Category: music

“The debate has been enabled by social media and reflects changes in many artists’ attitudes toward the online economy over the last 15 years or so — a period that stretches from the rise of Napster and iTunes to online streaming outlets like YouTube, Pandora and Spotify, and has been accompanied by enormous changes in how money flows through the industry.”

“The last Music Row store, Alex Musical Instruments, is closing in a few months, owner Alex Carozza tells The Post. Carozza’s landlord would have let him stay if he agreed to a rent increase from $4,000 to $12,000 a month. No thanks, says the shopkeep. By the end of the year, Music Row will officially be dead.”

“I think it will be a while before we see any massive surge, not necessarily because of politics but more because of mentality. Most Cuban artists and producers do not fully understand the American market per se. Their lyrics are extremely local and the level of production is poor in most cases, due to the lack of technological knowledge and expertise.”

The Cheek to Cheek tour has received positive reviews. The two-hour show perfectly represents Gaga’s talent, while also enabling her to earn the respect of an older fan base. It also exposes Lady Gaga’s younger fans to jazz classics that typically haven’t been part of her previous shows.

“I talked to my viola section, they loved it. I went to the cellos and the violins, they loved it,” Sonnak recalled. “I said, ‘OK, there’s interest. Let’s see how we can do it.’”

“Lucas Debargue, a 24-year-old French pianist, came fourth in the finale of the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow on 30 June, yet he’s the only competitor anyone is talking about. Why?”

“It’s easy to blame new technologies like streaming services for the drastic reduction in musicians’ income. But on closer inspection we see that it is a bit more complicated. Even as the musical audience has grown, ways have been found to siphon off a greater percentage than ever of the money that customers and music fans pay for recorded music.”

“We normally only respond like this to experiences that might ensure or endanger our survival – food, reproduction, or the terrifying plummet of a rollercoaster. How can music – hardly a life-or-death pursuit – move the mind and the body as powerfully as sex?”

After a two-year hiatus, the erstwhile Center City Opera has re-emerged with a new name (that doesn’t include the word opera) and mission, a four-shows-in-18-days summer festival format, a new home (the Prince Music Theater, itself recently brought back from the dead), a world premiere, two local premieres, and the musical version of Heathers.

“Awadagin Pratt, who was dismissed by executive director and CEO Mark Ernster on July 8, will continue in the role of artistic director. The competition also announced on Wednesday that Ernster resigned from his position on July 20. Board chair Jack Rouse, who had resigned on July 8, returned as chairman on July 26.”