Dilettante

Dilettante is a classical music hub, which works as a kind of social networking site connecting musicians and listeners around the world. However, unlike Facebook, this is not somewhere to go to share the mundane details of the day, but rather a place to build a community around a shared love of classical music.

THE IDEA

Set up by Canadian journalist and businesswoman Juliana Farha in January 2008, Dilettante's tag line is "lead the classical uprising." The site aims to open classical music up beyond its traditional elite confines on Radio 3 and the London concert halls.  This is an exploratory space, using Web 2.0 technology to enable fans and musicians to interact with one another. Although it is clearly a part of the user-generated content revolution, the focus here is more on offering a showcase to musicians, providing an online space where they can allow their music to speak directly to listeners and reach new audiences. Farha offers an opportunity for musicians to develop and publicise their careers, as well as giving aficionados a digital home.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

A lot of effort has been put into the design of the site. Dilettante has a confident glossy elegance. Unlike many sites which deter involvement with unimaginative visuals, staid content and an absence of purpose, Dilettante invites you in.

There's lots to do here. Members can post blogs, profiles and photos, upload their own performances, befriend other users, join groups, write reviews, highlight their teaching and composing skills, and add event listings for professional or amateur concerts. You can also buy CDs and downloads from the site's partners, DG Webshop, ArkivMusic, iTunes and Amazon. There is recorded and live music to enjoy and Dilettante Radio allows users to create their own playlists. There are also webcasts of performances. Video tutorials, set to music by performer members, tell you what the site has to offer and how it can be used and shows how friendly and welcoming a site this is.

The site boasts a superb search engine, which leads you to the most comprehensive information on the net, breaking down the search hits into useful categories such as "artist", "works", "events" and "discussions."

THE NAME

There's nothing amateurish about this site. In fact, the site draws attention to alternative meanings of the word 'dilettante'. From the Latin 'delectare,' meaning 'to delight', the noun denoting "a lover of an art or science, esp. of a fine art." Despite the many fusty jeremiads over the corruption of values that digital technology is supposed to represent, Dilettante demonstrates that the internet might one day be all about sax and violins.

06 Nov 09