A Song For the Web.(YouTube Symphony Orchestra)

Byline: Sophie Grove

YouTube is using a classical-music promotion to bolster its image as an educational tool and push audio quality.

YouTube is better known for its viral spoofs and witty amateur skits than serious downloads. And doesn't Google know it. Since it bought the video platform in 2006 for $1.6 billion, the Internet Goliath has been busy trying to turn the anarchic ecosystem it bought into a mainstream video distributor without sacrificing its user-generated appeal. To this end, Google has inked content deals with Universal Music, Sony, the BBC, BMG, CBS and even a project with the World Economic Forum. Its latest initiative to add seriousness to YouTube goes as far from a dog-on-a-skateboard clip as it gets. The "YouTube Symphony Orchestra" pairs the site with the world's most venerable classical-music institutions in a sort of worldwide talent show. The project will bring classical music to a new generation through one of its own portals.

The idea applies an "American Idol" formula to the Web. Musicians from around the globe can download a score by the revered Chinese composer Tan Dun, learn their part with the help of video master classes by top musicians and upload their auditions. Winners will be flown to Carnegie Hall for a YouTube Symphony summit, where they'll get instruction from the eminent conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and coaching from top musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. Then they'll perform as the "first-ever collaborative online orchestra" in a concert broadcast on YouTube. "There are so many invisible Beethovens behind YouTube," said Tan Dun, who recorded a video encouraging YouTubers to get involved.

Orchestral music may seem like an unlikely target for YouTube, but the pairing is strategic: classical music gets a much-needed image makeover and distribution outlet; YouTube gets class and technology. Contrary to the stereotype of packing dingy basements with dusty Elgar LPs, classical-music connoisseurs are driving a push toward digital quality--namely, surround-sound technology and high-resolution downloads.

Classical music is also a potentially fertile new market for online music. While music-industry sales in general declined 15 percent last year, proportionally the classical sector has been rising in recent years. According to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks digital and retail music sales, digital classical album sales in the United States increased by 47.7 percent last year, accounting for 7 percent of the genre's 18 million total album sales, up from 4.4 percent the previous year. Classical MP3 downloads are thriving and pulling in new audiences. When Ralph Couzens, managing director of Chandos Records, launched his classical Web site ...