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Date: | Sat, 28 Aug 1999 06:42:35 -0500 |
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John Deacon writes:
>There is a soprano the demands of whom I know to have resulted in virtually
>bringing about the end of her recording career (and there are very few
>concert appearances). When a royalty **advance** is set at a level that
>obliterates **for all time** the possibility of making the recording then
>the recording simply never gets made. You notice that I'm not even talking
>about recording costs!!
If she really wants to record, then she'll lower her fees or find some
other fee structure, as Klaus Heynman has done with his performers. I
don't disagree with John's assessment, but I don't see this as an
unmitigated evil, either.
>I don't call that "a market place." A market place is where trading takes
>place on terms acceptable to both parties. Lebrecht is right that this all
>too common problem exists and should, in theory, be corrected in the course
>of time by "the market" but there's no evidence yet of it even beginning to
>turn.
You've just given an example of something that shows the market has begun
to turn: the soprano's price has closed down her recording career. She's
not getting what she asks for. Either she will stop recording altogether
or she will ask for something else.
>Finally the abusive language of Steve Schwartz does nothing for him or
>Mr.Lebrecht although I think he should contain himself as you never know
>who is reading the List.
Fortunately, my career - computer stuff - lies beyond Lebrecht's gaze.
>I have one observation to make about Lebrecht's
>publications and that is that when I read something he says that I know
>(from the inside) to be correct I find myself wondering why I am believing
>the rest! When he came to writing about the head of a certain artist
>management company in NY, then I believed every word!
Boswell once said of an 18th-century literary forger that at least he was
right half the time. Dr. Johnson replied something to the effect that
unfortunately, you never knew which half to believe.
Steve Schwartz
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