Arts & Entertainment: Industry News
Art
An art industry boom? Yahoo reports that, despite unrest in the financial markets, the art industry appears to be doing quite well. Experts say the market's robustness is due to "the weak dollar, expanding world wealth and new buyers from countries not previously associated with the art collecting community." /// Jeanne Claire van Ryzin at the Statesman has released her "Best of 2007" for Austin's art scene.Film
Fox and iTunes will sign a deal allowing customers to rent movies on iTunes. This is not a new thing, but Fox has a few new differentiation points in its contract with iTunes that could stir up the film industry if successful. Read on for details... /// The Golden Globes may not be broadcast on television next month. It may not even go down at all, due to vows of picketing outside the event by the Writers' Guild of America (WGA). Thousands of stars, filmmakers and party planners are beginning to balk on the event due to the confusion caused by the ongoing WGA labor strike.
Books
The New York Sun touts "Wolves of the Crescent Moon" by Saudi author Yousef Al-Mohaimeed as the "first great Saudi novel." Saudi Arabia has long been viewed by the publishing world as infertile ground due to heavy-handed government censorship policies. /// UT's Harry Ransom Center plans to open its Norman Mailer archives to the public in early 2008. Most of the material (it's a lot) is made up of drafts of Mailer's books, plays, screenplays, poems, speeches and journal contributions.
Music
According to Pollstar, the U.S. concert industry just had a bad year. According to Pollstar's data, the top 20 world tours in 2007 grossed $996 million, 15.6% lower than 2006 year-end figures. This makes 2007 the worst financial year for the U.S. concert industry since 2004. /// The last of the Big Four record companies, Warner Music Group (WMG), has jumped on the digital music train by selling DRM-free digital tracks through Amazon MP3, Amazon's answer to iTunes. WMG is the last of the major record companies to commit to dumping the controversial anti-piracy model, summoning DRM to its death throes at long last. At least, for now (Sony BMG might still backtrack on its promise to dump DRM in 2008). WMG's move conveniently comes right before Amazon's scheduled billion-MP3 giveaway promotion effort during the Super Bowl.
