The U.S. recorded music business has been in steep decline over the past decade. Compared to ten years ago, U.S. recorded music sales (in 2009 dollars per capita) in 1999 ($71) was nearly three times greater than the corresponding figure ($26) in 2009. In gross nominal terms, music sales declined 46% from 2000 to 2009. … Continue reading artists and performers outperforming sound recordings
An image of women in rich, classical dress singing by candlelight from sheets of music was featured on the cover of the Thomas A. Edison, Inc.’ 1915 catalog for Edison Diamond Disc Phonographs. The cover has a gold decorative pattern like that of a lavish Persian manuscript. The mechanical reproduction of music thus made a … Continue reading mechanical reproduction of music
The U.S. printed sheet music business was mass media, continued to grow in value through 1929, and generates about $1.7 billion in wholesale revenue today. … Read the post print music in different media worlds
With many economies heading into a depression, government-organized economic stimulus packages are attracting widespread attention. Stimulation is imperative for encouraging gross national output. But governments alone cannot provide sufficient stimulation. And life is more than just economics. Perceptive observers and highly experienced persons report that stimulus packages come in many shapes, forms, and sizes. Uninformed … Continue reading musical stimulus package
Most humans and at least one parrot like to dance. That involves extracting the tempo from a song and projecting that tempo onto a regular pattern of non-sound-generating movement. That projection occurs at a low cortical level of perception-action cycles. Projection works in the opposite direction, too. Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray’s Argument to Beethoven’s … Continue reading musical cross-modal couplings