NPR Is Pulling In Serious Money From Podcasts

“NPR is projecting that podcast sponsorship revenues will surpass revenues from broadcast sponsorships next year for the first time. … The network has budgeted about $55 million in corporate sponsorship revenues from podcasts in fiscal year 2020.” NPR CFO Deborah Cowan described podcasts as “[a] huge return on investment for us and a major growth engine for our business.” – Current

Turkey’s Television Epics Are Conquering The World

“Thanks to international sales and global viewership, Turkey is second only to the US in worldwide TV distribution – finding huge audiences in Russia, China, Korea and Latin America.” Reporter Fatima Bhutto talks to people at the center of the Turkish TV industry about why these series appeal to worldwide audiences (and why the English-language market is an exception) and how the shows were a huge hit in the Arab world until, one day, they were pulled off the air. – The Guardian

How Country Music Became The Heart Of Nashville

Nashville attracted—first downtown, because that’s where the Opry was located, and then on Music Row—a creative community, and that creative community feeds off of itself. I teach at Belmont College, and my students are always saying, “Where I come from, I’m the only person that writes songs; I’m the only person that plays the guitar. I get here and everybody writes songs and everybody plays the guitar.” It either inspires you to get better or causes you to go home, and that’s been a key right there. – CityLab

A Paris Theatre, Closed For Two And A Half Years For A $35 Million Renovation, Is About To Reopen

This isn’t just any (massive) theatre renovation. “It was in the Châtelet where the artistic revolutions and innovations of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes were first seen; here where Mahler, Strauss and Tchaikovsky conducted; where Josephine Baker, Cole Porter and Juliette Gréco all sang.” Now a British artistic director, the first woman in the theatre’s history, leads the Châtelet as it prepares to rejoin the cultural life of Paris. – The New York Times

Not Everything Glittered In The Netherlands’ So-Called Golden Age, Says Museum

The Amsterdam Museum said on Thursday that staff were banned from using the term to describe the 17th century because “the term is strongly associated with national pride because of prosperity and peace but ‘ignores the many negative sides of the 17th century, such as poverty, war, forced labor and human trafficking.'” There’s blowback, of course, and national pride, but the museum is sticking to its principles. – Deutsche Welle (AP)

Baltimore Symphony Pushes Season Opener Back By A Week Amid Labor Dispute, But Musicians Play A Free Concert Anyway

The season opener was pushed from September 14 to September 21, though the musicians of the BSO, not under the name of the BSO, played a free concert on opening night at a different venue. The problem with the new opening date? “No further bargaining session have been scheduled, according to Brian Prechtl, co-chairman of the Baltimore Symphony Musicians Player Committee.” – The Baltimore Sun