Tag: 10.25.06

Towering Impact

Tower Records may have been a big corporation, but to many classical music aficionados in New York and other large East and West Coast cities, the chain’s classical department was as close as you could get to a neighborhood record store. “Older record collectors have memories of wonderful, quirky independent stores run by managers who were passionate, if opinionated, about the music they sold. [And Tower’s closing] will have a severe impact on niche markets like classical music. According to one industry insider’s estimate, Tower Records alone accounted for up to 50 percent of sales in the specialty genres.”

Dia Abandons High Line Project

“With no director and a board in flux, the Dia Art Foundation has scrapped its plans to open a museum at the entrance to the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway line in Manhattan.” The Dia’s exit from the project leaves the door open for other New York museums to move in, and there is already speculation that the Whitney is interested.

Hacker Busts iPod’s Exclusivity

A prominent hacker is claiming that he has cracked the software that Apple uses to insure that the music it sells through its online iTunes store can only be played on an iPod portable device. “[The hacker’s] company, DoubleTwist, said that it planned to license the code to other digital music player manufacturers.” The company’s attorneys believe that such a direct assault on Apple’s market dominance would, in fact, be legal.

Conductor (Re)Accused In Cult Murders

“A Swiss orchestra conductor went on trial for the second time yesterday for his alleged role in a doomsday cult which lost dozens of members in ritual killings in Canada and Europe. Michel Tabachnik, 61, a composer who has led major orchestras in Canada, Portugal and France, is accused of criminal association and contributing to the deaths of members of the Order of the Solar Temple – 14 of whom were found burnt and lying in a star formation in a clearing in the French Alps in 1995.”

NJSO Finally Has A New CEO

André Gremillet, a 39-year-old pianist who has spent the last few years running a pipe organ manufacturing company in Canada, has been tapped as the new president and CEO of the New Jersey Symphony. “Gremillet will inherit an organization that is straining under a mountain of debt and yet growing artistically under the baton of Neeme Järvi, the orchestra’s conductor and music director.”

Arts Booming In Denver

Arts and culture generated $1.4 billion for the Denver metro area in 2005, according to a new study. That’s the largest economic impact ever measured for the region. The study also says that 14.1 million people in the area attended some sort of cultural event (not bad for a metro of fewer than 2.5 million residents.)

K-W Bailout Sees No Business Support

Donations have been trickling in in the last-ditch campaign to save Ontario’s Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony from bankruptcy (the orchestra needs to raise $2.5m by month’s end,) but corporate support has been largely nonexistent. “Money raised to date includes $782,680 donated by about 900 individuals. It also includes $250,000 from Waterloo Region, $170,000 from Kitchener, $85,000 from Waterloo and $230,000 pledged by 18 symphony board members.”

What Happened To Damien Hirst?

“Hirst has not had a good idea for 13 years. In 1993 he created Mother and Child Divided, the most poetic of his animal works. After that, he started to flail… Hirst’s waning originality gives this accusation of plagiarism more resonance. With each new show, the paucity and repetition of Hirst’s art is more blatant.”

Analyst: Newspaper Revenues To Be Flat For 30 Years

A Merrill Lynch analyst says it could take 30 years for newspapers to get 50 percent of their revenue from online advertising. “Even if the rapid [online] growth continues for the next few years, we don’t see online representing over 50% of newspaper ad revenues for at least a couple of decades, suggesting that industry profit could stay flat for the foreseeable future.”