“Direct-to-fan,” everyone called it, the idea that if the bond between artist and fan is strong enough, the fan will gladly pay for access, for premium content, for the sense of a less-anonymous relationship with the artist and the process. Direct-to-fan, by this way of thinking, is the new driver of revenue in the face of the fact that recordings are, now, little more than promotional material. It is, in other words, patronage.
Tag: 05.05.11
Arthur Laurents, 93, Playwright And Director
He was an “irascible, enduring Man of the Theatre who wrote plays and screenplays and enjoyed a significant career as a director – but who made his lasting mark as the librettist to two landmark musicals, West Side Story and Gypsy.”
Why Did Humans Develop Reasoning Skills?
In a new paper, two cognitive scientists argue that humans “actually didn’t evolve to help us find the truth; it evolved to help us make, win, and evaluate arguments.”
Who’ll Rescue The Stalled Orlando Performing Arts Center? The Board, Probably
“A group of deep-pocketed board members has tentatively agreed to personally guarantee loans to cover the $16 million funding gap that has stalled construction of the Dr. P. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.”
The Solution To Orchestras’ Troubles? There Isn’t (Just) One
Anne Midgette: “The problem with orchestras as an institution is that they can create the illusion that art can be institutionalized, when in fact it remains as individual as the people who create it. If you have a visionary, charismatic music director, you’re going to do better than if you have one who isn’t charismatic, however great his ideas are. If you have a terrible board, … the best artistic agenda in the world isn’t going to pull you out of the hole.”
Even Children’s Lit Suffers From Gender Bias
“Babar, Peter Rabbit, Curious George … conspiracy? All of these animals, after all, are male and all are protagonists in some of the most popular children’s books of the 20th century.” A new study finds that “there has been a bias toward male characters – men, boys and, yes, animals – in children’s literature over the last century.”
How The CUNY Board Misunderstood Tony Kushner
Ben Brantley: “Mr. Kushner is a writer of rare intellectual scope and reading in both art and politics. But these assets would mean very little without the extraordinary, active empathy that pervades every one of his plays, extended even to those who would not appear to be his allies.”
Timothy Leary Lives! Researchers Look To Psychedelic Drugs For Therapeutic Benefits
“A raft of potentially therapeutic pharmaceuticals got left on the shelf in the backlash against the 1960s recreational drug explosion. Researchers are raising their own consciousness about which psychedelics might have real value.”
Landmark Frank Lloyd Wright House In L.A. To Get Windows And Roof Fixed At Last
“For its 90th birthday, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House is getting another round of rejuvenating restoration work, … [which] will make the notoriously leaky building more watertight, with new roofing for its enclosed porch and solutions to an assortment of drainage problems.”
National Ballet Of Canada Stars Decamp For London
“Two of The National Ballet of Canada’s principal dancers are leaving the company to pursue their dream of performing in England. Bridgett Zehr and Zdenek Konvalina, who danced the leads in last year’s Swan Lake, are joining London’s English National Ballet as principal dancers.”