The latest issue of Commentary magazine contains a very interesting article
by Terry Teachout entitled "What Killed Classical Recording".  Teachout
contends that the pattern of the last 40 years---the international style in
(especially orchestral) performance, the star system with its outlandish,
astronomical compensation rates at the top, the endless duplication of
standard chestnuts---all of this is the direct creation of the marketing
practises of the record majors:  RCA (now BMG), Columbia (now Sony), EMI,
and Polygram.  He further contends these corporate entities have, in
typical fashion, milked dry their market, and that profitability has
been draining out of this way of doing classical music record business.

There is a silver lining.  He believes that the future for recorded
classical music lies with independent labels which violate the old rules,
like Naxos; AND with new modes of distribution using the Internet, perhaps
like the one imagined in Karl Miller's latest post.  In the near future, he
expects the classical divisions of the big record distributors, and maybe
their retail outlets, to march with Don Giovanni into the underworld.
Tower Music's present convulsions may, on this analysis, be the beginning
of death throes.

Jon Gallant  (alias  Dr. Phage)  [[log in to unmask]]