“Analysis of an indoor concert staged by scientists in August suggests that the impact of such events on the spread of the coronavirus is ‘low to very low’ as long as organizers ensure adequate ventilation, strict hygiene protocols and limited capacity, according to the German researchers who conducted the study.” Be aware, though, that the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed. – The New York Times
Category: AUDIENCE
Prognosis For Cable TV Is Even Worse Than You Think
“It’s all over for cable. Even Nielsen is saying that 25% of television viewing time is now streaming. Samsung is saying that if you’re a smart TV owner, over 50% of viewing time is streaming. That’s a problem for the cable networks. They have to follow the audience.” – Protocol
Cable TV Is Falling Off A Cliff
They expect about 25 million U.S. households to cancel their pay-TV subscriptions over the next five years. This is on top of the 25 million homes that have already cut the cord since 2012. At least three major media companies now expect pay-TV subscriptions to stabilize around 50 million, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to speak on the record because their company plans are private. – CNBC
What Classical Music Loses In Screen Translation
The novelty of watching concerts over Zoom has worn off, and though audiences are still pleased to have anything, anything at all, to watch, the loss of physical space is real, and musicians and conductors feel it. “The absence of an audience subtracts something essential from the music as well; it becomes an unbalanced equation, an unanswered question.” – Washington Post
In Isolation, Listening To The World
You want to hear Japanese psychedelia from 1971? Johnny Hallyday and Edith Piaf? The indie music of Mexico? The internet, of course, is there for you (and for all of us). – The New York Times
The Dream Of Private Theatre Support Lives
Outdoor theatre was a risky bet in 2020, but in the Berkshires, it more than paid off. The artistic director of the Barrington Stage Company on the conversation that changed this winter’s planning: “My development director almost passed out.” – The New York Times
Online Theater Gets More Interactive
“Several months into the pandemic, performers, designers and writers are using technology … with more ingenuity. They’re skillfully adapting some of the devices honed in live performance over the years — namely, techniques to break the fourth wall and lure spectators into the show. And in the process, theater is reclaiming for these trying times its rightful status as the most intimate of art forms.” – The Washington Post
Eight Small Theaters Sue New York State And City For Right To Reopen
“The lawsuit, filed Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that the orders shutting down theaters ‘shock the conscience and interfere with plaintiffs’ deeply-rooted liberty and property rights, including the right to work, right to contract, and right to engage in commerce.’ The theaters filing suit … have 199 seats or fewer, and most of [them] are commercial operations.” – The New York Times
Seattle Chamber Music Society Says Its Online Festival Went Surprisingly Well
What, cheerful classical music news right now? Yes. Adding comments such as “filled my life with joy,” hundreds of patrons responded to a survey about the Chamber Music Society’s Virtual Summer Music Festival. The festival “rated 8.4 on a scale of 10. It brought in 389 new ticket purchasers (32% of patrons) and 92 first-time donors, many international patrons, and 300 more subscribers than usual — likely because there were no constraints on the size of the concert-hall space.” – Seattle Times
London’s Old Vic Has Sold 30,000 Live Streaming Theatre Tickets … And Counting
It’s not an archive; it’s not live in a parking lot. It’s live and socially distanced and streamed. Those 30,000 tickets have sold to people in 73 countries. But it’s not perfect, especially for the directors and performers. “There’s no immediate response, no sense of connection, nor is there an opportunity to go out and have a drink or something to eat. Everybody just goes home, individually. It emphasizes the isolation and the loneliness and the grimness of this whole thing.” – The New York Times