Category: music

It looks like classical recording has died – if you look at the gimmicky, anemic “big” labels. But the smaller independent labels are producing some good stuff. “It’s that emphasis on repertoire rather than cult celebrity that marks out the independents from the corporate big boys. And how they’ve grown.”

Enjoy Sunday’s Grammys? Well, lock it away in memory, because “while it may look like any other recent Grammy telecast, this one will be historic. It will be the last to be driven by MTV music videos, compact-disc sales and broadcast radio. Technology is going to change the Grammys, just like it’s changing everything else about the recording industry. By this time next year, legal music downloading, music DVD sales and Internet and satellite radio stations will greatly influence the Grammys.”

Traditional record chains are hurting and going out of business. “A recent study by Forrester Research, which examines technology trends, predicts that in five years fully one-third of all music will be delivered through modems, and the CD itself will be passe, if not obsolete, in the years after. This isn’t necessarily bad news for the record labels, but it could be lethal for brick-and-mortar stores.”

“Finances at Scotland’s national opera company are in such a state that the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) has agreed to advance it more than half of next year’s budget to keep it afloat. Critics blame arrogant management for the crisis which could see up to 80 of its staff of around 200 lose their jobs. Although Scottish Opera enjoys huge critical acclaim for its onstage productions, it is almost as famous for its equally tumultuous off-stage dramas. In the latest twist for the opera company, it has been forced to seek £4m from the SAC in order to keep its doors open.”

Trying to stem a deficit expected to exceed $4 million, the Philadelphia Orchestra has asked all its employees to help cut the red ink – including asking salary cuts for musicians and a ten percent cut in guest artist fees. “We are asking for voluntary help from all of the people who make this great art form happen, all the people who have benefited from its success over the years.”

The recording industry has conducted raids on the offices of the owners of file-sharing networks in Australia. “The raided sites included the office of Kazaa owner Sharman Networks, the homes of two of the company’s executives, three Australian universities and Internet service providers.” A spokesman for the recording industry said “the recording industry would launch a civil action against Kazaa in the Federal Court on Tuesday.”

What’s the world’s most popular music now? “The urban scene – broadly covering hip-hop, rap and R&B – is firmly at the heart of mainstream culture in 2004, with its music and imagery impossible to ignore. Urban music is officially the most popular style in the US – overtaking rock in 2002 and now accounting for 25% of sales. Another landmark was reached in October 2003 when, for the first time, all the artists with top 10 singles in the US were black.”

Are today’s young singers too cautious with their voices? Too timid to take risks in their singing? John Rockwell: “Common sense would tell us that singers (and their teachers and conductors and advisers) need to preach some limits. But they can’t be too timid. A climate of excessive caution has robbed opera of the animal excitement it needs to thrill a large audience.”

“The average music fan’s attachment to the iPod might go no further than the sensual appeal of its sleek good looks and alluring promise as it rests expectantly in one’s hip pocket. But the iPod is currently the most visible, legal example of what is nothing less that a radical change in the fabric of popular culture.”