Category: music

Digital downloading has revived the singles market. “In the period between the start of the decline in sales of physical formats and the introduction of legal download services, the relevance of the top 40 was called into question. However, that didn’t spell an end to the desire for singles by music fans – it just reflected a shift in the way many of us choose to purchase our favourite new tracks.”

“Because it has been forced to shake the collecting tin so vigorously at the private sector, Covent Garden is clearly now in an uneasy position, straddling the Atlantic. Like its European equals, it has a great annual grant from the government, but, like any first-class opera company in America, it also relies heavily on favours from the corporate sector. Which means that every night at the Opera House, the well-upholstered behinds of City donors are sitting on the best seats, which have been partially funded by the taxpayer. And although those donors are also taxpayers, it somehow grates that a publicly funded institution is essentially reserving its most glittering glitter for people who can cough up more than £100 per seat.”

“Philadelphia was once a haven for musical specialization encouraged by low rents, sympathetic academic communities, and generous philanthropic organizations. Artists could concentrate on creating marvelous new sounds that speak to the times and count on audiences to find them – with a little help from a marketing director. Now, with larger organizations claiming more public and private dollars than ever, specialists from early to modern music have to refresh and expand their relationships with local audiences if they aren’t to be left behind. How do you do that, though, without losing what you have and who you are?”

Speculation is increasing that Leonard Slatkin may be in line as the next director of the Chicago Symphony. “Asked whether he is, as rumored, actively campaigning to be the next CSO music director, Slatkin proved as skilled in equivocation as any media-wise senator or congressman with whom he lunches.”

A year ago, the fortunes of the Utah Symphony and Opera were on the rocks, and the organization looked in peril. “The outlook for the USO is now ‘cautiously optimistic,’ words recited like a mantra by management, musicians and patrons alike. Indeed, there is reason for hope: Ticket sales are up and donations are rising. But the institution isn’t in the clear yet. Administrators need to keep the numbers moving upward and grapple with ongoing challenges.”

Today’s music software is getting sophisticated enough that even someone with no music training can “compose” music. Of course, the sounds are all chosen and mashed together by a computer, but does it make you any less of a composer?

“The music industry fled into Steve Jobs’ arms in desperation as it watched piracy erode its sales, so Apple signed great distribution deals with all the major labels. The people who manage the iTunes inventory are developing a stranglehold over digital music distribution that is giving iTunes enormous power. The record labels have to deal with iTunes or face oblivion as the iPod population grows.”

“After years of planning, organizers of a proposed National Music Center announced yesterday that they are moving to the former Carnegie Library [in Washington, D.C.] and starting performances, classes and exhibitions this spring… ‘The Gig,’ as the center’s public programs will be known, will test the waters for a more permanent, comprehensive museum of music.”

The New York Philharmonic and New York radio station WQXR have expanded the orchestra’s national radio series from to 52 weeks (up from 39,) making it one of a very small number of American orchestras to have a year-round radio home for live concerts, and the only American ensemble with a 52-week national series. The New York Philharmonic This Week is currently heard on 250 stations across the U.S.

Video games have become such a huge part of the entertainment sphere that there are currently two competing international touring shows in which live professional orchestras perform the scores from such hits as Donkey Kong and Myst. Interest is so high in the shows that some in the music industry are beginning to wonder if such programs might be more than a one-time gimmick, and might represent the evolution of the “pops” program. As if to demonstrate the versatility of the form, one of the two tours focuses most of the attention on the music being played, while in the other, the orchestra is in the background while scenes from the games play out on a giant screen.