www.musicperspectives.com, about once a week. This is a true labor of love for Ed since he receives no funding for the effort and holds down a full-time job in the computer field. He is also a music arranger and performer.

Joe Stroup: Thanks for making time in your crazy schedule to talk with us. How did you come up with the idea for Music Perspectives?

Ed Justen: One thing I like about being a performer is going out afterwards and having conversations about music with the musicians - about what we just performed and sharing our experiences with each other. It’s always struck me that if a person who’s not a musician had access to that type of conversation they might look a little bit differently at classical music; they might have a different vision of what classical music is.

JS: Do you know anything about your audience? Who they are? Where they’re from?

EJ: I’ve got a pretty even group of musicians and non-musicians and we get about 60 to 80 hits a day on the site. They’re from all over. According to my web stats, we have listeners from Malaysia, Brazil, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia!

JS: How do you choose your programs?

EJ: Initially my vision was to interview somebody every week and do different aspects of music: performing, the challenges of performing a particular piece, maybe interview an expert about a particular composer or maybe we could just do a particular genre. However, people’s schedules being what they are, finding subjects to interview just turned into a big challenge. So after the first I decided to go with the examination of either a composer or a genre or a particular topic.

That has turned out to be successful. The feedback I’ve gotten has been good. I guess my big goal is to bring a non-musician or someone who might have a little interest in this type of art but who is, maybe, intimidated by it, to bring them into the fold. So, in the case of opera, they think of the high singing and all but we all know that it’s just Fox TV in 1870 or the soap opera of the 19th century. I think once a person finds that out, they will come to appreciate it more. That’s my goal.

JS: In spite of the scheduling problems, you have had some interesting guests already.

EJ: Yes. For the premier broadcast, which was in April of this year, I interviewed Mark Aldrich (Professor of Music at Salem State College). The program was entitled ‘Percy Grainger’. Then in August, I had John Whittlesey, creative and artistic director of Intermezzo (The New England Chamber Opera Series) on the show for ‘Chamber Opera 101’. Just last month, Peter Szep, the conductor of the Raylynmor Opera, spoke on ‘The Role of the Conductor in an Opera.’

JS: The programs sound very professional. How much effort does it take to put a show together?

EJ: I would say I probably spend four to six hours on it every week. That includes the research, recording and editing. For me, it’s the research that is the real challenge although I’m not presenting anything that’s not already been published. (Typically, Ed pulls his information from ‘The Vintage Guide to Classical Music’ by Jan Swafford and ‘The Encyclopedia of Music’ by Max Wade-Mathews and Wendy Thompson.)

The first five or six podcasts were topics that I was real familiar with. I could put those together pretty easily. But after that it was like, ‘Oh boy, what do I do to keep going here?’ For instance, when you do someone like Wagner (‘Opera Titan’), what do you cut-out? Where do you stop? Or someone like Rossini (‘The Rossini Crescendo’), which clip do you use? Always in the back of my mind I fear that I’m going to get an email from some Wagnerian expert who says ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about’. That hasn’t happened yet, the response has been very positive.

JS: Let’s talk a little about the technical side of your show. What is a podcast? How is it different from the sound files we find on so many of our BSR subscriber websites?

EJ: Those sound files are the very beginning of podcasting, essentially. You go to that singer’s website and you can download that clip onto your desktop. You can then put it into your MP3 music player and listen to it. Before podcasting, this was the way you would get data from the website.

Podcasting is about a year old. It’s really a brand new medium that’s grown exponentially. It started about this time last year. How it works is with a piece of software called an Aggregator. Say you wanted to visit five websites every day to check to see if they have any new clips. What the Aggregator does is go and check each website once a week or whenever you set it. If a new file is posted on any of the websites, the Aggregator software will recognize it, grab it, and bring it down onto your computer.

JS: Where do I get a copy of the Aggregator software?

EJ: It’s usually freeware off of the Internet. Also, iTtunes has made it very simple to get, too. They have the Aggregator software within the iTunes. The Aggegator enables you to subscribe to the website. Subscribing, in this case, doesn’t mean paying for the sound files. It’s the term we use to mean that you have the Aggregator software on your computer that will look for new clips on the site you’ve subscribed to.

JS: What does it cost you to have this program online?

EJ: There is a small expense. I have to pay for the bandwidth for a listener to access my website. The data and information on my server is being transferred to your computer. That’s what costs. I get 7 gigabytes of transfer per month for $65.00 per year. Anytime somebody accesses, clicks on the little link, and that sound file gets transferred to their computer, that’s going against my 7 gigs. If I exceed that (meaning more people are going to the site) I must pay more. Usually one of those sound files is from 11 to 15 megs.

Other costs, of course, are for any CD’s I add to my library and the books I use for the research.

JS: How does doing the podcasts tie-in with your other interests? Why did you choose to develop the site?

EJ: When I first heard about podcasting, the other guys in the podcast ‘universe’ were expounding their views or saying ‘This is my favorite CD’. I wanted to do a podcast show and I wanted to do a music show. I just found it was a natural progression to bring in the talk aspects of the show, with a little bit of clips. It’s a music show but it’s a music talk show. I like to make music and I would love to talk to a lot of people about music. This is how I do it. It’s fun. And I love history. I revel in the historical research. I would like to take it a step further and someday present some primary or secondary source research.

JS: Most of your podcast shows use examples of orchestral or chamber music. Will you be having more programs that feature the voice?

EJ: There were a couple of shows that featured the voice (‘Welcome Music from Henry Purcell’, ‘Music of the Renaissance’, ‘A Romantic Sampler’, and ‘Program Music’). But, since I’m an instrumentalist, I’ve gone more to that side. I love opera and I’m trying to keep a nice balance between instrumental and opera. I just don’t know the whole vocal milieu. I would very much like to explore the vocal universe and have guests. I just can’t speak with authority on it.

If any BSR subscribers would be interested in being a guest on the show, if they have an idea for a show or a particular expertise or if they want to talk about some projects they have coming up and how they’re approaching them, I would love to have them.

JS: Do you have a sense of where this technology is going and how it might be useful for BSR subscribers?

EJ: Where this technology is really going to help is with the non-profit groups; the choruses and the theaters. They can use this technology as a marketing tool. For example: they can do interviews, a five minute clip on the upcoming season or the next production, they can interview their conductor or maybe the Board of Directors about the direction of the company. Things like that. It’s a way to increase awareness, to get more information out. It’s advertising without having to pay an advertiser. Non-profits have yet to really embrace this but from where I’m sitting this would be a great opportunity for more communication.

JS: Sounds like individual singers could also use this to promote themselves via their own websites, too?

EJ: Exactly. All they need is the correct tools and a little creativity.

JS: Thanks, Ed, for this introduction into the possibilities that podcasting offers. Good luck with your work. Perhaps some of our subscribers will be contacting you with ideas for shows or even for an interview.

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Ed Justen’s podcast website is at www.musicperspectives.com.
Ed’s communications development website is at www.jitcomms.com.
For a sampling of Aggregator freeware go to www.freewarefiles.com. Type in the word ‘Aggregator’ in the Search window and hit Enter.