Your next audience won't find you in a newspaper. They'll find you in a feed.
Gold Sound Media builds video-first marketing systems for performing arts organizations — turning world-class programming into new audiences and sustained ticket revenue.
Even the Best Organizations Hit a Marketing Ceiling
Your programming is exceptional. Your reputation is earned. Your audience is loyal. None of that is in question.
The question is reach. Traditional marketing — email to subscribers, print ads, press releases, social posts — is effective at activating the audience you already have. It is structurally unable to build the audience you don’t have.
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition had all of this before 2022 — a world-class brand, engaged audiences, strong institutional support. What it did not have was a mechanism to reach 25 million viewers in 170 countries. That required a different infrastructure entirely. Gold Sound Media provided it — first for the 2022 competition, then again for 2025.
The data is unambiguous. Reels reach more than twice as many people as static image posts, with over half of those viewers encountering the account for the first time (Socialinsider, 35M posts analyzed). Video ads built for Reels deliver 48% lower cost-per-action than non-video creative (Meta). Facebook’s October 2025 algorithm update increased Reels distribution by 50% (Sprout Social).
This is not a problem of resources or talent. It is an infrastructure gap — the distance between the quality of your programming and the reach of your marketing. Gold Sound Media closes that gap.
Video-First Strategy, Tailored to Your Organization
Gold Sound Media deploys the methodology that took the Van Cliburn Competition from 5 million to 25 million webcast viewers and powered successful GRAMMY campaigns for Jessie Montgomery and the Miró Quartet — adapted to each client’s programming, resources, and strategic priorities.
Every engagement begins with strategy. Some organizations need end-to-end video production, distribution, and paid amplification. Others have internal teams producing content and need algorithmic expertise and ad management. Others need a comprehensive campaign built around a single landmark event. The scope is shaped by what your organization is trying to achieve — not by a fixed package.
The competitive advantage is not production. It is distribution methodology — format variety that prevents algorithmic fatigue, hook structures that capture attention in the first three seconds, and retention optimization that keeps viewers watching. When the strategy calls for paid amplification, organic content serves as the proving ground: the videos that perform strongest become the highest-performing ad creative, reaching precisely targeted audiences at a fraction of what traditional advertising costs.
Deployed consistently, this compounds. Each piece of content reinforces the last. Each new viewer becomes a potential ticket buyer. Each season of investment deepens loyalty and extends reach into audiences your current marketing does not touch.
A Heritage of Results
The Cliburn — Two Competition Campaigns (2022, 2025)
Gold Sound Media developed and executed the social media strategy for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition across both the 2022 and 2025 cycles — curating all content across organic and paid channels, directing distribution cadence, and deploying targeted ad campaigns to drive global webcast viewership. In 2022: 300 million impressions. 25 million webcast viewers in 170 countries — a 5x increase over the previous competition. 80,000 new followers in three weeks. Yunchan Lim’s Rachmaninoff Third trended at #24 on YouTube globally and remains the most-watched “Rach 3” on the platform. The Cliburn returned to Gold Sound Media in 2025 for the next cycle.
“Jonathan Eifert was an invaluable part of our communications team during the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. His expertise in digital marketing and social media — and his careful attention to detail — greatly contributed to the Competition’s exponentially larger reach.”
— Maggie Estes, Director of Communications and Digital Content, The Cliburn
Portland Piano International — Sustained Partnership
Over three seasons of video-first marketing, Portland Piano International’s paid Sunday concert attendance rose 22%. Single-ticket buyers increased 50% — driven by a strategic shift from traditional marketing to organic video content paired with targeted Meta advertising.
“Working with Jonathan Eifert is truly a joy. He understands the social media world (so I don’t have to!) while being a master at more traditional public relations skills. Within just our first year working together, Jonathan increased our organization’s visibility — setting up our first international press coverage!”
— Ellen Bergstone Wasil, Executive Director, Portland Piano International
The Bachauer — Returning Campaign Client
Gold Sound Media's first campaign for the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation delivered 148,000 webcast views — tripling previous competition cycles — with 1.4 million social media impressions. A brokered media partnership with International Piano magazine extended the competition's visibility to global audiences. The Bachauer has since returned for two additional competition cycles.
“Jonathan found creative ways to promote our events, reach new audiences, shape messaging to appeal to diverse groups, and maximize the effectiveness of every advertising dollar spent. Thanks to his extensive efforts, our online views reached impressive numbers, often tripling those from previous years.”
— Kary Billings, Executive Director, Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation
Two Ways to Work Together
Both models are scoped to your organization’s needs, resources, and strategic priorities. Investment is discussed during the discovery call.
Sustained Marketing Partnerships
A specialized video-first marketing capability that integrates with your existing team.
You keep your communications infrastructure. We add the content production, algorithmic expertise, and distribution strategy that sustains audience growth season over season.
The model compounds. Creative assets accumulate. Paid campaigns become more efficient with performance data. Audience growth accelerates rather than resets each season.
Campaign Engagements
For competitions, festivals, and organizations building around a landmark event.
