The traffic started out the other way, of course, with over-the-air programs being released as or adapted into podcasts. “But podcasting has turned into an incubator of sorts for new radio shows, with several now making their way to local airwaves. … Starting out as a podcast offers show creators a chance to explore and experiment while also building a following — which can help when the subject matter is inherently challenging.” – The Washington Post
Building Audiences
Hollywood Is Now Producing Companion Podcasts To Movies And TV Series
Why? Money, of course: to put it in business-speak, the companion podcast “offers a new way for creators to diversify IP assets.” What’s the draw? “People want to spend more time thinking and talking about the shows that they’re watching, whether they’re binge-watching it or watching it once a week,” says HBO’s director of podcasts. “It’s on their mind, and it’s a platform that really complements their watching experience.” – The Hollywood Reporter
As Broadway Prepares To Reopen, Here’s How It Will (And Won’t) Be Operating Differently
“Ticket-buyers are being told they will be required to wear face masks (although it’s not clear how changing advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might affect that expectation). Theaters will have upgraded HVAC systems with virus-trapping filters. Most ticketing will be digital. And theaters are reserving the right to impose a variety of safety protocols” — on casts and crews as well as on audiences. “Prices, at least so far, are similar to what they were prepandemic, although premium prices are somewhat lower. … But it will be far easier to cancel or exchange tickets.” – The New York Times
Performance Venues And Museums In UK May Reopen Next Monday (Though Many Will Not)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced the lifting of a series of pandemic-related restrictions as of May 17; the new measures include the reopening of theatres, cinemas, concert halls, museums, and similar venues. However, social distancing requirements and capacity limits will still be in place, and many theatres say they can’t afford to reopen to only half-full houses. – BBC
La Scala Is Opening Again
With a 500-person limit, a record high in private funding, new digital streaming infrastructure, and a mandate to be more ecologically conscious, the Milan opera house and its new artistic director, Dominique Meyer, are ready to put the horrible experience of 2020 behind them. – The New York Times
NFTs Are The Newest Tulipmania
“Art NFTs put me in mind of film auteur Werner Herzog’s distinction between the ‘truth of accountants’ and ‘ecstatic truth.’ NFT mavens wax lyrical about the ‘authenticity’ of these tokens as if they are trading a semi-divine quality, yet the authenticity encoded by an NFT is the same kind encoded by a transaction number on a credit card statement. They are a dressed-up species of bookkeeping. What art needs is less auditing and more ecstasy.” – Los Angeles Times
Bandwagon Is Changing The NY Phil’s Relationship With The City
Instead of the whiff of noblesse oblige and platitudes about the uplifting nature of classical music, this is about working together. “The key phrases when Bandwagon 2 was announced last month were the desire to ‘center the voices of our partners’ and ‘utilize the Philharmonic’s resources to amplify the work of our collaborators.’ In less fancy terms, the orchestra is stepping back, giving over its stage and its money rather than hogging them.” – The New York Times
The Big Screen Experience Is Unparalleled
No matter what you’ve got in your house, there’s nothing like watching a movie in the theatre with scores of other people. Then there are the prices: “The fact that I know I’m being ripped off is, somehow, part of the charm. Have you got a statistic about the ludicrous mark-up on popcorn for me? Have you got a story about seeing it loaded into the back of the cinema in a dozen bin bags? Ooh baby, yes: talk nasty to me.” – The Guardian (UK)
One Of London’s Leading Theatres Says It Will Keep Live-Streaming Productions Permanently
“[Young Vic artistic director] Kwame Kwei-Armah told The Guardian the pandemic had changed theatre forever, with the livestreaming of plays becoming ‘hard baked’ into how the industry operates. [He] said that during lockdown he had resolved to ‘innovate, not just replicate’ resulting in a project titled Best Seat in Your House which will use multiple cameras and allow online audiences to change what they are looking at.” – The Guardian
Why Broadway Isn’t Restarting Until September
“With as many as eight shows a week to fill, and the tourists who make up an important part of their customer base yet to return, producers need time to advertise and market. They need to reassemble and rehearse casts who have been out of work for more than a year. And they need to sort out and negotiate safety protocols. But the biggest reason is more gut-based.” – The New York Times
The NY Phil Goes Traveling, In A Shipping Container
Last year it was a Ford F-250 pickup truck that saved the day, and the audiences around the city. “Bandwagon 2 will trade in the pickup truck for a 20-foot shipping container atop a semi truck, which will visit four parks around New York City for weekend-long residencies through May. … Tricked out with a foldout stage, video wall and integrated sound and lighting, the setup is now more arresting and theatrically attuned.” – The New York Times
Amazon Earnings Soar, Streaming Up 70 Percent
Video streaming — sometimes a throwaway in the company’s earnings announcements — was this time a centerpiece. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who is shifting to executive chairman this summer, noted that streaming has risen 70% compared with the same time a year ago. Prime Video, which has recently marked its 10th anniversary, served film or TV titles to some 175 million global members. – Deadline
