You want free music? Legally? Coming right up. “You’re going to see lots of free music given out via third-party companies. It’s not going to be Apple and iTunes driving the business. It’s going to be companies like Pepsi and other third parties that are promoting digital music on bottle caps and on labels. Indeed, Apple Computer has inked a deal with Pepsi to give away 100 million iTunes downloads in a promotion that kicks off in February with a Super Bowl ad.”
Blog
Actors Equity 1, Homeland Security 0
Canadian actor Geordie Johnson should be on a San Francisco stage today, rehearsing for a new production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. But thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Johnson’s work visa was refused as the DHS tightened restrictions on foreigners entering the country. The company Johnson was to have worked with was forced to recast his part, since they could not afford to wait for an appeal. Nonetheless, Actors Equity filed an appeal anyway, and this week, it was granted, the union having successfully argued that “the entire framework of agreements under which actors, directors, musicians and even professional athletes gain cross-border employment [was] in jeopardy.”
Corporate Giving: Good For The Bottom Line?
A new study commissioned by the Boston Foundation reports that the public is more likely to patronize corporate businesses which make a point of donating to the arts and other nonprofits than those which do not. The pollster who led the study says that the upshot of the report is that “foundations have got to get out of the purely good guy giving pool and they’ve got to drive the argument that partnerships between nonprofits and corporations help a corporation’s bottom line. If you can make that case, you can start this argument again and maybe you can get more money.”
Victor Gruen, Father Of The American Shopping Mall
Victor Gruen was a German emigre who came to the United States, and created the quintessential shopping mall. “Gruen was a classic American type, the brilliant and driven immigrant who struggles to achieve wealth and influence but who yearns most of all for legitimacy. Like the immigrants who built Hollywood, Gruen combined art and commerce in new ways that captured something deep in the American psyche. His powerfully demotic designs helped pave the way for the egalitarian suburban landscape most Americans choose to live in today.”
Big Times In A Small Town
Concord, Massachusetts, is everything a small New England town should be, and the Concord Bookshop, an independent bookseller widely regarded as one of the best in the Northeast, is a large presence in the community. But an in-house dispute between the bookshop’s owners and its employees is tearing the store apart, and the whole town, with its sizable population of well-known writers, seems to be getting involved. Eight employees, including the bookshop’s three top managers, have resigned, with one of them saying that “the fragile alchemy that made it such a great place to work [has] died.” But the owners insist that they love the shop as much as anyone, and are only trying to survive in an increasingly difficult era for indie booksellers.
Kang Quits, DSO Left Wondering Why
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is losing its top executive, just as it is trying to find a new music director and cope with a hefty financial shortfall. Emil Kang, who had earned praise as DSO president for his consensus-building skills and efforts at sharpening the orchestra’s artistic vision, resigned abruptly on Monday, without explanation. The orchestra’s new board chair has refused to comment on whether or not Kang was forced out, but another board member says that, at least, the board “as a group” did not ask for the resignation. Kang, 35, was one of the youngest administrators of an American symphony orchestra.
Hitting ‘Em While They’re Down
“Last week’s court decision preventing the recording industry from forcing Internet service providers to identify their subscribers on peer-to-peer networks offers new hope to file traders who have been sued. But fighting the RIAA may prove costly for anyone hoping to challenge the trade group, which spends an estimated $17 million annually in legal fees. In the wake of Friday’s ruling, which found that the RIAA can’t subpoena Internet providers for subscribers’ personal information without going through the court system, experts say lawyers could feasibly argue that their clients’ information was unjustly obtained from ISPs, and therefore should not be used. But such a strategy would be unorthodox and difficult to carry out.”
Broadway 2003: More Money, Fewer People
“Fewer people saw shows on New York’s Broadway during 2003 – but takings have gone up during the past year. Theatres predict the year will end with 11.2 million people visiting Broadway’s venues, down from 11.4 million in 2002. But takings are expected to be up to $730m (£414m), compared with $707m (£401m) the previous year – helped by top ticket prices hitting $100 (£56). Broadway theatres are putting the drop in visitors down to a lack of big shows opening during the summer.”
Missing Turner Mask May Have Been Stolen
London’s Royal Academy of Arts has acknowledged that the death mask of JMW Turner, one of the Academy’s most prized possessions, may have been stolen more than 15 years ago, with no one at the museum noticing the mask’s disappearance until another institution asked to borrow it in 2002. However, it is also possible that the mask is still somewhere in the Academy’s vast collection, and staffers are hoping to turn it up during an ongoing cataloguing project.
Design For Design’s Sake – Must We Always Be Entertained?
“Highly noticeable design in itself has become an acknowledged competitive strategy, so that the public now expects to be perpetually captivated and entertained and flattered by the novelty and the variety of design in every kind of commodity, not just in the aspect of goods but in their physical ambience. Restaurants are as over-designed as the meals they serve; new boutiques selling wine or cheese or jams or cookies are fitted up like exquisite art galleries, with hushed spatial arrangements so arcane that the goods cannot readily be distinguished from the décor. Such establishments might not sit on the same street with the fake-ethnic diners, but the source of their overt allure is the same.”