“Among the business models music fans are likely to see more of: music subscriptions bundled with the price of Internet access, and services like Nokia Corp.’s upcoming Comes With Music, which would give users of select mobile phones a year’s worth of unlimited access to music for no extra charge.”
Author: sbergman
Sydney Fest Goes For Mass Market Appeal
“An audacious move by director Fergus Linehan to make the festival more public and inclusive paid off handsomely, as an estimated 200,000 Sydneysiders came out to play.” But not everyone is happy with the populist approach, and Linehan has been criticized for not balancing serious art, music, and drama with the party-on atmosphere.
Wilson Getting His Due In D.C.
August Wilson’s legacy as a playwright is vast and hard to pin down, making it difficult to mount any sort of overarching celebration of his life’s work. But Washington’s Kennedy Center is making a stab at it anyway, presenting ambitious stagings of every one of Wilson’s ten plays in a single month.
Slew Of Critics’ Awards To Period Oil Flick
The National Society of Film Critics has presented its best picture award to the just-released period epic, There Will Be Blood. “Daniel Day-Lewis took best actor for his role as an oil prospector and Paul Thomas Anderson was best director.”
Next, They’ll Be Interviewing Themselves
Everyone wondered how hard it would be to book guests on the late-night talk shows with a writers’ strike ongoing. The answer seems to be that it’s extremely difficult, to the extent that two shows on opposing networks have just booked each other’s hosts as guests for the coming week.
Video Art Enters A New, Irreverent Age
The rise of easily-produced online video has meant a transformation in the world of video art. “Art video still has a funny reputation, left over from the 1960s, of being a serious medium, made for function rather than pleasure.” The new generation of video artists is changing that, and fast.
The Commercialization Of Everything (Music Edition)
Should some music be off-limits to advertisers? Clearly, none of it is, and the result is that we now have to listen endlessly to some of the greatest songs, symphonies, and performances ever recorded being used to hawk bread, computers, and airline tickets.
Wisconsin Looking Good To Well-Traveled Maestro
Edo de Waart is arguably the most famous conductor the Milwaukee Symphony has ever hired to be its music director. So what made the Dutch maestro a good match for Wisconsin? Well, for one thing, he already lives there, and loves it: “I’ve been everywhere, and I really don’t need to live in a big city anymore.”
The New Hot Conservatory
As major conservatories go, LA’s Colburn School doesn’t exactly have the history and pedigree of institutions like Juilliard and Curtis. But the combination of top-flight facilities and full scholarships for every student have Colburn on the rise among American music schools.
NEA Enjoying A Quiet Moment
The NEA scored itself a $20m funding boost in this year’s federal budget, and compared to the early 1990s, when controversial art and angry Congressmen threatened to kill the endowment off, things seem positively rosy for government arts funding. But that could change again in the blink of an eye…