This is the model behind the Cliburn’s 2022 and 2025 campaigns — intensive, high-volume content creation and distribution across a concentrated timeline.
Gold Sound Media delivers a defined scope — video production, paid advertising, content strategy, and on-site or remote support — built around your programming.
How We Begin
Step 1: Discovery
We meet to understand your organization — your programming, your audiences, your current marketing infrastructure, and what you’re trying to achieve. By the end of this conversation, we both understand whether there is a strategic fit and what an engagement could look like.
Step 2: Proposal
Based on our discovery conversation, we prepare a proposal outlining the recommended approach, scope, deliverables, timeline, and investment. This is not a generic package — it reflects your organization’s specific goals and resources.
Step 3: Engagement Begins
Once the proposal is accepted and the engagement is underway, we move into the work itself — beginning with strategy development.
Step 4: Strategy Development
We develop a tailored strategy based on your goals, your season calendar, and your internal resources. This defines the content approach, the distribution plan, the role of organic versus paid media, and the division of responsibilities between our team and yours. The strategy reflects your reality — not a template.
Step 5: Alignment
We present the strategy for your review. This is the point where we confirm the plan before any content is produced or distributed. Nothing proceeds without alignment.
Step 6: Execution
We execute the strategy systematically — producing content, managing distribution, optimizing performance, and adjusting based on real-time data. Reporting cadence and strategic check-ins are built into every engagement.
Common Questions
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Presenting series, competitions, festivals, orchestras, chamber music organizations, and opera companies — performing arts organizations whose programming quality and institutional ambition merit sustained strategic investment. Our client roster spans major international competitions to presenting series with decades of artistic legacy.
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Yes. Our methodology applies across the performing arts — including jazz, dance, and theater. The distribution principles are the same: video structured for algorithmic reach, deployed consistently, compounding over time. Several of our current and past clients program across genres.
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No. Gold Sound Media operates as a specialized layer that integrates with your existing staff. Your team continues handling what they do well. We add the video-first content production, algorithmic distribution expertise, and paid media strategy that most internal teams are not resourced to sustain at the volume and consistency required.
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The bulk of our content production is short-form video — artist spotlights, performance highlights, behind-the-scenes access, and audience-facing storytelling — structured for Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook. Each video is built with hook-first structure, optimized for retention, and produced in format variety to prevent algorithmic fatigue. We also produce long-form content for YouTube when the strategy calls for it.
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No. The mix of organic and paid media is driven by your strategy and goals, not by a fixed model. Some organizations benefit from a purely organic approach — building consistent content that grows reach over time. Others deploy a mix of organic and paid from the outset. In many cases, we use organic content as a testing ground to identify the highest-performing creative, then amplify it with targeted paid campaigns. The approach is determined during strategy development and adjusted as performance data comes in. Paid media budgets, when applicable, are always separate from the engagement fee.
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It depends on the engagement scope. Some organizations provide Gold Sound Media with full access to artists and footage, and we handle everything from production through distribution — in those cases, internal involvement is minimal, typically one to two hours per month of coordination and content approvals. Other organizations have teams producing raw video content internally, and we provide the strategic direction, editing, distribution, and paid media management — which requires more regular coordination between our teams. The division of responsibilities is defined clearly during strategy development so there are no surprises.
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Every engagement is scoped to your organization’s needs, scale, and strategic priorities. Investment ranges from focused campaign scopes to comprehensive annual partnerships. We discuss the right structure and investment during the discovery call, after we understand what you’re trying to achieve.
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Yes. Several of our longest organizational relationships began as single-event campaigns. A focused campaign is often the best way to evaluate fit and see results before committing to a sustained partnership — and many organizations that start this way choose to continue with an ongoing engagement once they see the compounding effect in action.
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Yes, when the engagement requires it. Gold Sound Media was on the ground for three weeks during the Cliburn’s 2022 competition and returned for the 2025 cycle. For campaigns built around live events, on-site presence is often essential for real-time content production and distribution. Travel is scoped into campaign proposals as needed.
What Sets Gold Sound Media Apart
Classical Post — an owned media property. We are a media creator. Gold Sound Media produces Classical Post, featuring hundreds of interviews with artists including Hilary Hahn, Klaus Mäkelä, the Danish String Quartet, and Wu Han.
Deep institutional relationships across the industry. Gold Sound Media’s network spans presenters, managers, artistic directors, competition leadership, and media — built through engagements with organizations including the Cliburn, Gilmore Piano Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Portland Piano International, Miller Symphony Hall, Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, Pianofest in the Hamptons, Chopin Foundation of the United States, Cleveland International Piano Competition, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut, amongst others.
Distribution methodology, not just production. Many firms produce video. Gold Sound Media’s advantage is how content is structured and deployed for algorithmic distribution — format variety, hook optimization, retention analysis, and strategic paid amplification. The difference is between content that exists and content that reaches new audiences at scale.
Let’s Discuss Your Season
Gold Sound Media partners with a limited number of organizations annually. If your organization is ready for a marketing partner who understands both the art form and the algorithm, we invite you to schedule a conversation.