“The only way is to care about your community. Keep in touch with them, get them involved somehow, and do remarkable work that gets them buzzing.”

Interview by Mike Sullivan

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According to Walt Ribeiro “the orchestra repertoire is boring, predictable, and repetitive. They play the music from the same 4 dead composers, which it’s no wonder why the orchestra scene is dwindling”. He wanted to change this so he created For Orchestra. Through For Orchestra Walt arranges pop songs for orchestra – everything from Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Madonna, and many more.

Walt started For Orchestra after being laid off, and used only his own resources to build For Orchestra from the ground up. He is proud of the fact that he never had to raise outside capitol, and is profitable now after only 3 years and plans to hire an employee soon.

MO:
In 2006 you released a CD of your original orchestra music, and claim if failed miserably. What mistakes did you make with this first CD that helped you know what to change for your second attempt?

Walt:
The biggest mistake I made was that I went into it thinking I was going to sell a million CD’s right away. I thought business was “if you build it they will come” but that was a tough lesson to learn. In hindsight had no understanding of distribution, price points, or even who my target market was. When I gave the idea a second attempt years later, I applied what I learned and started thinking how to be more efficient, and most of all, being patient. Within those 4 years my orchestrations, production, networking, and marketing all got better. I understood the online world a lot better, learned more about digital distribution, and bought a laptop to replace my huge music studio – all these things brought my overhead down favorably, made me efficient, and portable. But it all goes back to being patient, I think patience and being objective about my content were the main things I was missing back then.

MO:
You now have an amazing array of pop songs that you have arranged for orchestra. Where do you see the company going from here, more pop songs, tackling a different genre?

Walt:
Each week is usually a new genre in itself. The popular music charts span everything from rock, country, techno, and everything in between. So the goal isn’t so much to tackle new genres, rather, the goal is to tackle new ideas. Of course things like a tour are on my mind, but I feel like there’s more I can do with this. Why isn’t every orchestra playing new music? So perhaps the ultimate goal is to change the mindset of the orchestras around the world, and use our profitable business model to show that orchestras should not be going out of business today, in fact, they should be growing. Why can’t composers get their music performed while they’re alive? The biggest goal for me is to show that you don’t necessarily have to play today’s pop music, but you should play today’s orchestra composer’s original works.

MO:
It is impressive that you did not have to raise any money to start this company. Talk about the difficulties you face in doing it alone, and what you see as advantages to financing in this way?

Walt:
Well, I wasn’t married, a homeowner, no kids, or a car. So that helped me get by since i had a very limited lifestyle set up to make this work, although I was laid off and had tons of payments (high NYC rent, etc.) which scared me every month since I still had almost a full year to pay off after getting the pink slip. Money wasn’t even the hardest part to get used to, the hardest part about going it alone was the mindset that ‘I can do this’. You don’t have anybody to bounce ideas off of, so you not only second guess yourself with your business decisions, but you also second guess yourself on the possibility for success. That’s deadly, because you have to stay in the game mentally. On whether you think it’s going to work out or not, then either way you’re right. The best part of financing it this way was the creativity that comes from it. Barriers force you to think outside the box and make things work no matter what, and that’s powerful thing. One example was how I had to depend on digital distribution instead of manufacturing – so as a result I had to release a digital song a week, which creates a new level of creativity and business model that wasn’t around 10 years ago during 12 song CD’s.

MO:
Who is For Orchestra’s target market? Do you find most of your students are classically trained and want to try something new, or are completely new to the orchestra scene?

Walt:
The target market is not people who like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, rather, the target are people who are fans of the originals. I feel it’s easier to get a Beethoven fan to listen to a Lady Gaga orchestra version than it is to get a Lady Gaga fan to listen to Beethoven. As for market itself, when it comes to sheet music sales, the people who are most interested are those who are classically trained or are in a high school orchestra or band. But when it comes to actual mp3 sales, then people who are completely new to the orchestra are usually the ones who check it out on iTunes and Bandcamp.

MO:
I read in another article about you that you are involved in the charity DonorsChoose.org where you raised over $1,300 for students who need music stands, books, and more. Can you tell us about this charity and how you got involved?

Walt:
Back in 2006 I taught music lessons online every day to thousands of students. It was my full time job, and as a result, that’s where I learned about online marketing, and also grew my presence and brand. Each year DonorsChoose chose people in different industries to work with them to be ‘the face’ of each trade to battle out other bloggers and companies to raise the most money. When they approached me to be their official music blogger. I was thrilled because after I learned more about it I learned how they were one of the biggest online donation nonprofits in the world, I couldn’t wait to get my education community together to help raise money for other music education programs. It’s a different concept because they weren’t about getting large donations by a few big donors, they were about getting micro donations by thousands upon thousands of people – some donations were only a dollar or two, and I thought it served an awesome and meaningful purpose. I still keep in touch with them to this day.

MO:
In an industry where stealing (pirating music) is the norm, how do you find unique ways to offer your music and encourage your followers to actually purchase your CD?

Walt:
The only way is to care about your community. Keep in touch with them, get them involved somehow, and do remarkable work that gets them buzzing. You can’t worry about the one’s who freeload off you, because there’s no way of policing all that activity, and there’s no way of convincing them not to do it. Building a family who knows each other and stands up for each other and stands for something where everybody believes in what you do and your purpose, that’s the only way to do it – because a family member would never steal from your wallet, so you have to remember that you’re building a small, tight, family. My friend Mike Lewis said it best “You’re not building a fanbase, you’re building a friendbase”.