AUDIENCE

"Over a dozen interviews with former Ticketmaster executives, managers, economists, lawmakers, antitrust experts, fans and industry insiders, many agreed that Ticketmaster is enormous and largely unaccountable to fans. But, they said, it is also a mostly effective business with few peers capable of operating at its scale." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Adébáyò's first novel, Stay With Me, "told a closely focused story about the impact of childlessness and sickle-cell disease on the life of a young couple ... but A Spell of Good Things deals with political corruption, social injustice and domestic violence." - The Guardian (UK)

The problem illustrated a much larger issue: "According to multiple sources, the jury has repeatedly expressed concerns to both Sundance and filmmakers that movies playing at this year’s festival should come with open captions" - but many do not. - Variety

This year's box office will tell us how much theaters must go big -- and, paradoxically, shrink down -- to make it through to their next era. - CNet

"There are plenty of reasons for this, from the playlist culture spawned by streaming platforms … to the solace it provided during the pandemic. … But perhaps highest on the list is the global wave of Gen Z and young millennial classical artists." - BBC

This summer's season will have six shows, down from 11 pre-pandemic and eight in 2022. AD Nataki Garrett: "Our numbers have come in between 46 and 50 percent of people returning, which is the same return rate as most theatres across the country." - American Theatre

"Edison Research's quarterly analysis of the top genres shows Comedy continues to have the most listeners. The bigger surprise could be that despite the fall election season, the News genre lost ground. It slid back to third place (behind) the all-encompassing Society & Culture." - Inside Radio

Observing the company's worrisome slump in ticket sales and Peter Gelb's announced plans to focus more on contemporary works and reduce the number of performances (especially of revivals), Parterre Box contributor Dawn Fatale suggests further ways to get the FOMO factor working in the Met's favor again. - Parterre Box

"Museum-building in a real estate-obsessed city that Mark Twain called 'superbly beautiful' — in the sunny heart of a proud 'sporting nation' — often requires overcoming a barrage of negativity. The Sydney Opera House was loathed before it was loved, and the Modern has traveled a rough road already." - The New York Times

On the 4½-hour trip between the German capital and the Polish city of Wrocław, "passengers encounter writers, musicians, creative artists, a library and a permanent exhibition. The project was originally designed for a six-month period, but it was so successful that it was never discontinued." - Deutsche Welle

As theatres reckon with racial diversity onstage, some of them are also hiring interpreters who speak Black American Sign Language, or hiring other interpreters who align culturally and racially with productions' speaking actors. - The New York Times

Apple has new AI narrators. They're not great. "Jackson sounds like a pretty standard—if maddening—customer service line voice. ... Madison, on the other hand, sounds a little like a female version of Aiden Gillen playing American on The Wire." - LitHub

"Compared with 2013, the number of events has gone up by 2,000%, no doubt helped along in the past year by the COVID-driven rise in podcasting's popularity. … It seems the mark of success for a podcast or radio show now is whether or not it tours." - The Guardian

Today, roughly two-thirds of U.S. households pay for a cable, satellite or fiber TV subscription, down from 79% in 2017 and 85% in 2007. - Axios

Or at least that they'll buy the proceedings - cleaned up from PDF form, with introductions by politicians or allies - as a book. - NPR