Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The For-Profit Companies Trying To Disrupt The Classical Music Experience
Live-events company Fever is one such disruptor. Founded by Ignacio Bachiller Ströhlein, a McKinsey & Company alum, and Francisco Hein, creator of city guide Secret Media...
Study: Here Are The Entertainment Industry Jobs Most At Risk With AI
A study surveying 300 leaders across the entertainment industry reports that three-fourths of respondents indicated that AI tools supported the elimination, reduction or consolidation of jobs...
The Real Problem With American Universities
The 4,000 or so degree-granting institutions of higher learning in America don’t tend to operate like businesses, which must adapt or die. Instead, a...
Why Some People Have Difficulty Accepting New Ideas
“For a long time, creativity research has focused on how do you generate new ideas? What’s the secret sauce? I think that that’s not...
“Rhapsody in Blue” Is Kitsch? Consider The Bigger Context?
To consider Gershwin’s work declassé, kitschy, corny and/or inflated, chastising it for sinful appropriation or for outshining worthier works, seems to me to miss...
Universal Music Threatens To Pull Music Off TikTok. Here’s Universal’s Statement
Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music. - Universal Music
“We Were Duped!”: Movie Audiences Shocked To Learn They Were Watching Musicals
“A lot of people who are walking out of musicals and loving them may not even know that it was a musical,” said Paul Dergarabedian,...
Rebellion At The Royal Society Of Literature
Set up under the patronage of George IV to “reward literary merit and excite literary talent”, the society still has royal sponsorship from Queen...
Hundreds Of Immersive Art Experiences Are Changing The Art World
Outernet in December announced that it recorded 6.25 million visitors in its first year of operation, while the British Museum attracted 5.83 million visitors...
Two Years After Pandemic, Toronto’s Theatre Scene On Verge Of Collapse?
Unless there's a turnaround in the sector, arts leaders who spoke with the Star say the once-thriving sector in Toronto — one of the...
Boston Lyric Opera Names A New Director
Nina Yoshida Nelsen, a mezzo-soprano and the cofounder of the Asian Opera Alliance, joined the company as an artistic adviser in 2021. She becomes...
Here Is The State Of The World’s 7000 Languages
Across the 7,168 living languages today, 43% are at risk of being endangered. - Visual Capitalist
San Francisco Ballet’s New Director On Keeping Dance Relevant To Audiences
She’d like to involve the audience, sharing extracts or work-in-progress and getting feedback, like a TV pilot or test screening in film. “We’re competing...
Miami English — A New American Dialect
The new parlance is a Spanish-influenced dialect of English being spoken in Southern Florida, a lingo-infusion born out of decades of immigration from Spanish-speaking...
Spotify’s Audiobook Service Takes Off After Launch
With the addition of Spotify, the audiobook sector grew by 28 percent in that period, the company said. Using figures provided by Spotify, Bookstat...
US States Rethink How To Teach Reading
Dozens of cities and states across America are overhauling the way their schools teach reading — attempting to close gaps exacerbated by the pandemic....
Is Our Worry About AI Making Art Based On An Outdated Notion?
Is it possible, then, that we so fiercely police the distinction between what Large Language Models can do and human creativity because we’re… touchy...
The Sleepy US Copyright Office Is Suddenly Very Popular
The office has suddenly found itself in the spotlight. Lobbyists for Microsoft, Google, and the music and news industries have asked to meet. Thousands of...
Painting Stolen Fifty Years Ago By New Jersey Mobsters Returned To Owner
"The Schoolmistress," a painting by notable artist John Opie around 1784, was taken from the home of Francis Wood, 96, in Newark in 1969....
Late Frank Lloyd Wright House Modeled On Guggenheim Sells For Under-Asking Price
A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in the town of New Canaan, Connecticut, has sold for $6 million—25 percent below its asking price—to an undisclosed...
Is AI An Existential Threat To The Music Business Or The Thing That Will...
The industry is facing yet another revolution, but what sort isn’t yet clear. Is A.I. a format change in the way music is consumed,...
Worries About AI Deepfakes Changing The Past
History can be a powerful tool for manipulation and malfeasance. The same generative A.I. that can fake current events can also fake past ones....
There Are Times Language Seems So Inadequate
Orwell contended that language had become corrupt and debased in his time, but the survival of his examples into the present contradicts him, suggesting...
Classical Music Concerts By Candlelight Is Having A Moment
Candlelight Concerts aren’t about digital projections, but are about curating and customizing full experiences. And that’s striking a major chord. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Paper Tickets Are Being Replaced By QR Codes. We’re Losing Something
Even now, after mask and vaccine card protocols have abated, most theatergoers rely upon proof of purchase displayed on a screen. Will call is...