Category: music

Considerable amounts of money, effort, resources and curriculum time are expended on these projects but to what end? Certainly not the development of new audiences and a future stock of those all-important punters who are freely prepared to part with good money to see a show. Thirty years into the “opera in education” mission and I have never encountered anyone who said to me: “I was turned on to opera by a school education programme.”

“There are now an estimated 450 music rental services around the world, and while many people still listen for free, a desire for more choice is persuading more music lovers to part with their cash. In a three-year period the number of paying subscribers rose from 8 million to 28 million.”

“It turns out, though, that lyrics are a significant predictor of a song’s commercial success. A new analysis by researchers at North Carolina State University reveals the top 12 most common themes based on the lyrics of No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100.”

Said executive director Ian Campbell, “Over the last several years, we have lost a number of prominent contributors, frequently because of death, but especially during the recent economic downturn … The demand for opera in this city isn’t high enough.”

“A number of apps provide musical backup, but Cadenza out of Harvard goes a step further, automatically synching a recording of a full live orchestra to your style and tempo in real time. As you begin playing your instrument, the app listens to each note you play and the rhythm and speed in which you play them, calculating and recalibrating a prediction model for when you will play the next note.”

“User-generated content, which includes mashups and fan-made music videos, are actually generating more money for record labels than the official music videos posted by record labels.”

“The 16.7% slump in Japanese sales caused world figures to slide by 3.9%. But European music consumers had a buoyant year, registering their first growth for 13 years, while digital sales in the US rose by 3.4%.”

“So, the data tells us that consumers are willing to spend somewhere around $45–$65 per year on music, and that the larger a service gets, the lower in that range the number becomes. And these numbers have remained consistent regardless of music format, from CD to download.”

Since becoming the national company’s artistic director in 2009, Lyndon Terracini “has honed his talent for generating headlines, Twitter storms and Facebook furores. He has made contentious declarations about everything from obese opera singers doing love scenes (‘It’s obscene’); to ‘the sense of patrician entitlement’ of some opera insiders; to the ‘prehistoric’ union quota that limits the number of overseas singers who can perform with OA.”

“In a single season, the company requires more in donations towards annual operating expenses than the New York Philharmonic, BAM, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The New York City Ballet, and Lincoln Center Theater combined! Or, to put it another other way, the Met’s fundraising obligation of $161 million is more money than the National Endowment for the Arts disperses in a single year.”