Category: music

A deal that combines America’s two largest concert promoters has Greg Kot worried about lack of competition. “The $350 million acquisition announced Wednesday will bring HOB Entertainment, the operator of the House of Blues clubs, under the umbrella of Live Nation, the Clear Channel Entertainment spinoff that is North America’s biggest concert promoter. The deal brings the concert business even closer to a monopoly, and the effect on ticket prices and artistic diversity could be crippling.”

US courts have refused to ban a knockoff of a Les Paul guitar, opening the way for other copycat instruments. Last year a record $7.8 billion in instruments were sold in the United States, up 6.9 percent from 2004. “Worldwide sales topped $17 billion, according to a soon-to-be-released NAMM report. ‘What we’re witnessing is a shift from passive listening to active playing. Siblings are inspired by music-themed TV shows to come out and play instruments’.”

Portland Opera has finished its season with a $1 million deficit, after nine years of balanced budgets. The loss is blamed partly on the fact that the company didn’t have a development officer for much of the season.

Los Angeles and Boston Pops programmers are giving alternative-rock acts with cult followings a chance to collaborate in arranging, adapting, and performing their material with orchestras. “Symphony orchestras want to attract younger fans, and many of their musicians are young enough to have been contemporary rock fans. So it’s not the alienating idea that it once might have been.”

A survey taken by musicians of the Seattle Symphony rating music director Gerard Schwarz is to be out this week. But the orchestra’s executive board reportedly did an analysis of the survey’s methodology. “Its report concluded that the June 1 survey was flawed in design, data collection and overall methodology, so that its ‘results are highly suspect’. The board’s executive committee believes the survey may also be a breach of the musicians’ contract.”

The Seattle Symphony is in turmoil after the orchestra renewed music director Gerard Schwarz’s contract. “The larger question — how long before a music director overstays his welcome? — is pressingly relevant to any orchestra. And as the turbulence up north suggests, the answer is that the cutoff date comes sooner than some people are willing to believe.”

A simple idea, really, so why was no one doing it? Forty years ago David Lewiston set out to travel th world with his tape recorder, capturing music along the way. He became “a recorder and collector of traditional music from dozens of countries over a territory that extends from Bali to Kashmir to Peru.”

Ottawa’s National Arts Center Orchestra has renewed music director Pinchas Zukerman’s contract through 2011. “The renewal comes despite Zukerman’s abrupt five-month sabbatical from the NACO and reports of conflict between the conductor and his musicians.” While on “sabbatical” Zukerman also made disparaging remarks about his orchestra.

To try to compete with music downloads, Universal, the world’s largest CD producer, is revamping its CD cases, replacing some jewel boxes with cardboard sleeves. “Universal Music Group is introducing three tiers of packaging in Europe, also including deluxe and sturdier versions of the standard case. It expects the basic CDs to sell for about £7, the standard for about £10, and the deluxe – offering bonus CDs or DVDs – for around £14.”