Category: music

“Since 1990, it seems that the average song length has sort of stabilized around 250 seconds (over 4 minutes). Maybe that’s because humans prefer 4 minute songs. Clearly there is no technological limit to song length anymore, right? So, did new technologies influence song length?”

“The German conductor, who is principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, made a sensational BSO debut in 2012.”

“We are told that ENO is being penalised for failing to meet audience targets. But a theatre devoted to artistic adventure is bound to risk occasional box-office failure: it was precisely to buttress such eventualities that the subsidy-principle was established. If we are back to measuring artistic success by the old bums-on-seats philosophy, then we are truly heading back to the dark ages.”

“The app’s premise is that it usually takes us time to focus because of the distracting effect of the environment. Their music has apparently been carefully engineered to reduce this distracting effect. The tunes go through “phase sequences” to ensure that they are neither too relaxing, nor too distracting.”

Dawn Fatale, who has provided some of the most trenchant commentary out there on the company’s current troubles, offers a ten-point plan (okay, a listicle) for turning the place around. (As always, Parterre Box’s cher public comes through with yet more ideas.)

General director Keith Cerny: “We have observed no measurable cannibalization of single ticket sales from either simulcasts or HD broadcasts.” What’s more, “whereas around 75 percent of the Met’s American HD broadcast audience is age 65 or older, only around 20 percent of TDO’s simulcast audience is 65 or older.”

“The conductor of the annual Welsh Proms will have to pay the orchestra fees for this year’s event in Cardiff himself unless most of the tickets are sold. Owain Arwel Hughes is having to act as guarantor for three of the festival’s four orchestral concerts after Cardiff council cut its funding.” (includes video)

And, as Billboard and other observers have noted, only three other albums have notched more than 500,000 in sales in 2014.
“A year ago at this point,” notes Billboard, “there were 11.”

“In the three years since the movement began, I’ve seen a definite shift in the tactics used by musicians, organizers, and other people working in the music industry as they attempt to build power and push for fair pay and conditions in the vast and strange landscape of contemporary composition, performance, and recording.”

Her Wall Street Journal op-ed professed optimism for the ways the music business is changing. But optimism isn’t a substitute for reality…