The idea of a composer-in-residence goes back a long way. Although the modern tradition of artistic residence in this country can be traced back to the founding of Yaddo in upstate New York around 1900, the concept isn't new, even if the term is somewhat recent.

Joseph Haydn, who worked as a court musician for a great part of his life for the Esterházy family on their remote Hungarian estate, could be considered a kind of composer-in-residence. He did, after all, have to write a lot of music there.

Bach served many masters. He was a court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar, then became court organist and concertmaster at the ducal court in Weimar, then was director of music for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen and finally in 1723 became director of music at the churches in Leipzig, and cantor of the school of St. Thomas's Lutheran Church. Writing was a part of these positions.

Now these were relatively paying jobs, and were far more demanding than what composers may face today during a residency, but still, these were working positions that guaranteed some financial security.

They were also a way of ensuring that one's music was heard.

For composers in residence today it's the same thing: acceptance and dissemination. When a symphony orchestra chooses a composer for residency, it pretty much guarantees that the composer's work – newly written during the residency or already existing – will be performed. In November, for example, the Chicago Symphony will offer Twice Through the Heart, a dramatic scene for mezzo-soprano and ensemble by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Mead Composer-in-Residence Mark-Anthony Turnage. Later in the season, the symphony will offer the works of another of its recent resident composers, Osvaldo Golijov.

This season, the New York Philharmonic institutes a composer-in-residence program, courtesy of a $10 million gift from financier Henry Kravis. Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg will become the first Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, a two-year post that begins this week with the world premiere of Lindberg's Expo at the Philharmonic's opening night concert, under the baton of new music director Alan Gilbert.

These residences present real opportunities and encouragement for composers to create new work, and for audiences to be introduced to it. Yet the number of people who actually get to hear the new work is relatively small.

But there's a new digital composer-in-residence program that has been tailored to the YouTube generation and an international digital age.

Dilettante (www.dilettantemusic.com), which bills itself as an online classical music hub on which organizations and musicians can connect with audiences, is offering what it calls the Digital Composer-in-Residence Project.

It's a contest (but then, aren't most residencies?). Submissions were due early this month. The catch was that each composition couldn't be longer than eight minutes, or scored for more than eight musicians.

The judges who will choose the finalist are a wide-ranging group. They include American composer Jennifer Higdon; Jonathan Nott, principal conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker; Andrew Burke, chief executive of the London Sinfonietta; Michael Christie: music director of the Phoenix Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Colorado Music Festival; British composer Anna Meredith, who works in both acoustic and electronic media; and composer Nico Muhly, whose work was featured in the movie The Reader.

This judges will choose three finalists, whose works will be recorded by the London Sinfonietta and posted on the Dilettante site. Then, between Oct. 15 and Nov. 5, visitors to the site can listen and vote on the winner.

All three finalists will program a special concert with their own entries, and other musical works that influenced them, on Nov. 5, when the winner will be announced. The Dilettante site will offer the concert via webcast and on its YouTube channel.

The winning composer will receive a £1,000 award (about $1,650) and a year-long digital residency on the Dilettante website. This includes a blog spot on the site and a podcast series. There will also be online master classes and discussions with members of the site. The residency will conclude with a live event in 2010, which will include a performance of a new work.

It's an interesting idea that gives a potentially wide audience to new music. And it's long way from working at the whim of an aristocratic Hungarian family.