Month: April 2018

Online streaming services such Spotify and Apple Music have become the recording industry’s single biggest revenue source, overtaking physical sales of CDs and digital downloads for the first time, a trade group said on Tuesday.

The rapid growth in streaming music services in recent years has led to a recovery in the fortunes of the global recorded music industry, which enjoyed its third year of positive revenue growth, according to a report by industry body IFPI.

Figures released in IFPIs Global Music Report 2018 show total recording music revenues for 2017 rose to $17.3 billion, up 8.1 percent from the previous year.

Improving finances have led to a tentative re-evaluation of the music industry by stock market investors, who had shied away from the struggling media category for much of the past decade due to a wave of piracy by users and major technology shifts.

Just in the past month, streaming music subscription leader Spotify of Sweden held a record-setting public stock offering. France’s Vivendi, the owner of Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest music label, said last week it was mulling an IPO.

Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), which attracts three-quarters of China’s booming music streaming market, has been reported by The Wall Street Journal to be eyeing a listing later in 2018. TME is controlled by internet giant Tencent .

Industry leaders say the growing adoption of paid music streaming services is enabling the market to reach new regions of the world while helping weaning a generation of music fans away from free or pirated music.

“We estimate that only half the worlds population lives in a thriving music environment and we want to bring the streaming revolution to all of it,” Stu Bergen, from Warner Music Group, told reporters in London.

During the 15 years ending in 2014, music sales plunged by 40 percent to $14.3 billion after music file-sharing services such as Napster ravaged sales of CDs while the rise of download services like Apple iTunes failed to offset those declines.

IFPI – The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry – charts the recent recovery to the rise of streaming music. It said there were 176 million users of paid streaming subscription services in 2017.

Streaming subscriptions in 2017 accounted for 38 percent of recorded music revenue, up from 29 percent in 2016. The streaming business expanded 41 percent, offsetting a 5 percent decline in physical sales and a 20 percent drop in download revenue.

Despite these improving finances, revenues for 2017 are still only 68.4 percent of the markets peak in 1999, IFPI said.

Latin America and China saw the biggest market growth, with a rise in overall music revenue of 17.7 percent and 35.3 percent respectively. The United States, Japan, Germany, Britain and France are the world’s top five music markets by revenue. Brazil ranked No.9 and China was No.10 in 2017, IFPI said.

IFPI renewed calls for governments to tackle the “value gap” between the value created by some digital platforms such as Google’s YouTube for their use of music and what they pay those creating and investing in it. Rival Facebook has been gearing to launch its own music video sharing service.

“Things are looking good but there’s a structural fault in the system. Until we fix it, it will always be a struggle, said IFPI Chief Executive Frances Moore.

Ed Sheeran ranked as the top global recording artist overtaking Drake, who slipped to No. 2 and Taylor Swift who ranked third, according to the IFPI.
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Although Migmar Tsering crossed the border into India when he was just six-years-old, he remained closely connected to his Tibetan culture and language at the school for Tibetan refugees in the hill town of Mussoorie where he studied.

Now as principal of TCV Day School Samyeling in the Indian capital, 29-year-old Tsering, and his staff ensure that the more than 100 children of Tibetan refugees enrolled here imbibe Tibetan culture just as he did.

“They advise [the children] about Tibetan situation not related with political  we have beautiful country, we have good language, we have a good identity, we have good religion,” he said.

Led by teachers dressed in the Tibetan traditional dress, the chuba, young kids learn to write the script and chant nursery rhymes translated in Tibetan.  And the noisy chatter as they run around and play is in their native language.

Amid fears that six decades of Chinese rule has resulted in Tibetan traditions being lost and its culture being assimilated into Chinese, the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama has frequently stressed the need to safeguard Tibetan culture. And as the Tibetan Exile Administration marks 60 years since the Dalai Lama fled to India, analysts say this goal has met with more success than the political struggle to gain autonomy for Tibet.

