Composers from five Nordic countries have asked the European Commission to conduct a full antitrust investigation into a proposed $20 billion merger between Warner Music and the EMI Group. “The composers are opposed to the merger because they believe that Warner-EMI would control nearly 50% of all music publishing in Sweden and 70% in Finland.” – Variety
Author: Douglas McLennan
MONEY FOR THEIR MUSIC
Free downloads of indie band music has been one of the marks of the internet digital download music revolution. But now many of the indies want to get paid for their work, and there are (predictably) some websites to help them. – Wired
DEEP POCKETS
James V. Kimsey, the billionaire cofounder of America Online and a D.C. native, gives $10 million to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to establish an endowment. – New York Times
- The $100 million endowment will support “performances, instruction and attendance. – Washington Post
SPOLETO OVERCOMES ADVERSITY
A year of organizational woes for Spoleto, what with the tourism boycott and a key injury to one of the artists. But this year’s edition is “artistically potent” in one critic’s estimation. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BBC BOUNCING BACK?
Arts programming has been getting increasingly less airtime at the BBC over the past few years. “BBC has been without a head of music and arts for nearly nine months. Programmes are scattered idly around the schedules. Major series have been arbitrarily cancelled. Television hours devoted to the arts have almost halved since the mid-’90s. There is no longer a regular documentary arts strand, single music documentaries have virtually disappeared, and the two literary strands have been axed.” Yet, some new programming hires may signal the beginning of a reversal of the trend. – The Independent 06/06/00
BRITS TAKE BROADWAY
Despite the advance buzz that this year – for once – Americans were set to sweep the awards on their own, the Brits prevailed yet again at Sunday’s Tony Awards, winning a total of nine awards. – The Sunday Times (UK)
HOME MOVIES IN THE PRC
Chinese film plays all over the world. But at home an existential crisis. “One school wonders if it should imitate Hollywood. Another sees Hollywood as a virus that will destroy what is left of the domestic film industry. There’s no doubt, though, who is winning. A Chinese film is lucky to get 20 or 30 people per screening. Meanwhile, a lackluster John Travolta vehicle now showing on the yellowing screen, usually gets a packed house of 300 or more.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada) 06/06/00
TICKETS UP, RATINGS DOWN
Tony winners get a surge in ticket sales the day after the awards, but TV ratings for the awards broadcast dragged on the floor. – New York Post
VISIBLY CANADIAN
A number of Canadian films are losing funding from a government fund set up to support Canadian films. The reason? They’ve been judged not Canadian enough. This year the fund introduced a ranking system judging their Canadianness, based on a system of points. One filmmaker denied funding says: “You couldn’t get more Canadian unless you dressed in Canadian flags. I’m aghast at these new guidelines. It’s a reason to leave Canadian filmmaking altogether.” – National Post (Canada) 06/06/00
MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR ARTS FUNDING
As do most ex-chairpeople of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Alexander has written a book about her experience running the American public arts funder. “From her coy pose on the cover, to the last desperate Shakespeare quotation, Jane Alexander has…produced a stunning argument for saving trees. This account of her tenure as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1993 to 1997, unfortunately reads like a high school student’s account of a summer abroad. – The Idler