Trying to stem a deficit expected to exceed $4 million, the Philadelphia Orchestra has asked all its employees to help cut the red ink – including asking salary cuts for musicians and a ten percent cut in guest artist fees. “We are asking for voluntary help from all of the people who make this great art form happen, all the people who have benefited from its success over the years.”
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All The 411 On You (And They Have It)
Wonder what information is contained in that barcode on the back of your driver’s license? “Visitors to an art exhibit at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts got more than their martinis when they ordered drinks at a bar inside the gallery’s entrance. Instead of pretzels and peanuts, they were handed a receipt containing the personal data found on their license, plus all the information that could be gleaned from commercial data-mining services and voter registration databases like Aristotle. Some patrons also got receipts listing their phone number, income range, marital status, housing value and profession. For added effect, the receipt included a little map showing the location of their residence.”
Recording Industry Raids Aussie File-share Offices
The recording industry has conducted raids on the offices of the owners of file-sharing networks in Australia. “The raided sites included the office of Kazaa owner Sharman Networks, the homes of two of the company’s executives, three Australian universities and Internet service providers.” A spokesman for the recording industry said “the recording industry would launch a civil action against Kazaa in the Federal Court on Tuesday.”
Guggenheim Announces Boss Prize Finalists
The Guggenheim announces the five finalists for its Hugo Boss Prize. “Since we don’t do a biennial, this is our barometer of what’s happening in the art world globally.”
Motion Calls On UK Goverment To Protect Literary Collections
British poet laureate Andrew Motion says many important literary papers are being sold outside the country. “Motion says the government should do more to stop important literary papers, often belonging to the country’s most distinguished writers, going abroad.”
Urban Music Rules
What’s the world’s most popular music now? “The urban scene – broadly covering hip-hop, rap and R&B – is firmly at the heart of mainstream culture in 2004, with its music and imagery impossible to ignore. Urban music is officially the most popular style in the US – overtaking rock in 2002 and now accounting for 25% of sales. Another landmark was reached in October 2003 when, for the first time, all the artists with top 10 singles in the US were black.”
New Music – The Popularity Problem
How can classical music become popular when there seems to be no consensus what popular is? Frank Oteri: “The problem nowadays is that it’s very difficult for anyone to attain any kind of universal popularity since everything is so fragmented. We decry the majority of our populace and even many in the so-called serious music audience for not knowing the names of living American composers. Yet how many of us in the new music world know the names of all but the most prominent people in popular music?”
Nudity Across The Atlantic
While American media tut-tetted about the Janet Jackson Superbowl breast (but declined to run uncensored photoes with the stories, the English press gleefully published all. Why the different attitudes? “The structure of the media market seems a likelier explanation. Britain has ten competing national newspapers. Sensationalism jostles with pornography in the pages of the tabloids; softer versions of both infect the broadsheets. America’s papers, which tend to be local near-monopolies, can afford a loftier attitude. Newspapers set the tone for television, and the regulators’ attitudes.”
The Undoing Of The Seattle Fringe
What sank the Seattle Fringe Festival? “Between insurance and payroll taxes tripling and funding by pre-established grantors tumbling some 46% over the last year, the organization had very little breathing room to spare. The open letter additionally explains that, while efforts to reschedule the festival from spring to September heightened its ‘artistic viability,’ the event ‘not only failed to draw additional audiences, but attendance actually declined.”
Seattle Fringe Festival Folds
The once-thriving Seattle Festival has declared bankruptcy and closed up shop. “The move was not unexpected. Last November, SFTP announced that it needed $120,000 to pay off debts from the September 2003 Fringe Festival and continue to survive, but had only about $21,000 in cash assets.”