They expect about 25 million U.S. households to cancel their pay-TV subscriptions over the next five years. This is on top of the 25 million homes that have already cut the cord since 2012. At least three major media companies now expect pay-TV subscriptions to stabilize around 50 million, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to speak on the record because their company plans are private. – CNBC
Author: Douglas McLennan
Unions And Arts Orgs Argue About Renegotiating Contracts
The unions argue that the companies can’t cut off workers now and expect them to return when they’re ready to reopen. They also say that if concessions are made during the shutdown, salary, benefits, staffing minimums and guaranteed hours should be restored to pre-pandemic levels once things return to normal. – Washington Post
Why We Need More African Archaeologists
It is easy to take for granted our way of keeping things in museums. Yet many cultures do not have the tradition of museums as a concept. They are a European transplant in much of the world. Instead, knowledge is passed on through oral culture, festivals, songs, poems, commemorations and casual conversations and observations. Heritage can be just as much about relationships and performance. – The Guardian
Milwaukee’s Pabst Theatre Protests COVID Restrictions
Under the current Milwaukee pandemic order, bars and restaurants with approved safety plans are able to bring in any amount of customers as long as they can remain socially distanced inside the business. Bar and restaurant owners told WISN 12 News that usually amounts to about 50% capacity. However, the order only allows 10 people inside art and theater venues, not including staff. WISN (Milwaukee)
What The Drawings Show About New LACMA Building
Although LACMA claims “the new building totals 347,500 square feet,” the plans show its true size as 261,000 square feet. The total square footage of the new building is 32% less than the buildings it replaces—a loss of 123,000 square feet. “This analysis demonstrates that Los Angeles County taxpayers, who are footing a hefty portion of the bill for the $750-million project, are being robbed of their museum and collections,” says architecture critic Joseph Giovannini, co-chair of The Citizens’ Brigade to Save LACMA. – CityWatch LA
COVID Has Orchestras Rethinking The Need For Music Directors
What we are seeing is a breakdown of trust between musicians and maestros, a schism that will lead, post-Covid, to a downgrade or downfall of the music director. There has been, over half a century, a tremendous evolution in the role from Toscanini-like autocracy to a chummy collegiality in which maestros achieve harmony by consensus and drink beer after concerts in the musicians’ bar. But when the chips are down, as they often are, it is still the music director who makes key decisions and leads the fights for extra funding, a new concert hall and social justice. – The Critic
How To Compose Over The Internet: 17 Players, Five States
Sixteen instrumentalists from the contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound were scattered across several states and four makeshift home offices and professional studios, working with Tyshawn Sorey on his “Autoschediasms.” To synchronize everyone’s efforts, each “pod” of musicians was simultaneously logged into two different internet conferencing applications. – The New York Times
Bay Area Theatre Is Devastated
“This is hitting our sector in a way it’s not hitting any other sector and no one has a plan for it. We are all frantically treading water just to stay afloat… “We have unemployment that is about three times the national average. Because of how the arts work and people having to physically be together, it’s one of the sectors that will be closed the longest and have the longest road to recovery.” – San Francisco Chronicle
How Women Have Made Progress In American Orchestras
Musicians in American orchestras are now generally balanced between the sexes, largely because blind auditions — during which candidates play behind screens — were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s. But stereotypes surrounding which instruments women should play remain. Most harpists are women; brass sections are dominated by men. – Dallas Morning News
How To Hack An Opera
Inspired by ‘hacks’ in the technological sector which often brings together experts in disparate fields to work together to solve a presented problem, usually in a limited amount of time, San Diego Opera’s Opera Hack partnered participants with local universities and tech companies to come up with creative solutions to scenarios presented by San Diego Opera. Forty multi-disciplinary experts from around North America submitted sixteen proposals to a panel of tech and theater-based advisors. – Mowdy