A new UK music website promises to “democratize” how music is distributed. “TuneTribe is offering unsigned artists and acts with existing record deals an 80% share of royalties instead of the traditional 15% offered by majors such as Sony and EMI. Bands can set the price for downloading their own music, with the benchmark set at 79p a track by iTunes.”
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Art For Your TV
Flat screen high-definition TVs are becoming popular. But there still isn’t a lot of programming to take advantage of the screens. So one company is introducing the GalleryPlayer. “It will allow subscribers to purchase and display high-resolution digital images of “museum-quality” art and photos on their high-definition digital TV displays.”
St. Louis Symphony – Strike Or Lock-Out?
Are musicians of the St. Louis Symphony on strike or have they been locked out? Drew McManus goes looking for answers…
A Diva’s Demise (And Return)
In This month’s Opera News, soprano Andrea Gruber details her out-of-control career in the 1990s. “I took those drugs, and things spiraled out of control from there. I may have had a voice at that time, but I had no technique. And when you take enough drugs, you’re completely numb. You can’t breathe properly. I wound up pushing so hard on my throat that my cords would swell, and I had to take cortisone to get the swelling down. So there I was with no technique, and I was stoned out of my gourd, and they were shooting me up with cortisone. One day I’d be in great shape, and things would work, and the next day I couldn’t phone it in. Try having a career when one day you’re phenomenal and the next you’re not hirable — you can’t be put on the stage.”
Plugged In – How The Internet Has Impacted Artists
How has the internet changed the way artists do their work? “The first large-scale surveys of the internet’s impact on artists and musicians reveal that they are embracing the Web as a tool to improve how they make, market, and sell their creative works. They eagerly welcome new opportunities that are provided by digital technology and the internet.”
Giant Hong Kong Arts Complex Project Draws Protests
Hong Kong proposes to build a gigantic arts complex that includes “four giant museums, four large concert halls and theaters, a school for the arts and more.” Designs for the project have already been commissioned from Norman Foster. “But the project has become the center of a bitter debate in the last few weeks. Artists here are deeply split on the idea, and a street demonstration on Christmas Day drew hundreds of protesters.”
The Trocks – Bang For The Buck
Joan Acocella checks in on the Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. “Has success spoiled them? I don’t know—I wasn’t there in 1974—but when, last month at the Joyce, I watched the opening night of their thirtieth-anniversary season, thought, These people are delivering more bang fo the buck than most other classical companies in America.”
SF Film Industry Contracts
“San Francisco’s film industry is suffering. Cutbacks at postproduction facilities owned by local luminaries Francis Ford Coppola and Saul Zaentz have illuminated the struggles of the Bay Area to reassert itself as a filmmaking hub.”
Andrea Gruber – Diva Back From The Edge
A decade ago, Andrea Gruber was being touted for a major career in opera. But it derailed in a haze of drug addiction, and she admits to being stoned while singing at the Met. Now she’s back at the Met and telling her addiction story…
Hollywood’s Weak Holidays
Hollywood might have had a record year at the box office in 2004, but the holiday period was weak. “Ticket sales for the period from Labor Day through Christmas weekend fell more than 6 percent to $2.52 billion, according to data from the tracking company Exhibitor Relations. The company said attendance during the period fell 9 percent.”