Dilettante

Classical music hub, Dilettante Music Limited was shortlisted in The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Awards 2009. The site aims to break down the barriers to classical music via its buzzing online community. We caught up with founder and Managing Director, Juliana Farha to find out more.

Explain your website.

Dilettante is an online classical music hub that supports young musicians and music-making. The Dilettante micro-economy integrates social media and e-commerce tools to create a global community of musicians and listeners from more than 130 countries. By embracing technology to engage new audiences for classical music, Dilettante demystifies the genre and creates opportunities for musicians and performing organisations to engage with listeners, thereby supporting the creative economy.

How does it make money?

We draw together multiple revenue streams, with more in development. First, we work with advertisers such as record labels and orchestras to create integrated marketing campaigns that blend some of the free tools available on the site with sponsored feature editorial and banner advertising. We also work with event ticketing and retail partners such as iTunes and DG Webshop to offer concert tickets and music for purchase through Dilettante, from which we derive commission.

What is your background?

I'm trained as a journalist, and when I lived in Toronto I worked at the CBC and went on to be editor-in-chief of a youth culture magazine. I left it all behind after a trip to the Frankfurt Music Fair, which is the biggest musical instruments fair in the world. That's where I fell in love with the music business so - while I still write occasionally - I essentially abandoned journalism to work in the stringed instrument trade. When I came to London, I enrolled at Goldsmiths College where I did a Masters in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy, before I founded Dilettante.

When did the site launch?

Dilettante launched in January 2008, and Phase 2 launched in June 2009 with a re-design and a range of new features.

How many visits do you have per day?

Recently, we hit our target of 30,000 unique monthly visitors, or 1000 per day. We're aiming to quadruple that within 12 months.

Describe your average visitor.

There isn't one! Seriously, the whole point of Dilettante is that we provide tools and features for a wide range of visitors, from musicians - both amateur and professional - to a range of listeners, from complete novices to serious audiophiles.

Who is your business mentor and inspiration?

I don't really have a mentor in the formal sense, but I'm certainly inspired by my mother, Marina Kun. She grew up in a small, immigrant community in Canada in the 1950s, and has gone on to run one of the most successful businesses in the stringed instrument world. ‘Ahead of her time' is an understatement. As a result, she's been nominated for many business and entrepreneurship awards.

Who are your biggest competitors?

Dilettante is really a one-stop shop for classical music and no one else is doing that, but there are websites that do pieces of it. For instance, musicians use MySpace to create personal ‘microsites', but the only motivation for listeners to find artists is curiosity. There are all sorts of reasons for listeners to come to Dilettante, and discover musicians while they're there. Still, our model was never based on convincing people to abandon other online activities and switch to Dilettante, so for instance they can import their own blogs and Flickr photos to their Dilettante profiles.

What is your biggest challenge?

Conveying a very complex offering. Once users take the time to explore the Dilettante site, they're invariably struck by how much there is to do on it. But effective marketing is built on clear and simple messages, so that can be tough to explain. It also creates challenges around the user journey: how do you make it easy to use for straightforward activities like purchasing music, while encouraging exploration?

What makes Dilettante unique?

There are lots of business operating in the classical music area online, offering a range of products and services. Dilettante brings much of that activity together and throws in some of its own on a sophisticated, premium site with a lively and refreshing voice.

Your favourite piece of classical music?

A virtually impossible question to answer! I never get tired of: the Ravel Piano Trio, the 2nd movement of the Dvorak cello concerto, Shostakovich String Quartet No 8 in C minor. Recently, I heard the London Sinfonietta perform Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians - that was a real trip.

What has been the most positive thing to come out of Dilettante so far?

The fact that we've achieved a genuinely global reach, with people coming to the site from more than 130 countries. It shows why supposedly ‘niche' markets can really thrive on the Internet.

Where do you see Dilettante going from here?

There's no doubt that the Dilettante community will continue to grow, and I'm especially excited to see our markets develop in classical hotspots like Germany and France, where there's already significant traffic to Dilettante. As for the company, we'll continue to develop deeper relationships with business partners in our sector, leveraging synergies wherever we can to enhance what we offer our users.

Visit www.dilettantemusic.com

16 November 09