Category: music

A new survey estimates that more than 35 million adults spend at least some amount of time downloading copyrighted material online without paying for it. The vast majority of these amateur pirates also claim to be indifferent to copyright law, saying that the legality of file-sharing ‘doesn’t concern them.’ But the recording industry points out that the study was conducted before the industry announced plans to sue individuals found to be illegally downloading.

Developers deny a story that ran in the New York Times earlier this week that the new hall to be built as part of the performing arts center at the World Trade Center site would be too small for New York City Opera.

A new electronic music interface makes creating music easier and more physical. “In terms of the style of play it encourages, it’s easier to improvise a more expressive style of play. Because it’s physical, there’s also a dynamic that engages the audience. They can actually see what the performer is doing. The Audiopad is projected on a special table equipped with radio sensors that track the position and movement of half a dozen plastic discs, or ‘pucks.’ Most of the pucks control a series of preprogrammed tracks – the rhythm, the bass line, the melody and so on.”

Sales of online downloadable music are picking up. But a new study says the sales won’t make up for the decline in CD sales. “Online analyst Jupiter Media has slashed its estimates for the amount record companies will be able to generate from online sales in 2003 to $800m (£490m). Although the figure refers only to the more developed US market, it spells bad news for record companies hoping to shore up declining CD sales worldwide.”

It’s looking more and more unlikely that New York City Opera will find a home in the performing arts center planned for the World Trade Center site. Space for the center has been reduced by 20 percent. “Given the reduction in the space available and the footprint that City Opera says it needs, it would seem that a significant change in plans would be needed to accommodate an opera house. The opera has proposed a new house with a 60,000-square-foot footprint, Paul Kellogg, general and artistic director of the opera, said in an interview yesterday — so 40,000 square feet would appear to be severely inadequate.”

Tokyo’s Metropolitan Art Space was built in 1990, but has failed to attract the top international orchestras it hoped to book. So it has decided to offer the hall free to orchestras. Managers said “it would place short-term profits on the back burner and seek to attract top orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras.”

Does BBC Radio 1 favor playing established American hits over British performers? That’s the charge. “It is easier for programmers to play proven American hits rather than gamble on new UK tracks. I would question whether it was good for the UK music industry, the British public or for the BBC in the long run.”

What does the lawsuit against the Metropolitan Opera on behalf of one of the company’s biggest donors mean to arts philanthropy? “Anybody who ever bought tickets for a production that turned out disappointing may be inclined to toast the plaintiffs. More seriously, individual donors will sniff an opportunity to increase their already dominant positions, if only after death.”

Striking arts workers forced cancellation of a concert at the Pablo Casals Festival in the French Pyranees. The “announcement of the cancellation infuriated the audience. As they left the venue, attendees shouted insults at the intermittents, who reportedly had to wait in backstage areas for over half an hour before being able to leave the area in safety.”