The symphony — and not only the "Ode to Joy" — has been used for everything from Nazi propaganda to the fall of the Berlin Wall to the national anthem of white-ruled Rhodesia to Tiananmen Square demonstrations to entrance music for Melania Trump. Not to mention all the commercials. - The Guardian
The show is now officially known as a Living Historic Landmark by the state of Utah, the studio announced Monday. This designation is the first of its kind and was made possible by Utah Sen. Luz Escamilla's bill in the recent legislative session. - KSL
After a visitor died of anaphylactic shock from being fed allergens (the servers had been warned) at a Disney World restaurant, Disney attorneys tried to dismiss her widower's lawsuit because, they argued, he agreed to private arbitration when signing up for Disney+ and again when purchasing theme park tickets. - New York Magazine (MSN)
Disney and Universal are engaging in one-upmanship as their theme parks bring in more revenue than their sputtering entertainment divisions. (This is despite the fact that visitor numbers have started to fall.) Yet the studios' rivalry in the live-attractions business goes back decades. - TheWrap
"In response (to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations), major publishers recruited and promoted Black editors and launched new imprints devoted to books by nonwhite authors. Publishing companies said they would diversify their work force. … Four years later, there is a growing sense that the momentum has stalled." - The New York Times
"Warner Bros. Studios COO Simon Robinson on Tuesday promised that the company would commit to a minimum of $500 million in annual content spending during the next 17 years — the length of time proposed by one of the legislative efforts to expand the state’s tax credit — totaling $8.5 billion." - The Nevada Independent
"(The agreement is) to license content from brands including The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired and Vogue for use within the AI company’s products, including ChatGPT and the SearchGPT prototype." - Variety
During the Games themselves (July 27-August 11), visitor numbers fell by 22% from the previous year. In the 11 days leading up to the event, admissions were down 45% from the same time in 2023 — not least because the museum was entirely closed July 25-26 as a security measure. - ARTnews
“We’re expanding the size of the theatre; we’re not creating a competitive product." Now, with unions across the field adopting streaming provisions, the second-best seat in the house might be at home. - American Theatre
The canonic composers learned by doing, failing, and doing again. This is no longer the norm in opera, where creators rarely get the opportunity to change and experiment. As a result, the biggest innovators could be discarded before they truly begin. - Classical Music
The musicians current base salary is $110,384, which includes an electronic media agreement stipulating payments relating to recordings and electronic media. At the conclusion of the new contract in 2027, the base salary level will have increased to $124,020. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The existential threat to the radio business model comes as listeners abandon terrestrial broadcasts in favor of on-demand podcasts and streaming services, part of a larger digital reckoning that has forced widespread layoffs across some of the nation’s largest media companies. - CNN
The shows have failed to take off. Since last year, roughly 20 episodes have been released. They collectively have less than 40,000 views on YouTube and are among the least watched content on the company’s accounts. - The Hollywood Reporter
Our tech debates do not begin by deliberating about what kind of future we want and then reasoning about which paths lead to where we want to go. Instead they go backward: we let technology drive where it may, and then after the fact we develop an “ethics of” this or that. - The New Atlantis
During a BBC profile of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, a friend of the ruler said that the painting, purchased in 2017 for $450 million, is currently in a Geneva storage facility and that MBS intends it to be the centerpiece of a Louvre-like museum to be built in Riyadh. - Euronews
