“BBC Scotland has been accused by an influential culture watchdog of dumbing down, with too much football, listener phone-ins and poor presenters high on the list of complaints about its £180m a year output. In an unprecedented move which is certain to embarrass corporation bosses, members of the Saltire Society are to debate the state of the national broadcaster this week.” The society “was established in the 1930s to safeguard Scotland’s arts, literature, music, history and environment.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Missing From A&R: Female Execs
“Women buy roughly half of all CDs sold, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, and most radio formats target women as their primary audience. Yet, according to the A&R Registry, a directory of professionals in the field, no woman runs the mainstream music A&R department at any major record label. Over the last decade, only two women have helmed A&R pop departments at major labels. The department is the heartbeat of any record company; these talent scouts discover and develop the acts that people hear on the radio and whose CDs they buy.”
Domingo Wonders Aloud: How Long Will I Sing?
Tan Dun’s “The First Emperor,” Placido Domingo’s first world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, comes at a highly productive time in the legendary tenor’s career. “But Domingo, despite an almost unrivaled longevity, also knows that the end will come someday. … ‘Right now for me it’s a mystery of how long I’m going to sing,’ ” he said. ” ‘I have about three or four new operas I will still be doing. It’s exciting. But I’m 65 now; I’ll be very surprised if I will be singing opera when I’m 70. Perhaps I’ll do concerts, but I don’t think operas.’ “