The launch of “My Performance Today”

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Check this out: On its website, public radio’s Performance Today is trying something similar to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra concept. The show is asking listeners to submit audio and video recordings of their own performances of classical works (public domain or copyright-free, of course). These recordings will then appear on Performance Today’s website, and some could even make it onto the broadcast.

You can find all the details here.

Way to go, PT — this is a great way to involve the audience, broaden the show’s purpose and give people a way to share their love of music in a personal way. It’s also a model that stations could easily adapt if they’re not doing something like this already. Maybe PT and stations could combine their efforts to some degree, in the areas of promotion, netting performances and technical help.

However, I don’t understand PT’s imposition of a deadline (May 15). Is this a contest? The website copy doesn’t explicitly say so. If it’s not, could PT keep this going indefinitely? If curating submissions on an ongoing basis is too taxing, the show could at least feature one contributed performance a week as a post on its blog, or give listeners a forum for sharing their recordings and videos. Finding a low-maintenance way to keep this going would be a bonus.

About Mike Janssen

Mike Janssen Served as Scanning The Dial's original co-authors from Mar, 2008 to Jan, 2010 and is a freelance writer, editor and media educator based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He has written extensively about radio, mostly for Current, the trade newspaper about public broadcasting, where his articles have appeared since 1999. He has also worked in public radio as a reporter at WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he began his career in journalism and filed pieces for NPR. Mike's work in radio expanded to include outreach and advocacy in 2007, when he worked with the Future of Music Coalition to recruit applicants for noncommercial radio stations. He has since embarked on writing a series of articles about radio hopefuls for FMC's blog.

Mike also writes regularly for Retail Traffic magazine and teaches workshops about writing, podcasting and radio journalism. In his spare time he enjoys vegetarian food, the outdoors, reading, movies and traveling. You can learn more about Mike and find links to more of his writing and reporting at mikejanssen.net.

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