The heart of that effort is about 70 schools run by the Tibetan exile administration in India, which is home to the world’s largest Tibetan refugee community. After the Dalai Lama fled to India following the 1959 failed uprising against Chinese rule, New Delhi allowed the setting up of separate Tibetan settlements and schools where a third generation of Tibetan refugees now study.

These schools emphasize learning in Tibetan until grade three. Teacher Sonam Choedon at the Tibetan school in the Indian capital points out that Beijing has sharply scaled back the teaching of languages spoken by ethnic minorities.

“In Tibet, now Tibetan language, Chinese they are suppressing, even in class they are not allowed to talk in Tibetan,” she said. “So to preserve our language here in exile, especially in school, everything we try to convert in Tibetan only.”

All subjects from science to math and environmental studies are taught in Tibetan in the junior classes. A reading room is not just stacked with books translated into Tibetan  children sit on the floor to peruse the books placed on low desks in keeping with Tibetan tradition. In an adjoining room, young girls and boys play music on traditional Tibetan instruments.

“With the unparalleled support from India we have from the ashes of destruction revived Tibetan civilization, rebuilt Tibetan Buddhism, revived Tibetan culture, and preserved and promote Tibetan identity in India,” Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of the Tibetan exile administration, said recently at a “Thank You India” event held to observe 60 years of the Dalai Lama’s arrival in India.

The effort has made its mark. In Majnu-ka-Tilla, the Tibetan settlement where the New Delhi school is located, prayer flags are strung across a central square, maroon-robed monks light candles inside a Buddhist temple, old and young come to turn a prayer wheel and Tibetan food is commonly available. Nearby Tibetan handicrafts made by those who know the craft are sold.

However challenges lie ahead as a younger generation growing up in India gets restless and many look for opportunities overseas where Tibetans are more dispersed. The number of refugees coming to India has also slowed to a trickle.  

Still hopes are high in the Tibetan exile community that those educated and brought up in India will carry the Tibetan influence and tradition with them outside.

Twenty-three-year-old Tenzin Dekong migrated to Australia in 2014 with her family. In India recently on holiday, she said she misses the Tibetan ambience in communities like Majnu-ka-Tilla. But the culture she assimilated as she grew up and studied in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, remains strongly with her.

“I am very sad that I can’t see Tibet, but through the elder stories and through our teachers, when we learn Tibetan subjects we learn a lot of histories and I do really feel very connected with Tibetan cultures and I do have some imagination how Tibet looks like surrounded by all mountains, all the monastery,” she said.

At his most recent appearance at the event to mark his 60 years in India, the Dalai Lama again stressed the importance of saving Tibetan culture. “We are not demanding separation from China but the Tibetan people should have the autonomy to preserve their culture, language, environment and religion,” he said.

And many like principal Tsering, hope one day to carry the cultural roots they are so carefully nurturing in India to the homeland they fled or never saw. “We have truth, one day we go back to Tibet, I just believe that,” he said.
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Antonio Banderas, who shares his birthplace with Pablo Picasso, decided it finally was time to portray his hometown hero. But he leaves it to viewers of National Geographic’s drama series “Genius: Picasso” to reconcile the artist’s revelatory work with his treatment of the women who helped inspire it.

The actor had passed on two other chances to play Picasso, intimidated by the prospect of playing the man he calls a “huge figure” from their shared birthplace of Malaga, Spain. Learning more about the titan of 20th-century painting, who died in 1973 at age 91, made the mature Banderas cautious for other reasons.

“I started realizing he was not just complicated but mysterious, because of what he did as an artist and because of his life. There were so many opinions of him, some of them good and some bad, his behavior with art and with women and his friends,” Banderas said.

But he was impressed by the first season of “Genius” from executive producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, with Geoffrey Rush playing Albert Einstein, and decided this was the time to take Picasso’s complex story and paintbrushes in hand, literally.

“I wanted to be familiar with all the tools, brushes and oils and acrylics and everything. I bought canvasses and starting painting” to prepare for the role, he said, although he counts himself only a dedicated novice.

