"The current Taylor season at New York City Center ends on Sunday; it has offered a number of pieces so mysterious that I long for further disclosures. I like best of all getting to know Mr. Taylor's works by rewatching them in performance, but some are revived so seldom I don't have the chance."...

"It is easier to make the case that the music industry, far from imploding, is one of the great success stories of the recession. Last year sales of singles soared to an all-time record of 152.7m units, an astonishing 33% rise in a year when the whole economy (GDP) contracted by 3.3%. If the music pundits seriously think that these are not being bought by kids, then it shows how out of touch they are with their customers."...

The "report says that there are more than 4,000 artists on major record label rosters, with thousands more on independents. Around one in four of these artists were signed in the last 12 months. The report points out that, in the UK, record labels spend 23% of their total revenue on A&R (the average worldwide is 16%), comparing that to the pharmaceutical industry, which spends 15% on research and development."...