A new era has arrived, one in which Spotify becomes profitable. I pulled numbers from Spotify’s annual reports going back 10 years and one thing stood out yet again: the falling % of cost of revenue to revenue. Cost of revenue (COR) for Spotify “consists predominantly of royalty and distribution costs related to content streaming.”…
The fantastic article on Spotify by writer Liz Pelly in Harper’s Magazine (The Ghosts in the Machine) felt like an apt summary at the end of the year. I appreciated the nuanced approach, especially since the writer makes efforts to follow and interview current working musicians on the scene, which is so often not the…
[This has been edited on 11/6/2024 to reflect the election results. This post is now a list of links to articles relating to media leading up to the election, continually updated.] The Republican sweep was decades in the making, and a win for unbridled capitalism. The markets are elated, for now. What role did the…
(This is Part I of the three-part series on music discovery. Part II is How Do We Find Music? (2025 version) and Part III is How Do We Find Music? (Outside of the U.S. version).) How do we find music? Recommendations from friends? Movies? Video games? Algorithm? Music is everywhere. But when 120,000 tracks are…
３５年来の友人、辻田希世子さんが本を出しました！希世子はヴェネツィアで、私はパリと東京で、人生の最も多感な時期を過ごしました。友達歴３５年以上。彼女の文章を読むと、あの頃の自分達を思い出します。現在は二人とも母親兼社会人としてセカンドキャリアを歩んでいますが、あの時間があって今がある。たくさん笑いましたが、限りなく切なかったことも。懐かしく思い出します。北村京子 「ヴェネツィアの家族」（社会評論社）カーニバル、お針子、映画祭、そして家族…。記憶の引き出しにしまってあった面影たちが、ある日心の扉を静かにたたく。海の都ヴェネツィアで、かつて時を共にした人たちへの追想と愛惜。喜びと哀しみが今新しくよみがえってくる。アマゾンからのご購入はこちらから。https://www.amazon.co.jp/ヴェネツィアの家族-辻田希世子/dp/4784513892 著者 辻田希世子（つじたきよこ）1965年、大阪生まれ。上智大学外国語学部比較文化学科卒業。広告代理店にてコピーライターとして働いた後、1995年、イタリアへ留学。ヴェネツィアに移住し、ライターをしながら、ヴェネツィア大学、ボローニャ大学で日本語を教える。元イタリア記者協会会員。2007 年、日本に帰国。2019 年にHP トリリンガル・マム https://trilingual-mom.com を開設、イタリアおよび英語に関するエッセーと情報を発信している。翻訳書に「くろいちょうちょ」（講談社）。
“Bridging the Gap” is Kitamura’s new project concept conceived in 2024. Kitamura has always been interested in ways to bring people of diverse backgrounds and generations together, the main reason she has continued to pursue wordless vocal music – because language, while being an important tool to communicate, can also exclude. Taking this a step…
Every so often, I hear about a label on our scene which would disappear, along with all the physical recordings. Horror stories abound, of label owners destroying CDs and LPs. Are the artists notified beforehand? Can the artists keep any of the copies about to be demolished? Unfortunately, the answer to both is often a…
Over the summer, I dusted off my rusty broadcast journalist chops and edited an 18-minute educational documentary on Anthony Braxton and his Syntactical Ghost Trance Music (SGTM). The video Introduction to Syntactical Ghost Trance Music premiered earlier this month at “ANTHONY BRAXTON: 50+ YEARS OF CREATIVE MUSIC” international conference in Darmstadt, Germany, and is now available in…
Prompt: Could you draft a press release for an upcoming CD release concert? Date: September 28, 2134 at 8PM local time. Group name: The Chitchats. Occasion: New album release. Place: The Sunrise Lounge on Lunar Outpost 261J3. Album is titled “For Those Who Aim”. This is their first release in six years. Group members are…
Updates:January 7, 2026: The case is ongoing.January 29, 2024: Mr. Rusch passed away on January 14, 2024 according to publicly-viewable Wikipedia entry.September 10, 2024: The case is ongoing as of September 10, 2024. One of the many cases we looked at in my music business course was that of Robert “Bob” Rusch who used to…