“It’s not that plays are new to recordings, or that corporations never before invested in the stage. What is novel is how this company is commissioning dramatists to write plays for its global listener base and at the same time curating them for a narrower market of theatergoers. You might say that Audible is assembling a digital repertory company, with platforms both on air and on legs.” – The Washington Post
Category: AUDIENCE
Translated Fiction Is Finding Bigger Audiences
Since 2012, when it first became common to see people reading Karl Ove Knausgaard and Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet on the tube, sales of translated fiction have steadily increased. Overall sales in the UK were up last year by 5.5%, with more than 2.6m books sold, while sales of translated literary fiction shot up by 20%. – The Guardian
Bumbershoot Was The Iconic Seattle Festival. Then It Became Generic. Now It Needs To Reinvent
Festival culture is big. But many of the big festivals have become generic, expensive and boring. Here are five elements that define successful festivals, and five ways to think about reinventing a Pacific Northwest classic. – Post Alley Seattle
StubHub Sold To Viagogo For $4 Billion
“Campaign groups have urged regulators to protect music and sports fans from the threat of rip-off prices after eBay agreed to sell StubHub, its ticketing business, to the Swiss ticket reseller Viagogo in a $4bn (£3.1bn) deal.” – The Guardian
Hollywood’s Blockbusters Are Squeezing Out Everything Else
“These huge franchise pictures are elbowing out midrange and lower-budget movies. It’s harder for midsize movies to get theaters in the first place, much less hold onto them long enough to build an audience.” – The New York Times
Struggling To Make Sense Of Today’s Politics? Fan-Fiction Might Help
It’s a growing genre. Political fiction has always existed, but now many writers are re-imagining our contemporary political landscape in political ways that make sense to them. – The New York Times
Has Instagram Killed The Job Of The Paparazzi?
Perhaps, and also perhaps by design. In 2010, Instagram (before it was bought by Facebook), “that free photo-sharing app with a hipster sheen, hit the iPhone. Several months later, Justin Bieber — the biggest star to take to the platform — posted a moody shot of Los Angeles traffic, and suddenly, we weren’t snapping hungrily at the window of a famous person’s car anymore. We were in the passenger seat. As more celebrities signed up, we gained access to their kitchens and bedrooms and closets and bathrooms. Celebrity culture moved inside. It was domesticated.” – The New York Times
The Gutting Of Local Newsrooms Is Leading To A Civic Crisis
Suburban communities lose their coverage; attitudes about national outlets taint how people feel about their hometown newspapers; reporters cover way too many beats at a time; and other very serious issues occur when places lose their local newspapers or see them massively retrenched. – Nieman Lab
I Like Traditional Opera. But What Does That Really Mean?
“Over the years I’ve had many opportunities to question people gently about their personal identification and tastes in operas and opera productions. And it turns out that traditionalists don’t like only traditional productions. Whatever it is they like, they just call it traditional, and vice versa.” Irish Times
LA’s MoCA Is Making Admission Free. It’s Not So Easy, It Turns Out
MOCA revealed plans to go free at its annual benefit in May, a switch made possible with a $10-million gift from board President Carolyn Powers. So why did the change take eight months to make? Free, it turns out, is complicated. – Los Angeles Times