iPod hits a sour note as apps take over

"The latest sales figures for the quarter to June showed 9m sold – the lowest quarterly number since 2006. In short, the iPod, launched in October 2001, looks to be in terminal decline. While Apple is unworried – sales of its iPhone and iPad are booming – the drooping figures for the digital music player market are a concern for another sector: the music companies."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Musicians Wanted

"Many people know how hard it is to land your dream job, let alone a solid, well-paying one. Unemployment is hovering at close to 10%. There is one highly-specialized field though that has hung out the "Help Wanted" sign - major orchestras."

Read more: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/08/25/musicians-wanted/#ixzz0y8TDr9Nf

Alt-Rock Hub, Purring With Jazz

This New York Times article features the UW School of Music's Cuong Vu!

"THE atmosphere at Cafe Racer, a coffeehouse and bar in the University District here, skews distinctly postgrunge, with its scuffed floor and mismatched furniture, its thrift-store paintings on boldly colored walls. One Sunday evening this spring the place was packed mainly with teenagers and 20-somethings in T-shirts and sneakers, all listening intently to a band. Everything seemed of a piece except the music: sleek, dynamic large-group jazz, a whirl of dark-hued harmony and billowing rhythm."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Free That Tenor Sax

"For jazz fans, nothing could be more tantalizing than the excerpts made available by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem of newly discovered recordings from the 1930s and ’40s. Nearly 1,000 discs containing performances by masters like Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Billie Holiday and the long-neglected Herschel Evans suddenly re-emerged when the son of the audio engineer, William Savory, sold them to the museum."

For the full story, see the New York Times.

After Mozart’s Death, an Endless Coda

"Direct medical evidence? None. Autopsy? Not performed. Medical records? Nowhere to be found. Corpse? Disappeared.

Yet according to a recent article in an academic journal, researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Naxos founder Klaus Heymann on what lies ahead for classical recordings

"Gramophone met up with Klaus Heymann, founder of Naxos, to find out his views of the future of the classical recording business and the role Naxos will play in it."

For the full story, please see gramophone.

Seattle Symphony Plans 18 Premieres

"As tribute to Gerard Schwarz’s final season as music director, Seattle Symphony supporters Agnes Gund and Charles Simonyi have provided funding for 18 new works, all to be performed in the coming season. Given the quantity and the fact that none is titled in the announcement, they are probably short in duration; no specifics about the works are provided."

For the full story, please see Musical America.