No sooner did I reveal what Lang Lang is forbidden to talk about on live radio than Sony Corp launched a new music streaming system in Europe to challenge Apple on a new front. It’s called Qriocity and, like most gimmicks with silly names, it is unlikely to last long.

Bloomberg thought the timing and the marketing were both wrong. The main purpose of the European launch seems to be keeping the war with Apple alive until one side or other comes up with a killer app.

What this tribal skirmish means for Sony’s artist slaves is stricter discipline. Two radio producers have contacted me to say that not only is Lang Lang prevented from mentioning i-Pads and other Apple products, but presenters who interview him live on air are required to give a prior undertaking that they will not mention Apple devices in their questions.

If I am asked to agree to such self-censorship I will refuse. I urge others to join me. This may help keep Sony artists off air until the company comes to its senses. Sorry about that, Yo Yo.

No sooner did I reveal what Lang Lang is forbidden to talk about on live radio than Sony Corp launched a new music streaming system in Europe to challenge Apple on a new front. It’s called Qriocity and, like most gimmicks with silly names, it is unlikely to last long.

Bloomberg thought the timing and the marketing were both wrong. The main purpose of the European launch seems to be keeping the war with Apple alive until one side or other comes up with a killer app.

What this tribal skirmish means for Sony’s artist slaves is stricter discipline. Two radio producers have contacted me to say that not only is Lang Lang prevented from mentioning i-Pads and other Apple products, but presenters who interview him live on air are required to give a prior undertaking that they will not mention Apple devices in their questions.

If I am asked to agree to such self-censorship I will refuse. I urge others to join me. This may help keep Sony artists off air until the company comes to its senses. Sorry about that, Yo Yo.

Some time during the long summer, I bumped into Lang Lang in a radio studio and took a moment to congratulate him on his techno-comm skills. Lang Lang and his works can be found on every medium of electronic transmission invented up to and including last Thursday. He is tweeted, facebooked, i-Googled, B&N-ded and, in all likelihood, apped on an abacus. He has a brilliant website, updated 24/7.

There is one item, however, that he cannot touch. ‘I can talk about all the new ways of spreading music,’ he said, ‘but I can’t mention the i-Pad on air or in the press.’

‘Why ever not?’

‘Sony…’ he shrugged.

Stands to reason. The Japanese corporation paid $3 million earlier this year to detach the Chinese star from his long-standing connection to Universal Music and is now in a position to call the shots. Sony has developed its own handbook Reader, a rival to Apple’s triumphant i-Pad. If you’re a Sony artist, you don’t talk about a competitor’s products.

Lang Lang looked a bit uncomfortable about this and I was tempted momentarily to ask if he kept an i-Pad under plain covers. It seems a shame to restrict an artist from using whatever he needs and talking about it wherever he pleases. But then that’s what happens when you take the golden hello.

The corporation owns you body and soul.

And you jump when the men in suits say so.

.

Some time during the long summer, I bumped into Lang Lang in a radio studio and took a moment to congratulate him on his techno-comm skills. Lang Lang and his works can be found on every medium of electronic transmission invented up to and including last Thursday. He is tweeted, facebooked, i-Googled, B&N-ded and, in all likelihood, apped on an abacus. He has a brilliant website, updated 24/7.

There is one item, however, that he cannot touch. ‘I can talk about all the new ways of spreading music,’ he said, ‘but I can’t mention the i-Pad on air or in the press.’

‘Why ever not?’

‘Sony…’ he shrugged.

Stands to reason. The Japanese corporation paid $3 million earlier this year to detach the Chinese star from his long-standing connection to Universal Music and is now in a position to call the shots. Sony has developed its own handbook Reader, a rival to Apple’s triumphant i-Pad. If you’re a Sony artist, you don’t talk about a competitor’s products.

Lang Lang looked a bit uncomfortable about this and I was tempted momentarily to ask if he kept an i-Pad under plain covers. It seems a shame to restrict an artist from using whatever he needs and talking about it wherever he pleases. But then that’s what happens when you take the golden hello.

The corporation owns you body and soul.

And you jump when the men in suits say so.

.

The opera singer who suffered agent abuse in last week’s leaked email has left Universal Music to join Jack Maistroianni at IMG. Two more singers are talking of quitting Universal, leaving the corporation’s agency wing in a parlous state ahead of an impending merger.

When artists leave, finances take a big hit. ‘That’s £300,000 ($465,000) in commissions going out the door,’ said one insider when Joyce DiDonato’s agent, Simon Goldstone, took her and 19 others out of wobbly IMG to the medium-sized London firm, Intermusica. An even bigger sum went walkies when Gustavo Dudamel switched agencies – twice this year, so far.

These shifts, usually infrequent, are happening now on an almost weekly basis. They are a sign that the classical music business is in total flux, morphing beyond recognition.

More to come.

The opera singer who suffered agent abuse in last week’s leaked email has left Universal Music to join Jack Maistroianni at IMG. Two more singers are talking of quitting Universal, leaving the corporation’s agency wing in a parlous state ahead of an impending merger.

When artists leave, finances take a big hit. ‘That’s £300,000 ($465,000) in commissions going out the door,’ said one insider when Joyce DiDonato’s agent, Simon Goldstone, took her and 19 others out of wobbly IMG to the medium-sized London firm, Intermusica. An even bigger sum went walkies when Gustavo Dudamel switched agencies – twice this year, so far.

These shifts, usually infrequent, are happening now on an almost weekly basis. They are a sign that the classical music business is in total flux, morphing beyond recognition.

More to come.