Big Music’s Problems Beyond The File Traders

File trading is only one of the recording companies’ problems. “Among the problems they cited were the consolidation of radio stations, making it harder to expose new bands and records, and the lack of a widely popular musical trend like teen-pop, which relied on stars like Britney Spears and `N Sync to drive young people to record stores. They also blamed a poor economy and competition for the limited time and money of teenagers and young adults, their main customers, who often find that they prefer buying DVD’s, video games, sneakers and more. Indeed, thousands of music retail stores have closed recently, and the ones that are still open have given shelf space to competing products, like DVD’s and video games.”

News Flash: Customers Don’t Like You If You Sue Them

Prosecuting file traders isn’t likely to win recording companies many fans. “Some music industry analysts and file-trading fans question whether the strategy will do much to further the RIAA’s goal of boosting legitimate music sales. If you’re trying to instill fear, you may have success. But if you’re trying to increase CD sales by getting people to stop sharing music, I don’t think it will have any effect at all.”

The “Booker Prize” Of Music?

The Mercury Prize was “conceived in the early 1990s by Jon Webster, then MD of Virgin Records, who envisaged it as ‘the Booker Prize of the music industry’. It would be independent of both the record companies and the music retailers, but endorsed by both. Its serious image would encourage ageing music fans to explore new albums as well as buying CD copies of their old vinyl favourites. And it would promote modern music as ‘art’. But it’s the sheer unpredictability of the Mercury that makes it so charming. Don’t ever believe anyone who says they know who is or isn’t going to win. And has it achieved its original objectives?”

Damien Hirst And The Art Of Trying Too Hard

Damien Hirst’s new show at White Cube took eight years to assemble. “The idea of transition and transformation is everywhere at White Cube: mounds of dead flies turned into crunchy, black, monochrome canvases; cows’ heads as apostles and as Adam and Eve; laboratory supplies and hardware store axes and mallets in reliquaries of martyred saints; animal blood for human blood.” It all has the smell of trying too hard.

Karen Finley Returns

It’s been awhile since performance artist Karen Finley was the poster girl for Culture War controversy. Now she’s back with a new piece and getting new respect. “A lot of things have changed. Women’s rights in some ways have improved from the time I was doing my work 15 years ago. There are just different issues. The issues I’m dealing with now are the chaos of this nation at war and the psychological impact of struggling with a nation mourning.”

Charlotte Symphony On Strike

Players of the Charlotte Symphony have gone on strike. “The talks have gone on in the wake of a $650,000 deficit that the orchestra generated last season – the first red ink in seven years. When the group’s management announced the deficits in July, it cited a drop in donations, a decline in income from its endowment fund and a surge in health-insurance costs as prime causes.”

CD Price-Cut Is Desperation Play

Not hard to figure out why Universal is cutting CD prices. “After years of gouging customers, the recording industry is desperate. Sparked by Napster, and continued through such file-swapping services as Kazaa, Morpheus, and Grokster, the free-music revolution has left the major labels reeling and hemorrhaging. And CD prices, which despite promises to the contrary have steadily increased through the years, turned off even those who weren’t inclined to sit at their computers downloading their favorite tracks. Now, with CD sales already down almost 16 percent this year – after a 9 percent decline in 2002 – the industry is so rattled it has had to resort to something it has arrogantly avoided for years: a move that will benefit, instead of undermine, music consumers.”

Orchestras In Uncertain Times

The new orchestra season begins. But “don’t be surprised if you see orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, reopening labor contracts, well before expiration dates, in search of budget savings. Such measures, once unthinkable, may soon be common as organizations struggle to get their houses on solid ground. And all the usual things, like cut-backs in performances and costly repertoire, will continue, too. But let’s not get overly gloomy. At least not yet.” There are some bright spots…

A Plan For An American National Theatre

A new national theatre is being proposed for the site of the World Trade Center. “The national theater would cull the finest offerings from the country’s regional stages and present them in the performing arts center that Daniel Libeskind, the master-plan architect, has called for at the World Trade Center site. The complex would include three theaters: one with 800 seats, one with 700 and one with 400. The backers envision 15 productions a year, five on each stage, each running six weeks.”

Chicago Art Institute Director Resigns

James Wood announces he will leave. “The Art Institute has begun planning to build its first major new wing in 15 years, designed by Renzo Piano and expected to cost nearly $200 million. Mr. Wood said that it would be wise for a single director to oversee the final planning, construction and opening of the new wing, and that therefore he had to decide whether to leave now or stay on the job until at least 2008.”