Play Something, Netflix’s New Weapon Against Viewers’ Decision Fatigue
“Today, the company is launching Play Something, a new viewing mode designed to make it easier for the indecisive among us to quickly find something to watch. … The goal of this new shuffle feature is to eliminate, or at least ease, the Peak TV-era anxiety so many of us feel while trying to find something to watch” among the countless options available. – Vulture
‘Live Shows Are About To Come Roaring Back To Full Houses’, Says One Critic
Chris Jones: “There’s real evidence now of pent-up demand. Consider what is happening in Las Vegas. Cirque du Soleil, which has emerged from bankruptcy protection and put its famous productions of both Mystère and O on sale last week …, has seen colossal demand for tickets. … Comedian Dave Chappelle sold 13,000 tickets for his July 2 concert. The Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny had 45,000 people in his waiting room, all trying to buy tickets at once. Get the drift, Chicago entertainment peeps? People are ready.” – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
Big Bump In UK Book Sales In 2020
UK consumer book sales climbed 7% to £2.1bn last year as people “rediscovered their love of reading” in lockdown, the industry body says. – BBC
Why Viewers With Thousands Of Options Are Choosing To Stream Old TV Series
The Office and The Sopranos were two of the biggest hits of 2020, according to streaming services, which have recently paid hundreds of millions of dollars for exclusive rights to long-off-the-air favorite comedies such as Seinfeld, Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and South Park. Why? The same reason people turn to comfort food: reassurance and the dopamine hit. – BBC
The Birth Of The Paid Claque (Annals Of Opera History)
Back in the early 19th century, “the directors of the Paris Opera saw no reason to leave the success of their performances up to the whims of an unpredictable audience. To guarantee acclaim, they employed the services of an organized body of professional applauders, commonly known as the ‘claque.’ These claqueurs were tucked away throughout the audience, disguised as members of the public.” Why did this profession arise? Well, for roughly the same reason that professional music criticism did. – JSTOR Daily
Trial Indoor Performance With Audience Of 4,500 Shows Little Indication Of COVID Transmission
The event, a rock concert at an arena in Barcelona on March 27, required attendees to have an antigen test beforehand and to wear masks throughout, but no social distancing was required. Two weeks later, only six audience members (four of whom say they were exposed elsewhere) tested positive for COVID, which extrapolates to half the current infection rate in Barcelona as a whole. – Yahoo! (AP)
Oscars Ratings Plunge 58 Percent From Last Year’s Record Low
Among adults 18 to 49, the demographic that many advertisers pay a premium to reach, the Oscars suffered an even steeper 64 percent decline, according to preliminary data from Nielsen released on Monday. Nielsen’s final numbers are expected on Tuesday and will include out-of-home viewing and some streaming statistics. – The New York Times
Maureen Dowd: Has Hollywood Lost Its Inspiration?
As a Hollywood writer friend of mine said after she watched “Nomadland”: “That was not entertainment. That was Frances McDormand having explosive diarrhea in a plastic bucket on a van.” Not a crop of movies that make you reach for the Junior Mints. – The New York Times
American TV Watchers Flee Cable
Five years ago, 63% of Americans mostly watched television through cable and satellite. Today, that percentage has dropped to fewer than half of all Americans, while the percentage of those primarily watching television via a streaming service on the internet has jumped 17 percentage points, from 20% in 2016 to 37% today. – CBS News
The Oscars Disrupted Union Station And More
How wild to have a show with Crip Camp nominated for best documentary, a show that prevented disabled people in L.A. from getting to their subway trains – and also forced hordes of people to find the new site for COVID-19 testing. Ash Pana, who lives by Union Station and “who suffers from chronic pain and sometimes uses a walker, said other disabled people had been directed to detour at least 10 blocks rather than receive an escort into the station to which they needed access.” – Los Angeles Times
The Detroit Symphony Gets A Letter From A Non-Fan Of Black Composers’ Music
And then DSO vice-president Erik Rönmark posted the letter to social media (with the patron’s, or former patron’s, name redacted). Response on social media was strong. The CEO of a tech company wrote: “You just won yourself a new patron at the $125 level. My company … would like to sponsor 4 new patrons at this same level, preferably people under 40 and/or BIPOC. How can we do this? Keep up the good work!!” – Classical FM
Paul Schrader: The End Of The Movie Feature As We Knew It?
“The two-hour format which was so ideally suited to theatrical, we’ve now trained young people for fifteen months not to see that as a primary way to have audiovisual entertainment. Now, how they come back or if they come back . . . they’re certainly not going to come back in the way they once were.” – The New Yorker
NPR And PRX To Offer Paid Subscription Option For Podcasts
NPR will give listeners the choice to pay — via its own platforms, Apple, or Spotify — a yet-undetermined monthly fee in order to receive its podcasts without advertising sponsorship messages; the network will also make this option available to member stations for their podcasts. PRX will offer a $4.99 monthly subscription to podcasts it distributes via four channels on Apple Podcasts; again, subscribers will be able to bypass underwriting announcements. – Current