Subscribe Now!: Building Arts Audiences Through Dynamic Subscription Promotion

by Danny Newman

I think of this book as a succession of topics or essays, providing not only the rationale and the tools for a practical approach to audience development, but a considerable quotient of evangelism, too. For my experience has taught me that the inspirational factor—the leap to faith with a newly shared vision of what is possible—causes those who had previously feared failure to find the confidence to move forward boldly, purposefully and successfully.
—Danny Newman, on Subscribe Now!

Genres: Nonfiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Patrick]

I read this 25 years ago. I should read it again and see how much wisdom holds up now that subscriptions have declined so markedly everywhere. But 25 years ago, this book helped me a lot!

[Devon]

As a historical reference this book is excellent. Also if you don't know anything about subscriptions in non-profit arts organizations then it's also useful (to a point, Danny Newman gets very wordy and could have probably cut this book in half). However because it was written back in the 80s much of what it says is irrelevant to current marketing in the arts.

[M Christopher]

A quick re-read of a book I’ve previously studied in depth. It was the “bible” of my previous career in arts management. Some of the tactics are outdated but the strategies, overall, are still sound.

[Matthew Hodge]

I didn't realise until after I'd bought it that this book was written in 1977 (and then revised in the early 80s). It's important to remember that because, in this book, Danny Newman is an ardent evangelist for the idea of subscriptions in the arts (an idea now which is almost taken for granted in the arts world today).

As such, the book comes across as rather quaint. Back then, the idea of getting people to come to all your shows was seen as radical. Today, it's old hat. More importantly, we no longer see the fantastic success rates that arts companies saw thirty years ago. No longer will a subscription drive triple your audience in a couple of years - and this is before the classical music crisis and rise of the non-committal generations who don't like to book anything in advance.

But far and away, the worst thing about this book is the style. Verbose to a fault, it could easily be cut in half.

So all in all, worth reading as a historical piece but there are far more relevant books out there on arts marketing.