A Way For Unknown Musicians To Make Money

“Music website Last.fm launched a revolutionary new programme yesterday to ensure unsigned bands will receive the same royalty privileges as those signed to major labels. The site, which currently streams over 3.5m songs, is encouraging unsigned bands to join their Artist Royalty Program (ARP), allowing them to accrue royalties every time one of their tracks is played.”

Key To Popular Literary Success? Literary Tourism

“While saying what constitutes a literary novel is hard enough, identifying what makes one a big popular hit is even harder. Novelists and publishers fantasise about international success to match Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong, or Louis De Bernieres’ Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. That trio seem to back up Martyn Goff’s belief a literary best-seller needs to transport the reader to a remote time or place.”

Acropolis Museum To Display Parthenon Marble Replicas

“After years of discussions, the museum has now decided how it will present the marbles. The originals are being displayed alongside plaster casts of the pieces removed from Greece, most of which are in the British Museum in London. An earlier plan was to place gauze curtains in front of the casts, to make it obvious they are not originals. The museum has now opted for a simpler solution.”

Lincoln Center’s Biggest-Ever Gift

David H. Koch, recently “called the wealthiest resident of New York City, has agreed to contribute $100 million toward the renovation of the New York State Theater, which is home to the two companies. His gift will be the largest private capital donation in Lincoln Center’s history and a triumph in a period of growing economic uncertainty.”

Chicago Blues Singing The… Well, You Know

The blues may be one of America’s most venerated musical traditions, but there’s considerable evidence that the genre is in trouble. “Its fan base is aging, key blues haunts have shuttered, and some of its up-and-coming musicians are struggling. Nowhere is the decline more evident than in Chicago, arguably the city that made the genre famous.”