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MUSIC

BMG Music Earned $1 Billion In 2024, Spent $263 Million On Buying Catalogs

BMG generated EUR €963 million (USD $1.04bn) in annual revenues in 2024, up 6.4% YoY or up 8.1% YoY on an organic basis. - Music Business Worldwide

Pianist András Schiff On Cancelling All His U.S. Engagements

“What has been lost is a sense of decency. It’s a new system of values or rather of a lack of values. We no longer seem to know what is right or wrong. For example, being a liar used to be considered a vice.” - Classical Voice North America

Trump Signs Executive Order On Concert Tickets

The order directs the Federal Trade Commission to more rigorously enforce existing law governing the use of bots that help scalpers scoop up hot tickets, including by issuing fines. Trump said the FTC, along with the Treasury and Justice departments, will deliver a report within 180 days summarizing what they have done. - The Wall Street Journal

Former Director Of Santa Fe Opera Arrested For Soliciting Minors

Charles MacKay, who was general director of the summer company from 2008-2018, was arrested in March in Powell, Wyoming after having allegedly solicited two teenagers for sex. - Santa Fe New Mexican

Canada’s Juno Awards Celebrates Canadian Music, Takes Digs At US

Michael Bublé handed Canadians a heartfelt dose of patriotism at the Juno Awards on Sunday, setting the tone for a night of not-so-subtle references to Canada's current tensions with the United States. - CBC

A Rising Star Conductor Makes Her Met Debut

Joana Mallwitz “did not come from a musical family. Her talent on the piano at home in Hildesheim was quickly apparent, but for three hours each afternoon she was banned from touching it and sent to play in the garden instead.” - The New York Times

Canada’s Classical And Jazz Juno Awards Include A Win For Inuk Opera Soprano

"Deantha Edmunds was the 2025 winner of the Classical Composition of the Year Juno Award. Her project Angmalukisaa (the Inuktitut word for ‘round') was part on the album Alikeness with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra.” - Classic 107.

Lucy Dacus Says She Has No Desire To Sing A Song Written By AI

The indie star says, “You want a shortcut to art? You want to have made a product, you don’t want the internal process. … It breaks my heart that some people would forgo the chance to actually get to know what they have to say.” - The Guardian (UK)

Wigmore Hall, London’s Legendary Classical Venue, Has Raised Millions In Private Funding

As a matter of fact, it’s raised enough to get the heck out of Arts Council England a year earlier than planned during “an uncertain public environment for classical music in the UK.” - The Guardian (UK)

This Dinosaur Choir Might Tell Us How At Least One Of The Giants Sounded

And it’s a cool instrument too: “In effect, the user’s breath becomes the dinosaur’s breath. The result is not the roar that we hear in the movies, but something that sounds more like a deep wail.” - Wired

Keeping The Traditions Of Gullah Music Alive

A look at who’s preserving, and who’s updating, the music sung by generations of African-Americans in the South Carolina Lowcountry, from a cappella groups like Ann Caldwell and The Magnolia Singers who keep things traditional to the updates of the two-time Grammy-winning band Ranky Tanky. - The Post and Courier (Charleston)

Court Rules That Music Created By AI Can’t Be Copyrighted. But This Doesn’t Settle The Issue

“Based on the fundamental principles of copyright, the current state of fast-evolving technology, and the information received… the Copyright Office concludes that existing legal doctrines are adequate and appropriate to resolve questions of copyrightability." - MusicRadar

Music Publishers Lose AI Ruling In Court

A federal court in California denied an injunction sought by music publishers in their copyright case against Anthropic on Tuesday. The injunction would’ve barred the AI company from using song lyrics to train the AI models that power its chatbot Claude. - Gizmodo

“Crippling” Red Tape: London’s Wigmore Hall Gives Up On Arts Council England Funding

“Wigmore Hall currently receives £344,000 of public money a year from (ACE), but will stop taking the funding from 2026. Director John Gilhooly said: ‘The current policy is just too onerous, and they seem to have no interest in what's happening on the stage, (or) in the great artists of the world.’” - BBC

Opera Theatre Of St. Louis Is Purchasing Real Estate For A New Opera House

The company has announced that it’s under contract to buy the former headquarters of the Caleres shoe company in the suburb of Clayton. If the sale is completed following due diligence, OTSL expects to demolish the building and construct a purpose-built opera venue. - St. Louis Magazine

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