“Following the illegal vinyl trade – and the work of the people trying to stop it – can be both fascinating and very strange. The stories it produces mix mundane law enforcement with the names of hugely famous musicians.” - The Guardian (UK)
The 10.74% YoY growth rate – representing an increase of about $600 million in raw dollar terms – is little more than half the increase seen the year before, when US music publishing saw a 19.25% YoY increase, or growth of around $900 million. - Music Business Worldwide
The additional revenue from the higher Premium subscription costs may not go to the music composers. According to the FTC complaint, Spotify will pay about $150 million less in music royalties over the first year of these new bundled Premium plans. - Engadget
Administrators opted to install another electronic (or 'digital') organ, a substitute for the real thing. This misguided decision, made hastily during the malaise of the Covid pandemic, was as baffling as it is unfortunate. The New York Philharmonic, a venerable, well-heeled institution, shouldn't present to the public a facsimile of a pipe organ. - BBC Music
Making pop hits has always been a crapshoot. But today, with the world awash in content, TikTok rewriting labels’ playbooks and listeners burrowing deeper into their own personalized niches, even avid pop fans don’t recognize what’s in the Billboard top 10. - The Wall Street Journal
Overall paid attendance for this past season was 72%, only three points below the pre-pandemic level. There was a record number of new audience members, and the average age of single-ticket buyers is down to 44 from 50 pre-pandemic. Are contemporary operas selling well? Yes, some of them. - The New York Times
Presented in Los Angeles by MOCA and the director Yuval Sharon’s company of operatic experimenters, the Industry, “The Comet/Poppea” was commissioned by the American Modern Opera Company. - The New York Times
Concert planning and programming are still what he likes doing most of all, he says, but nonetheless he has found himself running an operation that employs almost 200 people. - The Guardian
The recent analysis of 16,327 compositions scheduled for performances revealed that 7.5% of works were composed by women (down from 7.7% in the 2021/22 report on the same topic). Of these, 5.8% were composed by white women. Works by women from the global majority accounted for 1.6%. - The Violin Channel
Perryn Leech succeeded Alexander Neef as the company's CEO only three years ago and had two years remaining on his contract. The statement announcing his departure gave no reason other than that it was "by mutual agreement." - Toronto Star
I’m not an advocate of doing in historically specific productions but look for this place of speculation that connects opera fundamentally with the world of science fiction. - San Francisco Classical Voice
Sure, it doesn't have any particular melody or even a beat, but music it is. Various musicians liken it to Phil Spector's "wall of sound," ambient music, synth punk, drone music, a theremin … There's even a sax player who publicly jams with cicadas. - Chicago Tribune
Starting back in the 1980s, an illegal demimonde of teens began. Their initial goal was to strip the copyright protections off video games. By the 90s, some of the same teens got the notion to apply that practice to the data on coveted CDs. - The Guardian
"The Ravinia Festival Association, whose grassy lawns come alive with a slew of summer concerts every year, filed an updated complaint in a trademark infringement case against Ravinia Brewing Company, a craft brewery in Highland Park, over the use of their shared neighborhood moniker." - Chicago Tribune
