Music Industry News
Students at Northwestern University have successfully protested the suspension of the school's jazz studies program. The saavy students also used the Internet to please their cause, and Northwestern's School of Music has hired Victor Goines, of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, to run the resurrected jazz program. Goines also created the jazz studies program at the Juilliard School of Music.
Local community members are pointing to the First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale's annual Christmas Pageant as an example of the commercialization of religion. The pageant, which has been produced annually since 1984, has grown to rival Las Vegas and Broadway productions with a $1.3 million price tag.
Broadway producers are getting into the subscription business. In an effort to capitalize on patrons, such as opera and orchestra-goers, who are used to buying tickets for an entire season at once, some Broadway producers are bucking the model of selling one ticket at a time and are now offering subscriptions to multiple theater productions as a package.
Recording
Nokia has launched the Nokia Music Store in hopes to compete with Apple's iPod. To that end, they have reached a deal with Universal Music to deliver free access to their library for a one-year period under their "Comes with Music" program. Nokia users will also be able to listen to Internet radio stations on their phones, either through cellular or Wi-Fi connections.
A coalition of music unions, the RIAA, the Recording Academy, and other organizations are lobbying for changes to the copyright system. The musicFIRST Coalition is pushing for the creation of a law that would require radio stations to pay royalties to all performers, as well as recording labels, when their performances are broadcast. Satellite, Internet, and Cable radio, as well as terrestrial radio in Europe and Canada, already have this requirement. Broadcasters counter that they are providing valuable exposure for musicians that generates record and ticket sales and that paying royalties would be a devastating burden.
Warner Music fourth-quarter profits have fallen 58 percent, from $12 million to $5 million. Digital sales accounted for 15 percent of revenue, and Warner is increasingly looking for new sources of revenue from areas such as touring, merchandising, and artist management.
Music budgets for films have dropped from 2.5 percent of the overall budget to just around 1.5 percent. The decline is attributed to the end of big title songs, lack of interest in soundtrack albums, and an unwillingness of studios to shoulder collateral expenses. Even big-name composers such as James Horner and Hans Zimmer are being forced to work for lower fees than they had previously received, according to Variety Magazine.
Symphony
Musicians of the Florida Orchestra have ratified a new 3-year agreement. The new contract reduces the season length by four weeks and base pay will fall nearly ten percent to $27,450. Pay will increase to just over their previous rate in the third year of the contract. The orchestra size will also be reduced from 80 musicians to 75 through attrition. The Orchestra's $11 million budget has been difficult to sustain with significant declines in subscription revenue and public funding, and the Orchestra has already eliminated five management positions.
Thirty-two members of the Prince William Symphony Orchestra (Virginia) have resigned in protest of the firing of a 16-year veteran of the orchestra. According to musicians, the individual was fired over a minor incident and without due process. Musicians are also protesting the demotion of Music Director Carl Long to Principal Conductor and the combining of the positions of Music Director and Executive Director into one position, and Executive Music Director, to be filled by current and recently-appointed Executive Director David Montgomery.
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