Category: music

Kalman Detrich’s New York piano museum is out of money and almost out of time. “For 40 years he repaired pianos, and for 20 years he has exhibited them in the Museum of the American Piano, the eccentric little Manhattan attraction he created. On Wednesday, unless a benefactor miraculously appears to pay his rent, he will close his museum and send his collection to foster homes while he figures out how to pursue his passion.”

Canadian recording companies are about to begin suing downloades. Why? It appears to be an effective tactic. “In the United States, since the American recording industry began filing lawsuits earlier this year, Kazaa usage has fallen 41 per cent, according to monitoring of Internet use by Nielsen/NetRatings. As a result, sales of CDs began to rise in the U.S. after three years of decline.”

There are numerous experiments in selling music online competing for consumers. A company called Magnatune offers no set prices, and a variety of creative music licenses. “Magnatune is one example of a growing movement among arts organizations, civil libertarians and artists who are rethinking the whole notion of access to creative works and copyright laws. Some, like Magnatune, believe they can profit if their artists make their works more readily available, in some cases for no charge; or if they even relinquish at least some rights to their works.”

Labor unions in the Czech Republic have demanded that employers stop playing Christmas carols in department stores of “pay compensation for causing emotional trauma to sales clerks.” The unions have “written to major chains and demanded that employees be compensated. He said the unions want $19 or two days off as a possible compensation. They’ve received no response.”

The sale and dismantling of two of the best music labels in 2003 bodes ill for the music business. “Those two developments, both announced in the fall and awaiting governmental approval, represent a tipping point – the moment when, with swift decisiveness, the patient, long-term approach to record-making that prevailed at the major labels through much of the rock era bit the dust.”

“With the recent boom in 99-cent-per-song downloading sites, music fans are cherry-picking their favorite tunes and ignoring full-length albums – much to the dismay of musicians who spend months crafting them. The album’s glory days could be history, with three-minute singles ruling the music world as they did in the 1950s. That shake-up would not only affect the record labels’ bottom line but might also transform the way pop music is created and heard.”

Early this year, the Jerusalem Symphony briefly stopped paying its musicians, even though they agreed to 20% salary cuts to try to save the orchestra. The orchestra was placed in receivership, its chairman resigned amid accusations of financial mismanagement and going-out-of-business signs went up on the concert hall.” Now American conductor Leon Botstein has been hired to revive the orchestra’s fortunes. “Botstein was hired, with the backing of the Jerusalem Symphony’s musicians and Israeli cultural officials, to try to rescue the forgotten stepchild of Israeli orchestras after it had been all but abandoned by its main backer, the Israel Broadcasting Authority.”

Whoever becomes the Detroit Symphony’s next executive director will have a lot of work to do. Not only is the orchestra searching for a new music director, “the DSO has run operating losses of about $3 million the last three years, including a $1.8-million shortfall in 2003, its largest deficit in more than a decade. A $1-million transfer from its endowment two years ago leaves the accumulated deficit at $2.2 million.”

You want free music? Legally? Coming right up. “You’re going to see lots of free music given out via third-party companies. It’s not going to be Apple and iTunes driving the business. It’s going to be companies like Pepsi and other third parties that are promoting digital music on bottle caps and on labels. Indeed, Apple Computer has inked a deal with Pepsi to give away 100 million iTunes downloads in a promotion that kicks off in February with a Super Bowl ad.”

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is losing its top executive, just as it is trying to find a new music director and cope with a hefty financial shortfall. Emil Kang, who had earned praise as DSO president for his consensus-building skills and efforts at sharpening the orchestra’s artistic vision, resigned abruptly on Monday, without explanation. The orchestra’s new board chair has refused to comment on whether or not Kang was forced out, but another board member says that, at least, the board “as a group” did not ask for the resignation. Kang, 35, was one of the youngest administrators of an American symphony orchestra.