A new study by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce has reported that college graduates with degrees in architecture, the arts, and the humanities have higher rates of unemployment. Arts degree graduates have an 11.3 percent rate of enemployment, and humanities graduates have a 9.4 percent rate, compared to the average rate of 8.9 percent. The study was based on Census Bureau data from 2009 and 2010.
Robin Gibb has composed the Titanic Requiem in memory of the 100th anniversary of the disaster. The classical work will be premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in April.
Local 802 (New York City) has begun the Justice for Jazz Artists campaign to secure pension and minimum wages for jazz artists. Musicians leafleted outside the Blue Note in Greenwich Village and are also targeting Village Vanguard, Birdland, Jazz Standard, and the Iridium. In 2005 the union worked with night clubs to lobby the state legislature to repeal sales tax on ticket sales. The tax break, averaging about $67,000 a year for each major jazz club, was passed in 2006 and the savings was supposed to be used to pay for pension and health benefits for the musicians, but by the end of 2011 none of the clubs had yet signed an agreement with Local 802 to provide those benefits.
According to Nielsen Soundscan, 4.4 million more albums were sold in 2011 than in 2010, a 1.3 percent increase. Three of four albums were purchased digitally.
The Supreme Court has ruled that copyrighted works removed from the public domain in 1994 will remain copyrighted. In 1994, Congress changed U.S. copyright law to conform with an international agreement, and thousands of works that had been in the public domain regained their copyright protection. University of Denver scholar Lawrence Golan challenged Congress' authority to remove works from the public domain, and in a 6-to-2 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the changes to copyright law.