Were Reports of Classical's Death Premature?

Were Reports of Classical's Death Premature?

Over the last several weeks, one newspaper after another has made note of Nielsen Soundscan's 2006 point-of-purchase data, which showed classical record sales up 22.5%, making it the "fastest growing" category for the year. Hip-hop was down (-20.7%), R&B was down (-18.4%), alternative was down (-9.2%), jazz was down (-8.3%)&mdash;soundtracks were up (+19%), but everybody dismissed that, attributing it to the dominance of a single title, <I>High School Musical</I>.

Internet Radio Buh-Bye?

Internet Radio Buh-Bye?

On March 2, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) published a <A HREF="http://www.loc.gov/crb/proceedings/2005-1/rates-terms2005-1.pdf">"Deter… of Rates and Terms,"</A> which announced an artist and recording company royalty fee structure for Internet radio based upon a "per song" structure. As it so happens, that was the model proposed by <A HREF="http://www.soundexchange.com/">SoundExchange</A&gt;, a digital fee collection agency founded by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Something great is happening...

Hola,

I met a person at work whose son is a 15 year old violin player.

He's in the local high school (public school) orchestra and had an iPod full of classical tunes.

He is an avid file sharer (apologies to the industry) via one of those internet places teenagers go, and has almost a thousand classical music "friends" in that community.

They compare past and current performances of loads of classical pieces, and discuss and argue about which ones are better!

SXSW I

SXSW I

So I'm sitting in traffic on MOPAC, the north/south expressway in Austin, listening to Willie Nile sing "Streets of New York," a tune that can be thought of as his "Jungleland" from his latest album, <I>Streets of New York</I>, on the CD player of my rented Jeep Liberty.

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