Howard said he had no reservations that Banderas the actor, if not painter, was up to the task in the 10-part series that debuted at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

“It took us a while to settle on Picasso as the next ‘Genius,’ but once we did Antonio’s name was immediately thrown into the mix, and everyone agreed he would be perfect for the role,” Howard said. “He put in an incredible amount of work to bring the artist to life on-screen and I think he has delivered an exceptional performance that we’re all very proud of.”

A convincingly prosthetics-aged Banderas plays Picasso in his later years, with Alex Rich as the youthful artist. Those co-starring as Picasso’s lovers and muses are Samantha Colley as photographer Dora Maar; Poppy Delevingne as Marie-Therese Walter, and Clemence Poesy as the artist Francoise Gilot, now 96, who left him after a decade and two children.

It was Gilot who, in her 1964 memoir, quoted Picasso as saying, “For me, there are only two kinds of women — goddesses and doormats.” A Paris Review column about a 2017 exhibition of Picasso artwork and memorabilia related to his daughter Maya (born to mistress Walter during his marriage to first wife Olga Khokhlova) was headlined: “How Picasso Bled the Women in His Life for Art.”

Picasso married second wife Jacqueline Roque when he was 79 and she was 27, and they remained together until his death, with Roque his inspiration for that prolific final period. Banderas said that much of Picasso’s work was deeply intertwined with the women who shared his life.

“When he was upset with Dora Maar, for example, you could tell how he painted her. He kind of made her a monster,” he said. “Without those women around him, the pieces of Picasso, it would be a completely different story.”

His relationships didn’t always start or stop cleanly, the actor said, and there was “something of them that always was kept in the soul of Picasso.”

The artist’s colleagues had reason to be wary of his brilliance: They would hide their own works from him because they knew he could improve on whatever style he saw, Banderas said. There is also a cloudy chapter in which Picasso refuses to sign a petition to save French poet Max Jacob (played by T.R. Knight) from a Nazi internment camp, claiming it would hurt his close friend’s cause. Jacob died in the camp in 1944.

How an artist’s conduct influences the perception of his art, or its acceptance, has particular currency, with the careers of some top creative lights derailed or sullied by a range of alleged sexual misconduct. In Picasso’s case, women were willing partners and research uncovered no evidence of physical abuse, said Banderas.

But there was betrayal and abandonment.

“I don’t think the goal of the show is to celebrate someone,” executive producer Ken Biller told TV critics. “The goal of the show is to explore a very complex, complicated individual and all of the people around him. This is the stuff of drama. We are not sugarcoating Picasso.”

How did Banderas weigh Picasso’s genius against his character?

“I don’t want to be the morality judge, because that can be difficult to do. We can do that from our time. But if we go back in time, how can you do that for a man born in 1881,” Banderas said. “The audience has the opportunity to go in one direction or another as we tell the story. But me, as an interpreter, I shouldn’t do it. I shouldn’t do it.”
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A rare 6th century mosaic depicting the St. Andrew that was taken from a looted church in the Cyprus’ breakaway north has been returned after four decades, the head of the island nation’s Orthodox Christian Church said Monday.

Archbishop Chrysostomos II said that the artistry that went into the mosaic coupled with its rarity made the work a symbol of Cyprus’ “stolen heritage.”

It is among only a handful of mosaics to have survived a period during the 8th and 9th centuries when many Orthodox icons were destroyed.

The mosaic showing a bearded St. Andrew — among Christ’s first Apostles — was one of several that went missing from the Church of Panayia Kanakaria after Cyprus split into ethnic Greek and Turkish sides in 1974.

A Turkish art dealer, Aydin Dikmen, was arrested a quarter-century later for selling that piece and others from Kanakaria Church, as well as artworks from other churches.

Most of the Kanakaria Church mosaics have now been repatriated with the exception of one of St. Luke.

