"Even though (usual venue) the Crypto.com Arena has a basketball or hockey game or a concert booked nearly every night until mid-April, enough artists and executives voiced reluctance about appearing to convince the Academy to postpone the show." - Variety
After 20-odd years singing leads at the world's top companies, Kwiecień retired from the stage in 2020 due to long-term injuries. He became artistic director at the opera house in the Polish city of Wrocław — just in time for the pandemic. - Limelight (Australia)
Buyers want way more records than the only two remaining pressing facilities in Southern California, can supply. That’s true globally, too: There aren’t enough manufacturers to meet the renewed demand, and too few workers available to run them. - Los Angeles Times
On Sunday, federal regulators put UMG’s PAC on notice, flagging the group for giving Marsha Blackburn more than the legal limit allowed in an election. - The Daily Beast
The 43-year-old native New Yorker, who just began his first season as music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, will become Generalmusikdirektor at the Komische Oper Berlin in the fall of 2023. - Broadway World
"Today, we as a church will begin the practice of collecting ‘royalties’ ... for the spirituals we sing and worship. Whenever we sing Negro spirituals. we will collect an offering that will support the development of Black musicians.” - WGBH
"Throughout the crisis, the industry has begun to construct a new narrative shaped to accommodate great artistic expression for everyone. As we rebuild our society and our economy, I'm convinced, more than ever, that participation in music is part of the solution for national recovery." - The Guardian
The deal, for more than 400 songs, also includes soundtrack music; the material for Bowie’s short-lived band Tin Machine from the late 1980s and early ’90s; and other works. - The New York Times
The Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv said she was surprised to learn she was making history after receiving the offer from the Teatro Comunale opera house in Bologna. The 43-year-old begins the three-year posting as musical director on 22 January. - The Guardian
Her work inspires articles with headlines like “Is Caroline Shaw Really the Future of Music?” and “Caroline Shaw Is Firing on All Creative Cylinders” and “Caroline Shaw Is Making Classical Cool.” - The Daily Beast
Thanks to a massive box set issued earlier this year for the 30th anniversary of Metallica’s squillion-selling self-titled 1991 album. It includes 14 versions of “Sad but True”—demos, rehearsal tapes, abandoned takes, live recordings—from the germinal itchings to the cosmic swagger of the final version. - The Atlantic
The experience of being confined in a tiny practice room with an emotionally and psychologically threatening adult is, alas, not rare for children learning musical instruments. The necessary intimacy of one-to-one lessons can be a joy or a peril. The same could not happen now. - The Guardian
More than 5m vinyl albums have been bought in the UK over the past 12 months, up 8% on sales in 2020 and the 14th consecutive year of growth since 2007. By the end of the year, vinyl will have accounted for almost one in four album purchases – the highest proportion since 1990. - The Guardian
The use of AI in music is here today, and while its contribution is still small, it will likely grow. If you take that to its logical conclusion, the question arises: Could AI create pop stars -- and Grammy award winners -- completely out of thin air? - CNET
In being asked to stand in for clubs, concert halls, and festivals so frequently these last two years, recordings are still being asked to do an awful lot, far too much. Have they succeeded? Probably not, but I wouldn’t advise Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit to bet against it. - Arts Fuse
