IMC MUSIC WORLD NEWS  
  The weekly music news bulletin of the International Music Council
Produced by the International Music Council with the collaboration of the Music Council of Australia  Published with the support of the UNESCO Culture sector
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CONTENTS. Music World News is divided into these sections. Scroll through or, if you wish, click on one of the sections to be taken straight to those stories.

Music the artform and artists
Music the industry
Policy, research and politics
Music education
Technologies and media
The rest

 Posted: 20-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Make a joyful noise unto the creator
A Catholic priest has another life as a grand patron and commissioner of Australian contemporary music, writes Steve Meacham.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

 Posted: 20-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ and assorted cousins
The recent Broadway production of Moisés Kaufman’s play “33 Variations” brought widespread attention to one of Beethoven’s most esoteric and colossal works, the “Diabelli” Variations.
Source: The New York Times

 Posted: 22-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Is polka dying? After Grammy slight, fans wonder
To polka devotees, the news came like a slap in the face: After 24 years, the Grammy Awards were dropping the music as a stand-alone category.
Source: Chicago Tribune

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Neil Young: don't be in denial
At age sixty-four, the artist born Neil Percival Young shows no signs of slowing down or growing old gracefully.
Source: Examiner

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Intimate letters
Of all the European composers born in the 1850s — Elgar, d'Indy, Humperdinck, Puccini — Janacek proved to have the most relevance to modernity.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Thoughts on China's audience
"One thing I expected to find in China but didn't seem to encounter were huge audiences eager to hear Western music." Many who did attend seemed new to concert-going. Pre-concert announcements "included not only the familiar exhortation to turn off cell phones, but instructions about how many movements each piece had, and how the audience should uphold the country's good image (or something along those lines) by not clapping in the wrong places."
Source: The Washington Post

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Elixir of youth
It's been nearly 30 years since New York's art-punk heroes first blew the minds of music fans - and they're far from flagging.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Muslim voices, western ears
There's no doubt that the 10-day Muslim Voices festival staged around New York City that ended featured some highly superior expressions of Muslim culture past and present -or, one should say, expressions of culture from Islamic countries, because the organizers did not intend the festival to provide a coherent impression of what constitutes Muslim culture. Indeed, they explicitly intended the reverse. Americans have a monolithic, negative and superficial view of Islam that the festival was meant to correct, the organizers repeatedly said and wrote.
Source: The Wall Street Journal

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Iran to hold Music and Nature festival
Iran's Mazandaran Province is set to hold the 'Music and Nature' festival in the ancient castle of Kanglou on Savadkouh Mount.
Source: Press TV

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Old friends take fans back in time
More than 40 years ago musical duo Simon and Garfunkel first sang "how terribly strange to be 70", on their Bookends album.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
Music Day celebrated in 4 big Spanish cities
Source: Yahoo (EFE)

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
First-ever da capo in opera performance at the Teatro Real
Source: Yahoo (EFE)

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the artform and artists
The creator of the 'Nicaraguan sound' dies
Source: Yahoo (EFE)

 Posted: 20-06-2009Music the industry
Significance of different types of world music which can be found in music store.
There are so many music in the world. The significance of listening music is very much important. Music is food for the soul. It is also treated as panacea for the mind. Music can help in improving memory. Music continues to touch hearts the world over, irrespective of color and race. So a good and arranged music store has great significance over the mind of audience. Obviously the store should be responsible for providing different genres of world music. Now we will discuss about different genres of music.
Source: Mycontentbuilder

 Posted: 20-06-2009Music the industry
Old Hound Dogs Leiber & Stoller up to new tricks
If Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had not become two of the most influential songwriters in pop music, they could have earned a decent living as a stand-up comedy duo.
Source: Reuters

 Posted: 22-06-2009Music the industry
Top 40 faces new digital shake-up
The Top 40 is facing a shake-up as chart bosses consider incorporating songs from music streaming sites.
Source: BBC

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
Variable iTunes pricing a moneymaker for artists
Playing with pricing won't solve the music industry's biggest problem: Digital revenue is increasing too slowly to compensate for the decline of CD sales. But variable pricing will help labels bring in more money from online downloads, according to the results so far.
Source: Reuters

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
Africa: music, money and growth
The global economic crisis has hit Africa's commodity revenues and foreign investment but one of the continent's greatest resources is still neglected and even repressed: the creative talents of its songwriters, composers, and bands.
Source: Business Daily

