Category: music

“Will Apple’s new paid music service put a dent in free file-trading services like Kazaa and Gnutella? No, because most files being traded on [peer-to-peer file-swapping] sites aren’t music files at all. Surprise — they’re porn.”

The recording industry is taking its anti-piracy message directly to song-swapping consumers, sending notices to thousands of file-traders informing them that they can be easily identified and prosecuted if they continue to download copyrighted material without paying. The warnings are the latest salvo in a strange and disjointed campaign against piracy by the large record companies, and come in the wake of a court’s recent decision that file-trading services may not be held liable for the actions of their customers.

Italy is cracking down on counterfeit music recodings. “Street vendors could be fined 103 euros (£70) for every pirate copy they sell and may also face between six months and three years in prison. Buyers of illegal CDs, who up until now have gone unpunished, will be fined 154 euros (£106) if caught buying illegal CDs and repeat offenders could be hit with a fine of 1,000 euros (£700) when the new law is introduced on Tuesday. Italy has one of Europe’s largest counterfeit markets and the music industry estimates that one in four compact discs sold is pirated.”

So far no one has stepped forward to help bail out the Florida Philharmonic, which needs to raise $20 million by Friday so it can stay in business. “The Philharmonic, which has run deficits ranging from $900,000 to $3.6 million each year since 1999, needs about $4 million right away, Lewis said. The orchestra can make its May 9 payroll but will run out of money before it can pay employees on May 23. ‘What is difficult for me as a potential donor . . . is to hear that the orchestra has been so badly managed before and now we should trust you to make a better orchestra.”

The Savannah (Georgia) Symphony, which was unable to meet its payroll in January and hasn’t performed since, has decided to file for bankruptcy. The orchestra owes $1 million it can’t pay.

Music file-traders win a big one in court. “Delivering a significant victory for peer-to-peer networks, a federal judge ruled Friday that two popular file-trading services should not be held liable for copyright infringement committed by their users.” The music industry will appeal.

The Times reports that Caroline Felton, a financial expert brought in nine months ago to help turn the English National Opera’s fortunes around, has been sacked. Her term as acting head was “marked by strikes and walkouts backstage and controversy on it.”

“A spokeswoman for ENO denied reports in Monday’s Times newspaper that Ms Felton had been sacked, saying she had been given a new advisory role. ‘Caroline Felton has been on a monthly contract and remains on a monthly contract. She will be still be working in a part-time capacity, probably until the end of the season’.”

Justin Davidson thinks Frank Gehry’s new performing arts center at Bard College looks “vaguely mammalian, a mound of muscled curves – slick and powerful like a sea lion, but also armored, robotic. Gehry has built a bionic bunny crouching at the edge of a field.” So how does it sound? “Fill the grape-colored stage with musicians, and they will make more sound than an audience can absorb. And yet, perhaps, that’s just the sort of surplus a small, arts-oriented school like Bard should have. There’s something terribly attractive about the notion of a house so full of music that notes try to bust through concrete walls.”

Last week 23-year-old British jazz singer Jamie Cullum signed a £1 million recording deal. A jazz singer. £1 million. Why was Universal prepared to pay so much? “It was desperation. We’d have done anything to sign him. We’d have bungee-jumped off a cliff, if necessary. He’s the most talented musician we’ve ever come across.”