“Theatres outside London sold 169,000 fewer tickets in 2016 than the previous year – a 1% drop – but improved overall box office sales by 3%, bringing in a total of £14.7m. New data from membership body UK Theatre shows income from plays, pantos, comedy and dance is down on last year, but this was offset, largely thanks to an increase in sales for musicals, which increased by around £20m last year.”
Category: AUDIENCE
Social Networks Are Trapped In The Tragedy Of The Commons
The digital commons fosters great communal benefits that go beyond being a publisher in the traditional sense. The fact that YouTube is open and free allows all kinds of creativity to flourish in ways that are not enabled by the entertainment industry. The tragedy is that it also empowers pornographers and propagandists for terror.
TV’s Existential Crisis
TV, the art form, is in its platinum age. But the future present of video packaging and distribution is on-demand and digital. TV the platform simply cannot survive under its current business model. It must evolve.
UK Regional Theatre Box Office Up 18 Percent In Three Years
“Data from industry body UK Theatre has revealed that total box office income for member venues in 2016 was £470 million, up from £397 million in 2013. This was due to a 10% rise in average ticket price paid over the period, equivalent to a £2.15 increase per ticket, as well as improved ticket sales, fuller theatres and more productions.”
If Theatres Are Publicly Funded, They Should Be Open To The Entire Public
Lyn Gardner: “Just as the window displays of Topshop may deliberately scream that their wares are not for me – a middle-aged woman – many venues unwittingly send out the signal that theatre is not for everyone. … If the public has paid for these buildings then they truly must be places available to the public – and artists – all day long, to do what they want, not what they are directed to do. They shouldn’t feel the need to be invited in, but they should be made to feel welcome whatever their purpose for being there.
Audience Member Screams During Stravinsky, And Of Course It Goes Viral
The North State Symphony was performing Firebird in Redding, California, and at one point where there’s a big, sudden crescendo, one Stephanie Evans screamed. Alas for her, the moment was caught on video. Here’s how the conductor and orchestra handled it, and how Evans explains it.
Donor Gives Millions To Help Public Radio ‘Disrupt Itself’
“All across the media world, organizations continue to grapple with ‘digital disruption.’ … Which is why the Jerome L. Greene Foundation’s $10 million gift this month to New York Public Radio (NYPR), home to WNYC and WQXR, is so interesting.” Mike Scutari looks at how this donation, along with several others from the Greene Foundation over the past decade, has funded NYPR’s “self-disruption” – that is, its transformation into a “multi-platform journalism service.”
Ticket Resellers In UK Are Flouting The Law, Say Investigators
“At the moment, secondary ticketing sites are required to tell customers whether there are restrictions on using a resold ticket, such as the need for photo identification. They must also make clear exactly where the customer will be seated in the venue and who the customer is buying the ticket from, whether an individual or a business. Due to the large amount of evidence gathered, the [Competition and Markets Authority] has now broadened the scope of its investigation.”
This New Concert Hall Really Is Pulling In A New Audience
Before the Philharmonie de Paris opened in early 2015, many observers fretted that the mostly older, well-heeled classical music fans in the city would not travel out to a big, modernist venue on the northern edge of the city. Nearly three years later, concerts are selling better than they used to at the (older and smaller) Salle Pleyel, and the crowds are younger and more diverse.
How Facebook Has Become A Home For Composers
“It has seemed that for the entire 2010s thus far, Facebook has been a place for composers and co. (whether to chat, laugh, share work, share opportunities, discuss musical issues, discuss politics, fight like hell) to come together. The same is true for actors, string players, academics, doctors, and bankers, to some extent, I’m assuming. But for composers, or for the several hundred spread over six continents whom I’m FBfriends with, at any rate, it has functioned as one of the relevant gathering places for those of us who couldn’t make it to the show last night. Our lot, as a rule, doesn’t congregate.”