Artist contract signings usually involve an enthusiastic presentation of recording plans, delivered with buoyant optimism. And there was that, when Deutsch Grammophon and Decca Classics welcomed Daniel Barenboim to their roster in Berlin on Tuesday. You can read about the deal’s details in our article from earlier this week.

I say “welcome to their roster’”, but of course it’s in some ways “welcome back” – the pianist and conductor’s first recording, back in the 1950s, was for Philips. Decca’s general manager Paul Mosely had even dug the LP out from the archives to present to Barenboim at the press conference.

But this signing was not only about making records. Or at least was about making records plus. It was more a manifesto of intent, if you like, a recognition that the recording world – the classical music world, in fact – is facing difficulties, and about how this new artist/label collaboration could help address them. It was short on specifics, but expressed Barenboim’s aspirations to reach new audiences, and to address an education deficit when it comes to a lost generation of listeners.

Which is all easily said (though less easily done). But not usually by someone like Barenboim. There are few, very few, classical musicians who have resonance beyond our specific music sphere these days. Barenboim, however, does. And there are very few whose credentials as heavy-weight artists share equal billing with their work in bridge-building, whether to new audiences (his Reith Lecture series, to take one example) or between musicians of different cultural backgrounds (such as with the West-Eastern Divan orchestra).

Barenboim reminded us that he made his first record 30 years before the CD was invented (and I later pointed out that he is now nurturing artists for whom even that is old-school technology, who have only experienced recorded music through downloading or streaming). Across that more than half century he has “seen all the ups and downs, learned from them, also suffered of course”. A journey, of course, shared by the labels comprising Universal Classics.

His short speech was both optimistic and realistic. On the one hand, he was thankful that the label execs sitting either side of him are not among those decrying the state of the music scene, throwing up their hands in desperation about declining audiences and so on: “otherwise I wouldn’t work with them,” he pointed out. Like him, like us, they see the astonishing quality of music-making today in the studio, on the platform, and know we live in a time of riches.

But at the same time, he recognises that audiences are declining, or rather a whole generation of young – and actually, increasingly not so young now – potential listeners are proving harder to reach, and it’s something that needs addressing.

“We would like to come up with a plan of how to deal with the problem of music education for example. I don’t expect DG or Decca to focus exclusively on music education, but the fact that they know it’s a problem is important,” said Barenboim. “Music is not an integral part of education today – children learn about literature, biology, mathematics, but not music. It’s too late when you are in your 30s and 40s.” How Universal Classics and Barenboim will address such issues, we will have to wait and see – though do expect the web to play an important role here.

Talking with Barenboim a little later, he reflected on the importance of being aware of the context in which a recording is released, of capturing a record-buying public’s imagination. There are so many recordings being made – and so many more existing in the catalogue – that this is imperative for a record label. This isn’t a notion unique to music of course. In journalism, we talk of the importance of “selling a story”, aware as we are that success is not only an outcome of the quality of the writing. It is not cynical to say this – all involved, whether a journalist, or an artist and label, know that if the actual product is not good, is not of artistic worth, then it will not sell. But it is also realistic to recognise that it is only part of the story.

Barenboim has already demonstrated that a project can be both artistically superb, and also capture the wider imagination. And he clearly understands the importance of both. If this helps DG and Decca reach new audiences, and sell more records, then it will be a good thing.