Rachel Billington thinks it’s great that children are excited about reading Harry Potter. But what comes after that? In orevious generations, “there was no aggressive marketing to switch us in the direction of a particular book. Finding a book was an adventure that involved real choice. The question for modern parents is how to build on the popularity of a smallish range of exceedingly popular contemporary children’s books and lead their goggle-eyed offspring to wider shores.”
Tag: 11.21.03
Donald Gordon, Philanthropist From Out Of Nowhere
Last week, as if out of nowhere, Donald Gordon gave 20 million to be shared equally between the Royal Opera House and the Wales Millennium Centre. But why? “In the UK, Gordon is not known as a philanthropist. He has given money to Sadler’s Wells, Shakespeare’s Globe and the British Museum, but, he says, these donations were a matter of ‘a few thousand’ and he can’t remember what they were for. So why this unexpected and extraordinary gesture? ‘For the past few years, my major diversion has been the performing arts. Now I am hoping to make the transition from what they call tycoon to opera appreciator’.”
Hamburg’s Pullback From Contemporary Music
German conductor Ingo Metzmacher is quitting as music director of Hamburg, and the move is seen as a pulling away oif commitment to contemporary music. “Just as William Forsythe took Frankfurt to the cutting edge of dance, so Metzmacher turned Hamburg into one of the most musically progressive cities in Europe. He introduced avant-garde 20th-century works into his concert programmes and scrapped the traditional New Year’s Eve performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in favour of a hugely successful series of concerts entitled Who’s Afraid of 20th-Century Music? Under his control, the Opera developed an international reputation for its radical redefinition of opera as hard-hitting music theatre.”
Video Games Helping To Sell Music
“Video games are proving to be a good partner for a struggling industry eager to find new ways to appeal to young people who would rather pirate music off the Internet than pay for it. Million-selling games are boosting sales, launching musical careers, and persuading skittish record executives that not all technology is bad for business.”
Clear Channel To Offer Instant Recordings Of Live Concerts
Clear Channel Communications, America’s largest concert presenter is getting set to sell recordings of live concerts to the fans who just paid to see the concert as soon as the show is finished. “It is almost an impulse buy. You walk home with a memento of the concert. You had a great feeling coming out of it and, for $20, you can put it on again anytime you want.”