Category: music

“A new campaign, pioneered by Universal and Sony, will mean songs are available to buy digitally at the same time as they debut on television or radio. DJ Nelson said record labels can lose more than 50% of potential sales due to the lag time between a track’s radio debut and its release date, as those wanting to buy the track download illegally instead.”

As the Royal Opera/Sun cheap-tickets-for-first-timers scheme a few years ago demonstrated, “[new] audiences for opera will be wooed by price, not subject matter. … [Have] an allocation of seats for under-25s at cinema prices, and they will come to Rigoletto, Carmen or Madam Butterfly even more enthusiastically than they will to Anna Nicole.”

“The new owners face stiff challenges in resurrecting Baker’s to its former glory — the difficulty of drawing patrons to a gritty location, the economics of turning a profit in a club that seats just 100 people, the graying of traditional jazz audiences, the club’s reputation for inconsistent service and an interior in desperate need of deep cleaning and renovations.”

Oundjian, who will stay in his job as music director of the Toronto Symphony, “will succeed French conductor Stephane Deneve as the guiding maestro of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in 2012.”

So far it’s too early to tell…

“The folks behind the new Chicago Symphony Orchestra-led Citizen Musician initiative would love for this happening to be a microcosm for how their movement plays out across Chicago and beyond, starting with a core of musicians and spreading in a way that’s planned yet spontaneous, until it envelopes anyone who has any contact with or appreciation of music.”

“At this year’s Midem, Europe’s biggest music conference there was an undeniable feeling of transition of power from music’s old guard to its digital avant garde. But the problem is that even as the industry finally recognises that it needs to change, it is not clear that the digital future is strong enough to support the global rock’n’roll machine as it used to be.”

“Almost seven months after averting closure in July, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra again is in financial distress. Without $375,000 to meet its payroll and expenses by Feb. 4, the SSO will be left with no choice but to end its 2010-2011 season four months early.”

“For years, we had world-class entertainment. We had a world-class facility. And that was enough,” says Greg Anderson, a board member of Troy Chromatics and its publicity chairman. “Now we’ve got an aging population that still loves classical music, but the world has changed drastically. And we don’t have new strategies. … I think a lot of organizations like ours are asking the same really hard questions.”

“The Louisville Orchestra has been granted emergency funding that will allow it to pay its musicians on Monday, according to a release from the organization.”