Category: music

Is Columbia House getting out of the classical music business? Greg Sandow writes: “Go to the Columbia House home page, and click the “join the Music Club” link (I can’t link there directly to save you that step). You’ll see a long list of musical genres to choose from, and classical isn’t one of them. Rotten corporate behavior. Columbia House stopped selling classical music, and (as Lang’s experience confirms) never even told its members. They even reassigned club membership, without asking permission (something members probably agreed to in advance, without knowing it, by signing off on some fine print when they joined).”

“There’s a wave of alternative music coming from Mexico that belies the country’s tradition-laden and glitzy commercial images, one that provides a soundtrack to a very different – and very modern – world. It’s boldly experimental, with antennae tuned around the globe, bringing in electronica, hip-hop, ska, rock, punk and more, sometimes (though not always) mixing it with traditional Mexican genres and spitting it back out in a new Mexican sound. It’s music that’s open-minded, politically aggressive and sophisticated, music that rattles and echoes with the sound of a culture reinventing itself.”

New studies say that music download has declined in the past few months. Recording industry analysts say record company lawsuits against downloaders seem to be having an impact. “Usage of Kazaa fell 15 percent from November 2002 to November 2003, according to comScore. Other peer-to-peer music-sharing sites also experienced usage declines. The drop at BearShare was 9 percent, while WinMX lost 25 percent of its audience and Grokster plunged 59 percent.”

A European consumer watchdog group is suing major music companies over their copy-protection schemes. “Belgium’s Test-Aankoop said it was suing EMI, Universal Music, Sony and BMG in a Brussels court with the aim of forcing them to abandon the controversial practice of copy protecting CDs in order to prevent them being played on certain devices. It claimed that consumers are being illegally prevented from making back-up copies of their favourite CDs and that they are being deprived of their legal right to play CDs on computers and in car stereos.”

British musicians have been fighting the government’s plans for new licensing of live music. But now, “in a move described by the Musicians’ Union as ‘unprecedented’, the arts minister, Estelle Morris, yesterday announced the formation of a task force whose sole aim was to safeguard the future of live music in England and Wales. Figures from the music industry, the Arts Council, local authorities, owners of small venues and the government will sit on the task force for two years.”

At Joe’s Pub at Manhattan’s Public Theatre, the music lineup crosses an astonishing range of genres, geographies and sensibilities. And it draws audiences, too. “Audiences are much more adventurous than a lot of people give them credit for. People are listening to music from all over the world: from American pop, funk and techno to Asian and European hybrids of the same. This has been happening for 50 years, but lately it has accelerated.”

“Musicians from a few different punk-related genres are exploring therapy rock: the up-and-coming “emo” genre, which features hyperdramatic, almost mawkish rock delving deeply into personal upheaval; rap-metal, an aggressive hybrid that has lately turned more introspective; and pop-punk, a slick version of punk that’s deceptively up-tempo and not generally noted for its profundity.”

A London opera company that uses professionals and homeless people for its productions is gaining notice. “Matthew Peacock first had the idea of a company that mixed homeless people with professional performers three years ago, when he was an assistant editor of the London-based magazine Opera Now. A former singer with a social conscience, he had begun to do voluntary work for a London night shelter and found that it was taking over his life. ‘Some of the people there were what you’d expect – difficult, drunken, drugged. But others weren’t. They were ordinary guys just like me, except they’d had a stroke of bad luck and couldn’t cope.”

Reversing a trend in recent years, sales of recorded music in the US held steady in 2003. “Figures released by Nielsen SoundScan show annual sales falling just 0.8 per cent from 2002, spurred in part by several hit albums that made their debut in the fourth quarter.”

“Encore, an initiative by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS), aims to hunt down orchestral works which have languished since their debut and give them another hearing – just as the Society of Authors’ Encore award promotes second novels that have been overlooked. Simon Rattle has agreed to act as patron for the scheme, which aims to rediscover and perform 15 works over the next four years.”