London-based Greek Cypriot art dealer Maria Paphiti located the St. Andrew mosaic in 2014 after another dealer asked her to verify the origin. When the dealer was informed that the mosaic belonged to the Cyprus Church, he agreed to return it as long as his expenses were covered.

Paphiti reached out to Greek Cypriot businessmen Roys Poyiadjis and Andreas Pittas for help covering the cost of the mosaic’s repatriation, which came to 50,000 euros ($61,200.)

Archbishop Chrysostomos honored the three of them Monday during a ceremony at Cyprus Church headquarters.

Cyprus hosts a second mosaic of the same rarity and time period depicting the Virgin Mary. A third resides in the Orthodox monastery of Saint Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai.
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The United Arab Emirates will finance a $50.4 million project to rebuild Mosul’s Grand al-Nuri Mosque, famous for its eight-century-old leaning minaret, that was blown up by Islamic State militants last year, the United Nations said Monday.

Reconstruction and restoration of the mosque and al-Hadba minaret will be in partnership with the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, Iraq’s culture ministry and the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Dubai’s media office said in a Twitter post.

Islamic State demolished the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, which dated to the 12th century, in the final weeks of the U.S.-backed Iraqi campaign that ousted the jihadists from Mosul, their de facto capital in Iraq, last July.

The protracted and fierce urban warfare largely reduced the historic landmarks of Iraq’s second city to rubble.

Paris-based UNESCO said the project would take at least five years, with the first 12 months focused on clearing districts of debris. Other sites including historic gardens will be rebuilt, and the plan includes the building of a memorial and museum.

Mosul needs at least $2 billion of reconstruction aid, which would unblock streets and rebuild destroyed homes among other things, according to Iraqi government estimates. About 700,000 of Mosul’s population, estimated at 2 million before Islamic State seized the city in 2014, is displaced.

It was from the medieval mosque in mid-2014 that Islamic State’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a self-styled “caliphate” spanning parts of Syria and Iraq that the jihadists had overrun in a shock offensive.

The mosque was named after Nuruddin al Zanki, a noble who fought the early crusaders from a fiefdom that covered territory in modern-day Turkey, Syria and Iraq. It was built in 1172-73, shortly before his death, and housed an Islamic school.

By the time renowned mediaeval traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta visited two centuries later, the minaret was leaning.

The tilt gave the landmark its popular name — the Hunchback.

The minaret was composed of seven bands of decorative brickwork in complex geometric patterns that have also been found in Iran and Central Asia.
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Mel Brooks is just two months shy of his 92nd birthday and he still carves out time for movie nights with his pal Carl Reiner. The two just recently got together to watch a restoration of the 1938 Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland classic “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”

Classic film and proper presentation are important to the legendary comedian and filmmaker, especially in the age of streaming. This week, Brooks will be on hand to kick off the ninth annual TCM Classic Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theater Thursday night in Hollywood with a special screening of the first film he ever directed: “The Producers.”

Brooks spoke to The Associated Press about the film, streaming and even “The Last Jedi.” Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Congratulations on this new restoration of “The Producers.”

BROOKS: I’m very thrilled. TCM, these are people I really admire and I love them and God bless them for keeping all the movies that I grew up with still alive, still available. I don’t think anybody else does it, or does it as well. When they said they wanted to open their festival with the 50th anniversary of “The Producers,” I got very excited.

AP: The film has only grown in esteem too. Why do you think it’s endured?

BROOKS: Oh it’s very simple and it sounds a little egotistical, but it’s because it’s very good. The only test — real test — it’s not critics. It’s never critics. The only test is whether a movie is still around after 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years and in this case 50 years. So, you know, I know, it must be a good movie or no one would care about it 50 years later.

AP: And Martin Scorsese will be there on opening night too to get the Robert Osborne Award.

