Category: music

“New York City Opera’s music library was ‘totally ruined’ by flooding from Hurricane Sandy, but the company’s archival material, going back 60 years, can be salvaged, a spokeswoman said on Friday.”

“So far, no songwriter I’ve spoken to who signed to a major publisher has seen any YouTube royalties on their mechanical royalty statements. How can this be?”

“Today, cushy record contracts for classical artists are all but extinct, more and more artists are self-financing their recordings, and Naxos, offering significant brand recognition and the biggest international distribution network in the field, suddenly looks like a pretty good deal.”

“A dealer in rare Stradivarius violins coveted by the world’s top violinists was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison for embezzlement after his glittering global empire crumbled.”

“A composer and inventor, Machover is currently writing a symphony about the city of Toronto in collaboration with not just the city’s orchestra, but also its 2.6 million residents. ‘It’s beyond crowd-sourcing,’ he says … ‘I think of it as massive collaboration.”

“While rap lyric sites are not new, Rap Genius distinguished itself by adding a Wikipedia-esque twist, allowing anyone to annotate lyrics with words, photos and videos. More than 250,000 people have submitted explanations to date, with contributions vetted by 500 editors, many of them high school or college students.”

“A typical week for each of the Adamses — middle-class musicians who are stalwart section players rather than stars — includes 24 hours onstage, at least 12 hours of practice and perhaps an unpaid fundraising concert. Now, like any other out-of-work white-collar professional, they are looking for new gigs.”

“It already has been opposed by music industry groups, as well as by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. But the N.A.A.C.P. letter, dated last Friday and publicized by a music industry coalition on Thursday, adds new pressure, portraying the issue not just as a business dispute, but as a civil rights matter.”

“Locked-out musicians at the Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras have been warning of a dangerous decline in artistic quality if they accept new contracts sought by management. They say the severe cuts in salary and benefits will force many musicians to seek employment elsewhere. We hear from two of them who have already made that decision.”