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
Performing rights leader ASCAP joins the arts+labs coalition
Arts+Labs, a unique alliance of the technology, content and creative communities, announced that ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) has joined its coalition. ASCAP is the first and leading U.S. Performing Rights Organization representing the world's largest repertory from its more than 350,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
T-Mobile jukebox without copy protection
T Mobile is offering its customers unrestricted listening pleasure by lifting the copy protection (DRM - Digital Rights Management) on all tracks in Mobile Jukebox. After reaching agreements with three of the four major record companies and all key independent labels, customers can now choose from approximately two million DRM-free tracks for dual download to PC and mobile phone.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
Vevo and Sony music entertainment join forces for world class premium online music video service
Sony Music Entertainment (SME) has joined Universal Music Group (UMG) to create VEVO, the new premium music video and entertainment service conceived by UMG and powered by YouTube. The announcement was made today by Doug Morris, Chairman & CEO of UMG, and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, Chief Executive Officer of SME. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
Jury fines filesharer $80K/Song
A picture may be worth a thousand words. But if those words are a song put on a file-sharing network on the Internet, it's worth $80,000. That's what a Minnesota jury found yesterday in a retrial of Jammie Thomas-Rasset.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
Chilean music industry opens up to Internet distribution market
Source: Yahoo (EFE)

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
UK Music endorses new calls for a small venue exemptions
UK Music fully supports proposals made by Lord Clement-Jones on June 15th to overhaul provisions of the Licensing Act 2003 relating to live music.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music the industry
Grooveshark comments on EMI Records
Grooveshark has been in talks with EMI Records and other copyright holders to negotiate licensing agreements for the use of their content. We are pleased to announce that Grooveshark successfully concluded mutually beneficial agreements with artists, labels, and publishers that we hope to be a template for other such agreements with additional copyright holders.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 19-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
11 songs banned by Kano State Censorship Board 



A Kano chief magistrate has banned listening, sale and circulation of 11 Hausa songs, described as obscene, confrontational and immoral.
Source: Freemuse

 Posted: 19-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
First Euro-African campus on cultural cooperation at Maputo : counter the shock of civilisation
Source: Reseau Internacional Bantulink - Angola

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
Classical music has therapeutic benefit
The effect that music has on the human body could be used as an alternative form of therapy, research suggests.
Source: Nursing in practice

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
Australia moves towards accession to UNESCO convention
The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) of the Australian Parliament has reported to government on its review of the desirability of Australian accession to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
Source: Music Council of Australia

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
Bush Foundation awards $1 million to regional artists, with three earning $100,000 each for their 'enduring vision.'
The Bush Foundation announced $1 million in awards to individual artists in the region, including three $100,000 recipients of its Enduring Vision Award, designed to propel the artistic investigations of mature artists.
Source: Twincities

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
NEA reports decline in arts audiences for 2008
Audiences for the arts in the U.S. continue to decline and age at significant rates, according to a report released Monday by the National Endowment for the Arts. But the Internet holds out hope, as more people are going online to experience culture.
Source: Los Angeles Times

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
MusicFIRST asks FCC to investigate radio stations for threatening performers, refusing to run ads and misleading the public
The musicFIRST Coalition (Fairness in Radio Starting Today) filed a formal request that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigate and take action against radio stations for abusing their license to use the airwaves, a valuable public resource.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
EFF and Public Knowledge reluctantly drop lawsuit for information about ACTA
The Obama Administration's decision to support Bush-era concealment policies has forced the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge (PK) to drop their lawsuit about the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). EFF and PK had been seeking important documents about the secret intellectual property enforcement treaty that has broad implications for global privacy and innovation.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
Milan court orders website operators to forfeit more than €2.4 M for online music piracy
An Italian judge has ordered the operators of online music pirate sites to forfeit more than €2.4 million following an investigation into copyright infringement.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Policy, Research and Politics
Tougher penalties for online copyright infringement proposed as part of digital Britain package
Following the publication of the Digital Britain Report External Link yesterday, the Intellectual Property Office has outlined proposals to improve copyright licensing and increase financial penalties for online infringers.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 20-06-2009Music education
Opera troupe takes music to classrooms across Qld
A troop of travelling opera singers has been taking classical music to schools across Queensland. Hundreds of school students have been trained by the group from Opera Queensland this year.
Source: ABC

 Posted: 22-06-2009Music education
The education of a critic
I was twenty-seven years old and felt as though I had arrived. There I was at Carnegie Hall, in my first designated seat as a New York Times music writer, squirming in the then-requisite jacket and tie, trying to look neither too eager nor too self-important, waiting to hear the late Giuseppe Patanè lead the American Symphony Orchestra in works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.
Source: Opera News

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music education
Colombian charity music to kids' ears
On the roofless patio of a tiny house in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cali, Colombia, a small miracle takes place every afternoon between 2 p.m. and 5:40 p.m.
Source: Reuters

