As the Cincinnati Symphony begins negotiations for a new contract with its musicians this summer, nearly every part of the ensemble’s budget is facing possible cuts. The orchestra ran a $411,000 deficit last year, and would have faced a $1.8 mil shortfall this year, but for a last-minute donation. Among the options being considered to close the gap are the elimination of a popular holiday series, a move to online publication for some informational materials, and the possible cancellation of a street music festival that the CSO had sponsored. It’s a fair bet that the orchestra management is seeking concessions from the musicians at the bargaining table, as well.
Tag: 07.22.04
How iPods Could Fail
Lost amid all the hype surrounding the iPod and its copycats is the fact that, despite the obvious consumer interest in digital music, no one audio file format has yet emerged as the industry standard. Songs downloaded in iPod’s format, for instance, cannot be played on Sony’s player. More importantly, with a few major media companies (like Sony) controlling the majority of the available product, Apple is running a significant risk of having the iPod become the new Betamax if its format doesn’t become the standard, and soon.
Flamenco Legend Dies
“The world of flamenco lost part of its soul this week with the death of Antonio Gades, who died in Madrid at the age of 67 after a long battle with cancer.” A lifelong Communist, Gades claimed to view dance not as a vocation or an art, but as a means to overcome the societal oppression and poverty into which he was born.
RSC Won’t Demolish Theater
The Royal Shakespeare Company has abandoned its plans to demolish its theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon as part of a major renovation project. The 72-year-old Royal Shakespeare Theatre had been slated for possible demolition under the RSC’s initial plan, but public opposition convinced the company to backpedal.
The Law That Could Kill New Ideas
“The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a bill Thursday that would hold technology companies liable for any product they make that encourages people to steal copyright materials. Critics say the bill would effectively outlaw peer-to-peer networks and prohibit the development of new technologies, including devices like the iPod.”
Pumping Up Stratford And Shaw
Ontario’s Shaw and Stratford Festivals have been hit hard by a decline in tourism in the past two years, what with SARS and a surging Canadian dollar. So the Ontario government is stepping in to help, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in promotional assistance.
The Cole Porter Effect
Though he’s been dead for 40 years, Cole Porter has continued to have a huge influemce on music. “In a sense, Porter has never been away, though his reputation rests mainly on songs he wrote between the late 1920s and late 1940s, and he died in 1964 at age 73. He’s remained an icon in cabaret music and gay culture by virtue of both his music and his glamorous, if contradictory, lifestyle.”
Books, Books, Books! Everywhere! (Too Many?)
A new study says America is reading less. But the number of books being published is soaring. “In a market where people are reading less, not more, there are 20 books published every hour in the day, every day. Why the outpouring of books? For some reason, everybody thinks they can write a book, and book publishing seems glamorous to them. But there’s no way the market can absorb all those books.”
Big Bucks In Piracy
Pirated music is now a $4.5 billion industry each year says the International Federation of Phonographic Industries. “It is estimated 35% of all CDs sold in the world are pirate copies.”
Is It Art? Or Is It A Copy? (Is There A Difference?)
“Scanners, computer-aided design software and automated milling devices are assisting sculptors and in some cases replacing them, creating detailed pieces from slabs of marble and reverse-engineering complex forms. The result is the seemingly oxymoronic concept of mass customization, in which infinite copies of infinite variations are possible as long as there is stone to quarry. But the harnessing of these granite-grinding Xerox machines, able to duplicate just about any sculpture, may also blur the line between what is authentic and what is not. Is such a sculpture art, or merely a computer-aided copy?”