Spotify, the rumor had it, was filling its most popular playlists with stock music attributed to pseudonymous musicians—variously called ghost or fake artists—presumably in an effort to reduce its royalty payouts. Some even speculated that Spotify might be making the tracks itself. - Harper's
Some creative geniuses make the world richer because of their work. Others have used their cultural impact as an excuse not to treat others with basic respect. The latter group brings to mind a truly notorious kind of “art monster” - The Atlantic
Eungie Joo, the curator and head of contemporary art at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA), was fired from her position on Tuesday (17 December) for allegedly violating the museum’s policies governing workplace conduct. - The Art Newspaper
MrBeast says on the podcast that he worked with the Egyptian government to get access to the historic site. “I’ve never been inside of it,” he says. “I want to just find secrets and go through all the rooms and the tombs and that kind of stuff.” - Fast Company
The National Labor Relations Board ruled in their favor and they're getting compensation, but the ten dancers are declining to return to DBDT. So they got together for one last performance — a program of new pieces collectively titled Emergence —before figuring out where their careers will take them next. - KERA (Dallas)
Broadway returned to boom times, and several commercially produced shows did gangbusters business in smaller theatres, but Off Broadway’s nonprofit companies continued to struggle. Yet a lot of what made the city artistically exciting this year required that all parts of the ecosystem flourish. - The New Yorker
“Sound directs our passage through time. It shapes our orientation to the future moment and also to the moment when the future stops.” - The Wall Street Journal
The Ukrainian-born dancer, who has three tattoos of Putin (despite the Russian military's near-obliteration of his hometown, Kherson), now says "My time in Russia ran out a long time ago … I've fulfilled my mission here." Last week he posted a message calling for peace negotiations and promptly lost his job. - CBS News
Rousseau was, in effect, the diagnostician of despair who captured the affliction of alienation in all of its dimensions. The source of our affliction was the very thing we thought made us better: civilization. - The American Scholar
So far this year, Bloom has landed 23 books and two series on the New York Times best-seller list. Last year, it surpassed $100 million in gross sales, and its 2024 sales are up 58 percent. - The New York Times
"While the 14,909 jobs lost by mid-December this year offered an improvement on the 21,417 jobs cut in 2023, it would be unwise to consider this year a 'comeback' by any stretch. Combined, the number of jobs lost between 2023-24 more than quadrupled the amount lost between 2021-22." - TheWrap (MSN)
“It is going to be a space you can choose where to be and how to listen,” Fisk said. “We want people to lose themselves in this music and to be swallowed up by the experience of being part of nature.” - Charlotte Observer (MSN)
"Every Christmas, I ask myself this question, because accidentally I — a Jewish composer — have also written something of a Christmas classic: the little match girl passion. Cynics may think that these artists make Christmas music because they’re chasing the market. I believe there is something deeper at work." - The New York Times
