advertisement
FYI

Forget AI, Musicians Need To Be Scared Of ...Cats!

God knows, it's hard earning a living as a musician these days–but who could have guessed an uneducated feline, who can't tell the difference between a bass clef and a crochet, now threatens to toss a fleet of pianists in the doghouse.

Forget AI, Musicians Need To Be Scared Of ...Cats!

By David Farrell

It’s not an easy life being a professional musician today.


The clubs and live spaces that once peppered the landscape like confetti at a wedding are now fewer and fewer, and the pay has gone from decent to indecently little.

Worse, the new AI frontier promises to suspend a  score of composers and a quiver of lyricists–and now comes a new threat to working musicians. An uneducated feline, who can't tell the difference between a bass clef and a crochet who threatens to toss a fleet of pianists in the doghouse.

It's enough to make one quaver.

advertisement

Meet Nora, a sassy, uneducated grimalkin whose paws can cattivate an orchestra. Talented? You decide, but this fluff piece can't read music or compose a tune, and we're guessing she works for scale. That's fish scales, by the way.

advertisement
Val Blavatnik
Courtesy WMG

Val Blavatnik

Business News

Val Blavatnik to Oversee Warner Music Canada in New Role at Warner Music Group

Blavatnik will oversee Warner Music Canada as managing director of Warner Music North America, U.K. and Corporate Development at WMG. As part of a slew of executive announcements, Simon Robson will be leaving the company, while Alejandro Duque takes the top international role.

Val Blavatnik, the 28-year-old son of Warner Music Group majority owner and vice chairman Len Blavatnik, has been named managing director of Warner Music North America, U.K. and Corporate Development at the Warner Music Group, the company announced Friday (Sept. 25). In his new role the younger Blavatnik, who has held several roles at the company in recent years, and has been a board member since 2023, expects to “unify and drive business and operational strategy across these markets while guiding the company’s investment strategy to support growth,” according to a press release.

The Blavatnik announcement is part of a flurry of new executive announcements that CEO Robert Kyncl made this morning. In addition, Atlantic Music Group chairman/CEO Elliot Grainge will take on ADA in the U.S. as its new chairman, while Alejandro Duque, who has held the dual roles of president of Warner Latin and president of ADA since last July, has been named president of Warner Music International, adding Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa under his oversight. (Duque will continue to oversee ADA outside the U.S.) Zach Friedman, currently COO at Atlantic Music Group, will add the title of vice chair of ADA U.S. to his resume.

keep readingShow less
advertisement