Category: music

“Unburdened by manufacturing and distribution costs, online music was supposed to usher in a new era of inexpensive, easy-to-access music for consumers. In many cases, buying music online is still cheaper than shopping for CDs at retail outlets. But just a year after iTunes debuted with its 99-cent songs and mostly $9.99 albums, that affordable and straightforward pricing structure is already under pressure. All five major music companies are discussing ways to boost the price of single-song downloads on hot releases — to anywhere from $1.25 to as much as $2.49.”

Nat Hentoff’s public profile is that of a strident left-wing columnist and first amendment crusader, but privately, he’s always dreamed of being a jazzer. “Starting when I was eleven, jazz musicians were the adults I most admired, even more than Ted Williams and some of his colleagues on the Boston Red Sox. Their music so lifted me up that at times I’d shout in pleasure and surprise, even though I was a relatively proper Boston boy who did not ordinarily disturb the public peace… And I measured the other adults I knew against these musicians’ resilience of spirit. They made their living as improvisers, taking chances in public every night. Challenging themselves was their natural way of life.”

Struggling to cope with a multimillion-dollar deficit, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has cut way back on the concerts it plays at the Meadow Brook Music Festival, where the DSO has traditionally played 15 summer concerts over 5 weeks. In January, the orchestra completed a mid-contract renegotiation with its musicians, who agreed to temporary pay cuts and furlough weeks in an effort to balance the books, but the Meadow Brook cuts will still leave a 3-week gap in the summer schedule, which could be filled by a statewide tour, or an expansion of the DSO’s other summer activities.

Raymond Gubbay’s Savoy Opera opens. With cheap tickets, the opera attracts an audience you don’t typically see at Covent Garden. “It’s a myth that opera is posh; it’s the most visceral of art forms, preoccupied with love, sex and death. It’s just opera-goers who have given it a bad name. If Gubbay can reclaim it for coach parties who might otherwise go to Mamma Mia!, good for him.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s summer series at the city’s Mann Music Center is taking a decided turn towards light pops programming, reports David Patrick Stearns. While orchestral summers are frequently lighter than winter programming, there’s no mistaking the direction the orchestra is taking, with fully 40% of the concerts scheduled for the Mann categorized as more pop than classical. Attendance figures from the last several summers seem to suggest that the orchestra, which is coping with a nearly $6 million deficit, will benefit financially from the increase in lighter fare.

Sales of recorded music sales fell by more than 7% worldwide in 2003 says the International Federation of Phonographic Industries. Germany led the biggest decline with a drop of 19 percent. The organization reported said that “internet piracy was a major factor in the decline. It said sales had fallen 20% over three years.”

As orchestras around North America struggle to adapt to a harsh new funding climate, a dividing line is appearing between those ensembles which choose their leaders based mainly on their perceived business savvy, and those which prefer to be led by individuals with experience in the arts and non-profit sectors. This week, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is expected to take the former course, promoting its 49-year-old marketing director James Glicker, who had never worked for an orchestra before being hired to his current position in January, to the post of executive director.

What’s to blame for the worldwide drop in retail music sales (the recording industry still sold $32 billion worth of music in 2003)? The industry blames “rampant piracy, poor economic conditions and competition from video games and DVDs. However, a strong second-half recovery in the United States, Britain and Australia, boosted by top-selling acts such as Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé and rapper 50 Cent, has raised hopes that the worst is behind the beleaguered industry.”

Royal Opera House boss Tony Hall says a sponsorship that will reduce some of the best seats in the house to £10 is revolutionary. “The adjectives are extreme, but it is hard to argue. Best seats in the house to see some of the biggest opera and ballet stars in the world – including Plácido Domingo, Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel, Darcey Bussell, Carlos Acosta – for less than the price of a West End cinema ticket. In some cases, that represents a saving of £165. Hall can scarcely contain his enthusiasm. ‘This is really opening up the opera house’.”

Chicago is still a Blues kind of town. “But as the marketplace changes and the fan base becomes more suburban than inner-city, it’s not your father’s or granddaddy’s blues that they’re playing. The blues is more than a museum piece in sweet home Chicago, but many purists believe the music is being sanitized to appeal to tourists.”