"The Charles River Jazz Festival started (in 2021) as a slapdash (post-pandemic) passion project with a $2,000 budget, four local acts and 500 attendees. … Now the all-day festival touts major sponsors, local vendors, food trucks, a lineup of Grammy- and Emmy-nominated artists and a board of directors." - WBUR (Boston)
The global music industry surpassed 1 trillion streams at the fastest pace, ever, in a calendar year, Luminate's 2023 Midyear Report has found. The number was reached in three months, a full month faster than 2022. - Yahoo!
While classical music has long been mired in cases of sexual abuse, the psychological and emotional abuse experienced by many young musicians is harder to pin down and often goes under the radar. - Evening Standard
If anything, Chicago’s precision and balance may give it an edge. However, there’s a raw enthusiasm and vim to Pittsburgh’s performances that I rarely hear at other institutions. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Now that Tracy Chapman's 1988 classic is becoming one of the biggest hits of Luke Combs's career, there are uneasy, complex emotional responses, especially for Black musicians, "knowing Chapman wouldn't be celebrated in the industry without that kind of middleman being a White man." - MSN (The Washington Post)
Some claim that he has “revolutionized pop,” while others argue that he has, as the clickbait-y title of one video essay puts it, “RUINED pop.” Either way, the critical consensus is that over the past eight years, Jack Antonoff has reshaped pop music, or a significant portion of it, in his own image. - The Drift
In a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used a series of sonic illusions to show that people perceive silences much as they hear sounds. - The New York Times
"The orchestra is still receiving local support, along with national and international acclaim, but not all is well. More musicians (have been) leaving than arriving, and there is an unprecedented seven-month-long collective bargaining deadlock over a new contract." - San Francisco Classical Voice
With the Philly Pops in collapse — evicted by the Kimmel Center for nonpayment of rent, suing the Kimmel Center, being sued by its musicians — many of its players have formed the No Name Pops, which has already performed small-ensemble gigs and has two full-orchestra programs scheduled. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"Songs have been written in over 20 languages across the U.S. and around the world. … The musical styles range from classic lullaby to rock, Latin, spoken word, and everything in between. Mothers have written their lullabies from homeless shelters, prisons, hospitals, as well as their homes." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"Budding luthiers and young musicians can now get a step closer to the master by honing their skills in his original house and workshop, which have been transformed into a centre of learning and a musical pilgrimage site in (Cremona,) northern Italy." - Yahoo! (AFP)
"More than three decades after Chapman’s 'Fast Car' dropped, ... drove to the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart" as a Luke Combs cover, making Chapman the first Black woman with a sole songwriting credit on a number one country hit. - Los Angeles Times
"Composing for movies, often mischaracterized as auxiliary to the primary work of filmmaking, is an art form in its own right. At its best, it stands equally with not just the feats of directing and cinematography but also the greatest classical compositions." - The New York Times
All right, recent events are alarming for actual musicians. But "even a more radical artists-rights activist like Kevin Erickson, director of the Future of Music Coalition, is skeptical that AI could outright replace artists, or will inevitably learn on the backs of protected work." - Los Angeles Times
Cher "ran into Dylan in a New York recording studio as her version was climbing the charts. He told her that he dug what she’d done with it, which, Cher writes, 'made me feel like floating away.'" - The New York Times
