About XVII Chopin Competition Edition

The competition was accessible in its entirety to all interested parties on a global scale, thanks to the following broadcast channels:
•  The www.chopincompetition2015.com web page, as part of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute page
• The Chopin Institute YouTube channel
• The Chopin Competition smartphone app
• The Chopin Competition Smart TV app
• Polish Television’s TVP Kultura channel
• Channel 2 of Polish Radio
• The Polish Television web page www.chopin2015.tvp.pl
• The Medici Internet television service (finals and prizewinners’ concert)
• The National Audiovisual Institute web page www.nina.gov.pl

Sound and Image Broadcasting

On the YouTube channel in October, the Chopin Competition films available there (mainly audition sessions) were viewed 9 300 000 times, which adds up to the equivalent of 141 years of viewing. The largest audience was attracted by the Competition prizewinners’ concert – it was viewed by over 2 150 000 people. The audience temperature is attested by the number of comments – a total of about 250 000 comments, averaging 12 000 during each Competition session – that is, about 40 comments per broadcast minute. Viewers came from 218 countries, nearly 40% of whom were from South Korea (the homeland of the Competition winner).

Television broadcasts were viewed by an average of about 150 000 persons per day, which meant 75 000 per concert broadcast on TVP Kultura. The largest audience tuned in for the prizewinners’ concert (also broadcast on Polish Television Channel 2 – TVP 2) – ca. 800 000 people. This broadcast, as well, was intensively commented upon.
On the official Competition web page, www.chopincompetition2015.com, over 12 000 000 views were noted.
Adding up all of the information gathered thus far concerning the aforementioned communications channels, we could say that in various forms, the Competition broadcast was heard all over the world by over 31 000 000 people (including ca. 10 000 000 Poles).
Deserving of separate emphasis is the number of radio listeners: the Competition promotional campaign on Polish Radio reached 5 323 000 people aged 15+, and this was the most active medium in broadcasting information about this endeavor. We also know that radio broadcasts were preferred by 11% from among the 29% of the total number of adult Poles who actively followed the Competition’s progress.

Social Media

Essential data about the reach of the Chopin Competition are provided by an analysis conducted by the Institute of Media Monitoring. According to this analysis, Polish social media users alone exchanged 70 000 000 pieces of information concerning the Competition, and the record post on The Chopin Institute’s Facebook profile reached nearly 900 000 people. Internet monitoring shows that the Chopin Competition participant mentioned most often by Polish Internauts this year was Krzysztof Książek; nearly 40% of the posts concerning the pianist contained words favorable to him and associated with positive emotions. A similar result was also achieved by Szymon Nehring, the winner of the audience prize. After the announcement of the results, the number of mentions changed in favor of the winner – Seong-Jin Cho of South Korea.
In the conclusion of the IMM’s analysis, we can read the following: ‘The Competition was borne of a need to maintain knowledge of the music of Fryderyk Chopin, as well as to preserve his characteristic tradition of piano playing (…). One needs to turn a bit of a blind eye to all social media-related ‘blasts’, and divide the assessment of their real influence by 10. Nevertheless, the social media, multimedia and hypermedia incarnation of this year’s edition of the Competition should be rated exceptionally highly. We do not often have the opportunity to follow emotion-laden discussions of classical music, and even if another such occasion presents itself during a subsequent edition of the Competition, the mission of “maintaining knowledge of Fryderyk Chopin’s music” declared by the Institute took on a very real form this year, thanks also to new media. Thus, we can yield to temptation and use the word “revolution”.’

Original Publications and the Value of Media Coverage

An important field of the Competition’s presence in the public space were original publications by press, Internet, radio and television journalists. According to the Institute of Media Monitoring’s tally, their number in October 2015 amounted to 17 079, while according to PRESS-SERVICE Monitoring Mediów, which tallied publications over a somewhat longer time period, it achieved a level of 39 400. It is estimated that in the latter case, contact with traditional media materials could have taken place nearly 5 billion times; a potential total even of 867 million recipients could have had contact with this information. In their extensive analysis, PRESS-SERVICE calculated that the amount that the organizers would have had to spend to achieve such visibility in the media would amount to nearly PLN 44.3 million. That is their estimate of the advertising equivalent of the publications. This same index in the time period limited to October 2015 was determined by the Institute of Media Monitoring to total PLN 14 064 350 net advertising value equivalent. (It is worth adding that the financial outlays incurred by the organizer for promotion of the event did not exceed PLN 1.5 million, and were covered in their entirety by sponsor funding. The value of in-kind media services provided is estimated by the Competition media partners at PLN 3.5 million).

Social Context

Public Opinion Research Center data show that the progress of the Competition was followed in the media by 29% of the Polish population. If all listeners active in October 2015 had voted unanimously in the Parliamentary elections, they would have gained an absolute majority in the Polish Parliament.
The analysis reveals a very high level of acceptance for classical music (47%), though relatively few respondents listen to this music often (10%). The data, though obtained in the special context of the Chopin Competition, contradict the popular opinion concerning the niche character of high art.
The active Competition viewers were predominantly women (52%), better-educated people, satisfied with their material circumstances, earning comparatively high income, living in large cities, and relatively rarely situated in the under-24 age bracket). It is worth pointing out among the group of people who never listen to classical music on an everyday basis, no less than 10% turned out to be viewers of the Chopin Competition; and among those who listen very rarely – nearly 40%.
The survey reveals a psychological phenomenon of accumulation of social energy, aimed at a common experience of the values contained in music.
It is interesting that for lovers of classical music, the last audition of the Competition’s final round (20 October) turned out to be more attractive than the debate of the 8 electoral committees.
According to an analogous measurement conducted by Google with regard to the global group of Internet broadcast viewers, the Competition achieved the greatest audience numbers in the 18–44 age group (76.5% of the total audience); they also found a greater interest on the part of men (54%) than women.