A sobering thought from the Economist:
Of 8.7 million different tacks that sold at least one copy (last year), 96 percent sold fewer than 100 copies and 40 percent – 3.5 million tracks – were purchased just once.
(This) does not include the many songs on offer that have never sold a single copy,
Spotify said in 2013 that of its 20-million song catalogue at the time, 80 percent had been played – in other words the remaining four million songs had generated no interest at all.
The head of the German Cultural Council, Olaf Zimmermann, has said that artists’ freedom of movement will be impaired by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
He specified three key areas of damage. If EU artists will need a visa to live in London, that will inhibit cultural exchanges. Collaborations between museums, arts centres and theatres will suffer.
And once the UK is no longer part of the European Union, the withdrawal of EU funding programs will kill off many joint projects in the future.
If these predictions are fulfilled, London will return to pre-War provincialism.
Granada’s International Festival of Music and Dance has appointed Pablo Heras-Casado its next director, starting this September. It’s his home town.
Heras-Casado is Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York and Principal Guest Conductor of Teatro Real of Madrid.
From a tour promo interview with Classic FM, a reality check from the Estonian conductor.
‘The first thing any young musician should ask themselves is: do they want to be in this profession and are they aware of what they’re getting into?
‘The reason most musicians end up being musicians is because they love music, because they’re attached to their instrument. But “do you want to spend your life doing this?” is not very often asked. People don’t think about the realities of playing in an orchestra or, as a pianist, practising hours on end in a practice room. And it’s not necessarily something everyone is happy to do.
‘So I think the piece of advice is to make sure we want to do it, because it is a great, great art, but sometimes it can be quite complicated professionally.’
Decca has pulled together choristers from more than 50 cathedrals into the world’s first sacramental supergrouop.
Watch.
Stephen Sykes, 26, from Shepton Mallet in Somerset, is dying from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He needs a stem-cell transplant to save his life.
He’s appealing online for donors. Brass players throughout the country are taking a swab to see if they might be a match.
Can you help?
Click here for how to.
Le Figaro reports the death of Maurice Vander, French jazz pianist and composer. He was 87.
Cook now with Met mezzo Daniela Mack.
Matt Ponio, 26, admits that ‘a lot of my income comes from piano turning.’
But his work for a college mentor on a Steve Reich recording, where the instruments needed retuning for every session, earned Matt a winner’s citation at this month’s Grammy awards.
Next ambition? To be a fulltime record engineer.
Read on here.
Marisa Cazanave, 33, a married teacher at the upmarket Brooklyn Technical high school has left her job after being found to have exchanged compromising messages with a teenaged male student.
Ms Cazanave, who was in charge of choral training, has denied inappropriate conduct and will not face criminal charges.
An investigation found that she and the boy spoke 145 times on the pone between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Repoort here.