BROOKS: He was gracious enough to give me my lifetime achievement trophy at the American Film Institute. I love Marty Scorsese. As a matter of fact, this is a true story, when I was in pre-production on “The Producers,” this is a true story and he will never admit it but he and Harvey Keitel were two little ragamuffins who for some reason followed me around when we were in pre-production 50 years ago. I think they were putting together a movie called “Mean Streets” or something. It was pretty weird. But I really admire him. I admire not only his outrageous talent, “Raging Bull” is magnificent, but I admire his love and dedication to the art of movies. He’s really one of the great moviemakers of our time.

AP: Like Scorsese, you also have an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema.

BROOKS: Yeah well I’m old, that’s the secret. The secret is I’ve lived a long time. There’s a lot of people who love film. I’ve been around, so there isn’t a movie you could name that either I or Carl Reiner couldn’t give you a chapter or verse on.

AP: Do you keep up with current movies? Do you get out to the theater or watch them at home?

BROOKS: I don’t like to watch movies at home. I don’t like to watch movies on TV. I really like going to the theater. I like the community experience, especially if it’s a comedy. I like being in the dark and being transported into different worlds, it’s very important to me. And now there’s a thing that’s replaced it. It’s called streaming. I’m afraid to make another movie because I don’t want it to be seen by millions of people on a telephone. Comedies must be seen by at least 100 people in some kind of theater. It’s really heartbreaking to me. You know, movies are still good. Acting is still good. Directing is still good. Writing is still good. It’s where they’re seen that just really gets me.

AP: Is it a little bittersweet to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of “The Producers” without Gene Wilder and (composer) John Morris?

BROOKS: Yeah. It’s heart-rending but it’s what it is. And I’m glad that there will be a lot of young people in the audience who will actually understand it. I kind of understand “The Last Jedi.” I kind of understand it. There were two or three battle scenes, two big fights where I don’t really know who’s fighting and why they’re fighting, you know? But thank God for “The Empire Strikes Back” because I have something I can refer to. So I know some of the names. I know Han Solo. I know some of the names. But I don’t know why they’re fighting, I don’t really know.

I have a grandson, he’s 13 and he knows all the names. He says to me things like, “If you’ve gone to Jakku you’ve gone too far.” And I say well, “What is Jakku?” and he said, “Well it’s a planet.” I really don’t know these planets anymore. Jakku. Ok. But it’s all right. I’m catching up. Young people like big wild future fights. Fighting in the future. I kind of like it too. It’s better than fighting at 47th and Broadway, you know? Two guys get out of a car? Yeah, future fights are much better than two guys in a car. Anyway, you’ve got to ask me two more questions because I’ve got more things I’ve got to get done today.

AP: Well, I’ll keep it to one big one. What sort of impact do you think you’ve had on American comedy?

BROOKS: One never really sees themselves in relationship to the wide world. It’s rather impossible to judge your impact on moviegoers, your impact on people who like your films or who like your television. It’s serious. When they tell me, I’m glad to hear it, but frankly I’ve got to tell you honestly, I walk past the mirror and I say that’s a cute old guy. I don’t think it’s me! I’m not a cute old guy. I’m still 35, you know? We really can’t see ourselves and judge ourselves in relation to other people.
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Russian soccer teams FC Mordovia and FC Zenit-Izhevsk tested a new football stadium on Saturday, April 21. The Mordovia Arena in the Russian City of Saransk will be one of 12 hosts for the FIFA World Cup this summer. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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Janet Jackson is extending her uber-successful tour with more shows.

The pop icon says her State of the World Tour, which originally wrapped in December, will kick off new dates July 11 in Austin, Texas. Dates have also been added in Rogers, Arkansas; Cincinnati; Syracuse, New York; Hersey, Pennsylvania; Saratoga Springs, New York; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Raleigh; Charlotte; Miami; and Tampa.

Tickets for the new dates go on sale Tuesday.

Jackson’s State of the World Tour, which toured United States and Canada, was a critically acclaimed success.

The singer will also play a number of music festivals this summer, including Essence, FYF, Panorama and Outside Lands.
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