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music education
All talk, no action on arts promises
Despite all the promises in the 2020 summit, it seems the arts have again been sidelined in our schools, writes Steve Dow.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music education
A new cultural center springs to life in Harlem
The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Apollo Theater and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture lend glamour and heft to cultural life in Harlem.
Source: The New York Times

 Posted: 24-06-2009Music education
Study finds instruction in art lags in 8th Grade
Music and art instruction in American eighth-grade classrooms has remained flat over the last decade, according to a new survey by the Department of Education, and one official involved in the survey called student achievement in those subjects “mediocre.”
Source: The New York Times

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Kenya: companies risking legal action over popular music downloads
Telecommunication providers using foreign and local music as ring tones could be exposing themselves to legal action over copyright infringement.
Source: Business Daily

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
African music goes digital
Recordings of rarely heard traditional African music collected over a period of 50 years by music historian Hugh Tracey are now available to anyone on earth via the internet. The International Library of African Music (Ilam), based at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, is in the process of digitising the music, which Tracey recorded in the southern, eastern and central regions of Africa.
Source: Biz-community

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Philharmonic puts its history by the numbers online
Numbers, as in statistics. Creating a little bit of heaven for classical music geeks, the New York Philharmonic has put online an ocean of data about its concerts, dating back to the first one on Dec. 7, 1842. The Metropolitan Opera did the same four years ago, adding an archive to its Web site, metopera.org, that it says chronicles each performance in its history, starting in 1883.
Source: The New York Times

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Twitter users buy more music: report
A new NPD Group study finds that active Twitter users buy 77 percent more digital music downloads on average than non-users.
Source: Reuters

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Hey, what's that sound: Linn LM-1 Drum Computer and the Oberheim DMX
Previously dismissed as toys, drum machines soon had sticksmen running scared after the arrival of these two credible, powerful instruments in the early 80s.
Source: The Guardian (UK)

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Mackie celebrates 20 years running
Mackie announces 20 years since they first rocked the foundations of pro audio with the introduction of the CR-1604 Compact Mixer. Over the course of two decades, Mackie has released countless innovative products that have irrevocably shaped the music industry.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
CRTC extends exemption for new media and calls for a national digital strategy
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that, after a careful examination and a full process, it will maintain its approach for broadcasting content distributed over the Internet and through mobile devices.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
EFF launches TOSBack - a 'terms of service' tracker for Facebook, Google, EBay, and more
"Terms of Service" policies on websites define how Internet businesses interact with you and use your personal information. But most web users don't read these policies -- or understand that the terms are constantly changing. To track these ever-evolving documents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching "TOSBack": a "terms of service" tracker for Facebook, Google, eBay, and other major websites.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Humtoo launches revolutionary user-generated music library
Humtoo, a commercially focused online music marketplace, this week launched a new user-generated music library for musicians and content creators.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Hal Leonard and Premier Guitar team up to re-launch Guitar Edge Magazine as multimedia network
Hal Leonard Corporation, the world's largest music print publisher, and Premier Guitar, the fastest-growing guitar media company, have announced the formation of Guitar Edge LLC, a new joint venture company created to expand and enhance Guitar Edge magazine as a multimedia resource for guitarists.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Dance fabulous by Nokia to hit the charts
Dance Fabulous, published by Nokia, has been released on N-Gage. The first cross-services game by Nokia incorporates both a music and gaming experience and offers its players a new way to enjoy and listen to music.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Universal Music Group and Tapulous Partner to bring new music games to the IPhone/iPod Touch
Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, and Tapulous, Inc, have entered into an agreement to build new music games for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Source: Mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
No place to hide from the digital revolution
Over the next five years, digital technologies will become increasingly widespread across all segments of entertainment & media (E&M) as the digital migration continues to expand according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2009-2013.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009Technologies and media
Amazon.fr launches Amazon MP3 music service
Amazon.fr launched Amazon MP3 (www.amazon.fr/mp3) - the simple-to-use digital music store offering over 5.5 million DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) tracks, which will work on any MP3 player including the iPod with top-selling albums from just €2.99 and popular individual tracks from €0.49.
Source: mi2n

 Posted: 24-06-2009The rest
Algeria: country to host 2nd pan-african cultural festival
One of the best kept secrets on the African continent this year is the 2nd Pan-African Cultural Festival of Algiers, taking place in the north African country 40 years after it hosted the first one.
Source: Southern African News Features

 Posted: 24-06-2009The rest
Band's graffiti earns a spray from council
A guerilla graffiti campaign by one of the world's biggest rock bands has copped a spray from Sydney City officials.
Source: Sunday Morning Herald

 Posted: 24-06-2009The rest
Glastonbury festival weather update: Thunderstorms expected
At first we were told monsoons, then sunshine, followed by a prediction of light showers. And now? It looks like thunderstorms will kick off Glastonbury festival.
Source: The Guardian (UK)