While some people’s bar-going and spending habits have shifted since the pandemic (not everyone is returning to their regular bar or pub-going routines), by far the largest obstacles to keeping many independent live music venues open currently are the massive insurance price increases and sudden insurance policy cancellations they are facing. - ArtsHub
"British-American producer and librettist Lila Palmer (has been named) general and artistic director. Effective from 15 May, Palmer succeeds Clare Burovac, who steps down after three years in the role." - Classical Music (UK)
Forget the death of newspapers and magazines (that’s old news about old news), we are now in the end of the era of websites and blogs. Young people crowd source their news, information, entertainment, and opinions. - Populism
In his plan, Apple would take each subscriber's monthly fee and distribute 90% to the artists that subscriber listened to that month (pro rata based on streams, I assume). Each individual "fan" has an equal effect on the artist's distribution, instead of heavy listeners having an outsized effect compared to light listeners. - BoingBoing
Or so says Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who said, "maybe some people don't realise how uncomfortable a song like that can make a lot of people feel, even if it makes them feel good." - BBC
"After a years-long search process, the festival announced that Jos van Veldhoven, the longtime artistic director of the Netherlands Bach Society, and Conspirare artistic director Craig Hella Johnson will be the festival’s new 'artistic partners,'" along with not one, but four other "artistic partners." - Oregon ArtsWatch
"It is bleak on so many levels, first and foremost the job losses during a straitened time for media. Pitchfork was one of the last stable music outlets going – where else are the former staff, and the site’s hundreds of freelancers, meant to work now?" - The Guardian (UK)
"The list identifies what UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, calls 'fragile' nonphysical elements that play a crucial role in 'maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization.'" - The New York Times
Users create lyrics, and then TikTok "pairs the lyrics with the pre-saved music, based on three genres: pop, hip-hop, and EDM." (Results aren't great so far, but it's early days.) - The Verge
Bryan West, who was hired by Gannett as its Taylor Swift reporter, should beware. Sam Kriss spent four months in 2014-15 covering Swift for the now-defunct London music zine Kerfuffle; this bonkers essay covers what he can remember (nothing) and its effect on his mental health (profound). - Numb at the Lodge
Some reached the level where a career as either a professional musician or a doctor lay before them, before choosing the unquestionably sounder career path. But the existence of these orchestras is proof that the constraints of a medical life do not preclude creating music, and may well benefit it. - Van
Ron Davis Álvarez, a Caracas native, had settled in Gothenburg as director of El Sistema Sweden. When he saw crowds of teenagers from Syria and Afghanistan arriving in Stockholm with nothing and nobody, he decided he had to do something for them. And so the Dream Orchestra was born. - CNN
"'As referenced in a recent DCASE study,' the (board's) statement read in part, 'inflation and reduced grant funding, coupled with diminished ticket sales due to smaller audiences, have created a challenge for numerous arts organizations. TCB was not immune to these daunting challenges.'" - Chicago Tribune (MSN)
