Even as many independent bookstores have gone out of business in recent years, the remaining indies still play an important role beyond the sheer number of titles they push out the door. “The best marketing for books remains word-of-mouth passion, and often the first mouths to send the word with fervor are the independent bookstores, particularly for literary fiction and literary nonfiction.” – New York Times
Tag: 05.25.00
I-PUBLISHING
- Some day in the not too distant future, books will be published electronically first, then if they’re good enough – make that popular enough – they’ll see the traditional printed page. “The best of the best will be published as e-books first and then possibly make it into print.” – Wired
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
A long-lost opera with music by Mozart will receive its first European performance this weekend in London. “The Philosophers Stone,” discovered in a library by an American musicologist four years ago, was co-composed by Mozart and three peers in 1790. “Contrary to the popular image reinforced by Peter Schaffer’s 1979 play “Amadeus,” “The Philosopher’s Stone” shows that Mozart was happy to work with other composers.” – BBC
MUSIC MARATHON
BBC Music Live – Britain’s largest music festival ever – gets under way this week. The five-day event includes a 24-hour broadcast music marathon and a call for an “instrument amnesty” – an appeal for people to donate unused instruments to the UK school system’s many underfunded music programs. – BBC
REMEMBERING RAMPAL:
No other flutist did as much for the instrument as Jean-Pierre Rampal, who died earlier this week. – Boston Globe
THE NUMBERS ARE IN
College students are downloading music from the internet rather than buying it. A new study shows that “sales of recorded music near college campuses declined by 4 percent between the first three months of 1998 and the same period this year. Sales at all stores went up 12 percent during the same time. “This demonstrates the importance of protecting artists’ rights on the Internet.” – Washington Post (AP)
THE DEBATE RAGES ON
A four-line amendment to the copyright law inserted into a Congressional bill last year has incited a passionate debate between musicians and recording companies over ownership of recordings. The amendment added sound recordings as a category of copyrighted materials that can be considered “work made for hire,” a term usually reserved for collective works, like movies, that are commissioned by studios. “U.S. recording artists are the most unprotected segment of the entire world of copyright.” – New York Times
SHE’S A DIVA
Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu – who first made her name at Covent Garden in 1994 in La Traviata – has been winning over opera fans ever since. “At a time when opera houses are in thrall to cost-cutting initiatives, she offers a glimpse of a previous era when passion and glamour were written into a diva’s job description.” – The Telegraph (UK)
REMEMBERING RAMPAL
No other flutist did as much for the instrument as Jean-Pierre Rampal, who died earlier this week. – Boston Globe
BY THE SKIN OF HIS BOOK
A Canadian author has found a bizarre way to put his all into his latest book. Portions of Kenneth J. Harvey’s flesh, containing his DNA, will be embedded in small, pink swatches of paper stitched on to the cover of an abridged edition of his 11th book, “Skin Hound (There Are No Words)”, a book whose protagonist is a serial-killing English professor with a penchant for cutting away his victim’s skin. – National Post (Canada)