FEATURE
Adobe’s New Firefly Can Create ‘Custom, Fully-Licensed’ AI Soundtracks For Video
Music Business Worldwide: Daniel Tencer
It seems every tech company in the world wants to get in on the AI-generated music craze. Just several days ago, we learned that ChatGPT and Sora maker OpenAI is planning to enter the generative AI music space, and now we have another entrant: Adobe.
RESEARCH AND OPINION
How to Make Music Popular Again
The Atlantic: Jonathan Garrett
The power of music has long been its ability to soundtrack a generation—to evoke emotion, as well as summon a specific time and place. Headphone listening not only isolates the listener; it shrinks music’s cultural footprint.
Some of the earliest written notes in western musical history discovered in Pennsylvania
The Guardian: Richard Luscombe
Researchers in Pennsylvania have uncovered what they believe are some of the earliest written notes in western musical history – on a ninth-century manuscript they say remained “hidden in plain sight” for years in the hands of a private collector.
Celebrating the ‘Founding Parent’ of Folk Studies in America
Early Music America: Anne E. Johnson
That collection, which first appeared in 1860, still influences the fields of folklore and ethnomusicology, not to mention folk music performance. And as the early-music community increasingly opens its ears to traditional music, this might be the perfect moment to spread the word about Child’s remarkable project.
Stravinsky’s reputation is in freefall
The Critic: Norman Lebrecht
Around the time I started writing about music, it was common — obligatory, in some quarters — to refer to Igor Stravinsky as the Great Composer of the Twentieth Century. Memories of the man were still fresh (he died in 1971) and his historic stature seemed secure.
This Century’s Great Composers
The Critic: Norman Lebrecht
Sometime in the 1870s, music learned that its evolution had not been organic. Rather than rising in small incremental notches like a graph on a business account, it looked more like the Himalayas — a range of half-glimpsed peaks with fertile plateaus in between. The summits were known as Great Composers, and this was the origin of the species.
A Sacred Space Where 90-Year-Old Jazz Records Reign
The New York Times: Ken Micallef
At the Hot Club of New York, patrons revisit the music’s past by spinning shellac 78 RPM discs of recordings made in the 1910s to ’50s.
NATIONAL
Kennedy Center ticket sales have plummeted since Trump takeover
Washington Post: Travis Andrews, Jeremy B. Merrill, Shelly Tan
Nearly nine months after Trump became chair of the center and more than a month into its main season, ticket sales for the Kennedy Center’s three largest performance venues are the worst they’ve been in years, according to a Washington Post analysis of ticketing data from dozens of recent shows as well as past seasons. Tens of thousands of seats have been left empty.
Nine Inch Nails Are Filling the Hole in Their Souls With Film Music
NY Times: Lindsay Zoladz
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s soundtrack for “Tron: Ares” is their first under their acclaimed band’s name. These days, the project “feels vital and exciting again.”
NY Philharmonic & Los Angeles Philharmonic to Present Important Premieres of ‘El Canto de las Manos’
OperaWire: David Salazar
The New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic are set to present important premieres of the documentary “El Canto de las Manos,” directed by actress and filmmaker María Valverde.
Pittsburgh Opera to Present ‘Fellow Travelers’ for the First Time
OperaWire: Francisco Salazar
Pittsburgh Opera is set to present its first-ever performances of “Fellow Travelers.” The work is based on the acclaimed novel by Thomas Mallon, which also inspired the Paramount+ Limited TV Series of the same name.
Stefan Jackiw joins the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings faculty
The Strad
US violinist Stefan Jackiw will join the faculty of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University’s School of Music in Macon, Georgia, US, as a distinguished artist. He will begin the role in the autumn of 2026. Jackiw will join artistic director Amy Schwartz Moretti in co-teaching the center’s violin studio.
INTERNATIONAL
20 Opera Companies Join Forces to Launch UK Opera Association
OperaWire: David Salazar
The 20 opera companies will aim to serve as the collective voice for the UK’s opera community. The association will also attempt to expand audiences, support creative and technical skills development, and ensure the art form continues to evolve and contribute to the nation’s cultural life.
‘Heartbreak’ as Essen Philharmonic cancels premiere performance of violin concerto
The Strad
Carolin Widmann’s premiere performance of Clara Iannotta’s concerto for detuned violin, orchestra and electronics has been cancelled after the orchestra allegedly voted not to perform the work.
Banff Competition winners begin year-long residency at Caramoor Center
The Strad
The Poiesis Quartet begins a year-long residency at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, NY, fresh from the group’s victory at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet competition where it won the Grand Prize and a cash award of CAD25,000 (£13,400), as well as a string of concert dates.
17-year-old violinist wins the 58th Premio Paganini International Competition
The Strad
The 17-year-old Chinese violinist Aozhe Zhang has been named the winner of the 58th edition of the Premio Paganini International Competition. He wins €30,000, a series of concert engagements and the opportunity to record his debut album with the label Platoon.
Doctors in Montreal can now prescribe their patients tickets to the orchestra
CBC: Sheena Goodyear
The Montreal Symphony Orchestra has teamed up with a national physicians’ organization to develop a new program that allows doctors to prescribe their patients free tickets to shows.
Obituary: Bulgarian violinist Petar Deltchev (1949–2025)
The Strad
Twice a laureate at the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition, the violinist died aged 75
ENTREPRENUERSHIP & BUSINESS
OpenAI, Valued At $500bn, Reportedly Working On Generative AI Music Tool
Music Business Worldwide: Daniel Tencer
OpenAI, the $500 billion-valued company behind ChatGPT and the Sora AI video creation tool, is planning to enter the generative AI music space.
Australia Rejects Proposal That Would Have Exempted AI Training From Copyright Laws
Music Business Worldwide: Daniel Tencer
Australia’s creative community breathed a collective sigh of relief on Monday (October 27) when the government announced it would not be pursuing a plan to give AI developers an exemption to copyright laws.
Spotify Is Sponsor Of Contemporary Black Music Category At Music Business UK Awards
Music Business Worldwide
This year’s Music Business UK Awards are now just days away (11 to be precise), and Spotify has now been confirmed as returning sponsor of the Contemporary Black Music category.
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Itzhak Perlman Wasn’t Sure About Doing ‘Schindler’s List’
The New York Times: Kathryn Shattuck
“I foolishly said that I’d think about if I wanted to do it,” the violinist said. “And Toby, my wife, said, ‘Are you out of your mind? You’re going to think about it?’ So I called back.”
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