Another Ratified Contract

The 9/20/08 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an article by Andrew Druckenbrod which examines a recently ratified three year long collective bargaining agreement (CBA) at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO). Although the agreement’s minutia is not yet available, the article touches on the most prominent issues such as contract length and base pay…

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Fun With Acousticians

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending an open house celebration/20th anniversary for the Talaske acoustician firm. Along with many fine projects, Talaske is the firm responsible for the Grant Park’s Jay Pritzker Music Pavilion and ground-breaking sound reinforcement system. The crew at Talaske (along with building co-owners, The Sachem Company) threw a great party. It was fun touring the historically significant renovated building and cutting-edge acoustic testing facilities, not to mention chatting up the entire Talaske team. 

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It Appears Streaming Is Beneficial

Yesterday’s poll on whether or not an on-demand, subscription based model for streaming online classical music would provide any benefits for classical music aficionados produced some intriguing results. The poll was prompted by a statement from online music retailer Passionato.com’s Director of Marketing & Business Development, Europe where he claimed that “a subscription model may be effective for sites offering a broader range of genres, it wouldn’t provide any benefits for classical music aficionados.”

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I STILL Don’t Want To Buy Your Damn Music!

On 9/12/2008 the UK outlet for tech guru cnet.com published a review by Nate Lanxon of the new online digital music retailer, Passionato.com. The article lavishes praise on what amounts to a an online retail site that, compared to iTunes, simply provides more information about classical music recordings and an additional download format beyond standard MP3 (but only for selected recordings).

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