“Both Amazon and Google are negotiating with American publishers to develop ‘search within the book’ programmes. Google already has a deal with several top libraries from around the world, including the Bodleian, to digitise out of copyright texts. Inevitably, some publishers and the Society of Authors are getting quite excited about this innovation.” But one publisher says ” ‘it may result in no sales’, the publishing equivalent of Armageddon. Collaborate with this ‘Napsterisation’ process, he told the Publishers Association, and the book industry risked ‘undermining the cultural and intellectual tradition of the past 600 years’.”
Blog
Is Your iPod Making You Deaf?
“Audiologists believe tens of thousands of young people are causing serious damage to themselves, and are likely to suffer tinnitus and loss of hearing in later life. The experts say MP3 players should be designed to prevent people playing music above 90 decibels, about two-thirds of the maximum volume of a typical device.”
Diana’s Memorial Fountain Reopens (Again)
“For the third time in just 10 months, it was being opened to the public. There was no royal presence this time, and no speeches, just a cluster of anxious park officials keeping an eye open for downpours, the wrong kind of leaves, paddling infants, tourists dropping litter and roaming stray dogs. They were desperate that this time it was all going to work and that there would not have to be yet another unscheduled closure.”
More Piling On To Maazel’s “1984”
“The real irony about the 75-year-old Maazel’s return to the Covent Garden pit, as conductor of his own work, is that he hasn’t been there since 1978, six years before the title of the piece that has cost a million quid for six performances. Even as a conductor, he is ‘past his sell-by date’, to quote myself here six months ago, after hearing him re-open La Fenice in Venice with the most vulgar of Traviatas.”
Are Google’s Digitization Plans A Threat To World Culture?
Google’s plans to digitize books from important libraries has many cheering. But in some European countries, there are big concerns. “For Europeans, the fear is that the continent’s contribution to the pillars of recorded knowledge will be crushed by the profit-oriented California company — and may end up presenting a U.S.-centric version of the world’s literary legacy.”
What Is Art And Why Does It Matter?
Ah, the age old question, now so endlessly debated it has become one of the great cliches. A new book is about to take up the question once again, and the Observer asks some artists who ought to have some interesting answers…
Cuban Librarians Convicted Of “Dangerousness”
Sensitive to growing international concern over reports of human rights violations, in late April the government of President Fidel Castro conducted a secret trial of two Cuban librarians, Elio Enrique Chávez and Luis Elio de la Paz, and sentenced them to prison on a charge of “dangerousness.”
Rem’s New House Of Music
Rem Koolhaas has built a new concert hall in Portugal. It’s a building that challenges the concert hall norms. “Koolhaas keeps his concert hall at arm’s length. Its pleasures — derived from the architect’s wry brand of invention when it comes to form-making, structure and circulation — are no less impressive for their unmistakable detachment. To sit in its auditorium, a hard-edged, hangar-like space, is to consider the question of whether music can sound lovely or fully resolved in a space that works so hard to avoid appearing that way architecturally.”
Can A Baroque Choir Take On South Florida And Win?
A 12-member chamber choir is a real success story in South Florida. So much so that the the ambitious choir’s founder is expanding into a regional presence. “Some might say that Patrick Quigley’s plans are more foolhardy than ambitious. In South Florida, where a symphony orchestra playing Beethoven couldn’t stay in business, a 12-member choir performing Bach and Palestrina wouldn’t seem to have wide populist appeal. Yet unlike many Cassandras who point to the demise of the Florida Philharmonic as a sign that classical music should be added to South Florida’s endangered-species list, the optimistic Quigley sees vast potential for growth.”
Downloading – Where Are The Women?
A new study says women are not downloading music over the internet. “This is the new digital divide, with a huge survey by market information company TNS revealing that the vast majority of downloading is done by men – a staggering 96% of market share. People in the UK buy more music per head of population than in any other country, and we already have the highest ownership rates of iPods and MP3 players in the world. So why aren’t digital downloads bringing music to women’s ears?”