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MUSIC

Now That Taylor Swift Owns Her Music, What Happens To Her Re-Recordings?

Some fans are disappointed that we may never see the last two rerecordings, though Swift has hinted that she might be willing to release them, in some form, one day. - The New Yorker

In The Era Of Algorithms, Roots Music Is Getting A Boost

Algorithms, which sort the listening public into ever-more-individualized niches, can cut both ways: They can introduce you to new artists, but they can also “rob you of the variety of emotional experience.” A result, is “a hunger for a more authentic view, a more definite emotional experience than commercial country often provides.” - New York Times Magazine

The Soul Of A Video Game Turned Smash Hit TV Show Comes From Its Music

The Last of Us composer Gustavo Santaolalla: "I think the fact that we kept the sonic fabric — that we didn’t do an orchestral score for the series — has been instrumental in keeping those fans of the games fans of the series, too.” - The Verge (Internet Archive)

A Pianist From Hong Kong Wins The Cliburn For The First Time

Aristo Sham won the gold, with U.S. pianist Evren Ozel taking the bronze. - Dallas Morning News

Ai-Generated Music Is Flooding Streaming Services

Fraudsters are flooding Spotify, Apple Music and the rest with AI-generated tracks, to try and hoover up the royalties generated by people listening to them. These tracks are cheap, quick and easy to make, with Deezer estimating that over 20,000 fully AI-created tracks – that’s 18% of new tracks – were being ingested into its platform daily. - The Guardian

How Florida Inmates Incredibly Made A HipHop Album, Despite The Challenges

County jails are incubators for hip-hop, especially in Broward county, which cultivated “legends like Kodak Black and YNW Melly … but the diversity of voices on Bending the Bars is a natural extension of the eclectic mix of detainees that can be found in almost any urban jail”. - The Guardian

Arizona Opera Finds Its New General Director Close To Home

“Arizona Opera took its search for a new leader international only to find the ideal candidate a few miles from its downtown Phoenix headquarters. The … company named Brian DeMaris, the artistic director of Arizona State University’s music theater and opera program, on Thursday to be its president and general manager.” - Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

Opera’s Translation Debate

Like the qwerty keyboard, sitting through a three-or-more-hour performance in a language we don’t understand is a peculiar cultural phenomenon we accept only because it’s often the only option we’re given. It’s happenstance. And it’s a big part of what keeps opera from reaching more people. - The New York Times

Piano Sales Are Sinking

Sales have held steady at around 31,000 a year for the past decade, but in 2024, fewer than 18,000 were sold, according to an industry census conducted by Music Trades. Upright pianos have been largely replaced by digital pianos. Over 188,000 were sold last year, according to the Music Trades census. - KERA

A Change Of Generational Leadership In The Music Industry?

If the past tells us anything, it’s that seismic technological shifts have often served as a precursor for a changing of the guard at the record companies. - The Hollywood Reporter

’78 Recordings Are Essential Music History

While 33-rpm vinyl reigns supreme in popular culture and the central role of LPs in hop-hop sampling and scratching, 78s were by far the dominant recording format from about 1910 until the late 1950s — which means that just about every 20th-century American musical idiom that coalesced before the election of John F. Kennedy. - San Francisco Classical Voice

“Bone Records” — How Forbidden Jazz And Rock Were Smuggled Into The Soviet Union On X-Ray Film

It turns out that X-ray film was just soft enough to be etched on by an electromechanical lathe. So one could take exposed X-ray film (with images of bones), trim it into the shape of a vinyl record, then use a recording device to cut a bootleg recording onto the film. - The Conversation

The Lakota Project: Two Musical Traditions Come Together on the Plains of South Dakota

Classical institutions like to talk a big game about making social justice a part of their mission, but the South Dakota Symphony and the Lakota Music Project — which commissions works for combinations of Native and non-Native musicians and tours the state — have committed more deeply than most. - The New York Times

Former Met Opera Chorus Director Heads To Chicago Symphony

Donald Palumbo, 76, is credited with revitalizing the Met chorus during his 17-year term (2007-2024) and, before that, the chorus of Lyric Opera of Chicago (1991-2007). He will be only the third director in the CSO Chorus’s history, following the tenures of Margaret Hillis (37 years) and Duain Wolfe (28 years). - Chicago Sun-Times

Six Pianists Advance To Van Cliburn Finals

The Cliburn’s jury has selected the six players advancing to the final round of its competition in downtown Fort Worth June 3-7. - Fort Worth Report

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