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As AI reshapes how people discover culture and specialist journalism disappears, we explore why human expertise and meaningful connections matter more than ever.

Bachtrack is currently operating under a tsunami of robot traffic. Here’s the story from the inside of what the cyber-criminals are doing and how we’ve been fighting them.

A new report, The State of the Arts, highlights the challenges faced by policymakers. We address three key questions that should underpin their response.

In March, 15 months after they faced a storm of protest after cuts to UK opera, Arts Council England published Let’s Create: Opera and Music Theatre Analysis. It’s an eye-poppingly poor piece of work.

Based on extensive research from 300 UK performing arts organisations, a new report, Tomorrow’s Audience, has found that more people than ever before booked arts and cultural events in 2023.

With written journalism now overwhelmingly viewed online, we argue that its real regulation comes not from the legally appointed body but from Google, the gatekeeper of search.

The biggest shock in today's round of ACE funding cuts was the news that ENO is no longer to be part of the National Portfolio. 

The review is published. How was the staging? How well did X's role debut go? And more importantly... what was the star rating?!

David gives a roundup of classical music's reaction to the Ukraine invasion and some opinions.

It's an age-old debate: Prima la musica, prima le parole. For David, it should be prima la storia. Great opera should be about great storytelling.

As a theater critic, I’m prioritizing coverage of events that require Covid vaccination for all.

The terror that keeps the performing arts awake at night is that audiences won’t return because they are not confident of attending an event without risking Covid-19 infection.

New seasons are starting and classical music venues are throwing their doors open to the public. But are they also throwing caution to the wind?

When the threat of Covid-19 to music touring subsides, the bureaucratic nightmare that is Brexit will remain. The government must act to cut the red tape it has created.

2021 isn't starting on a high note. Just over a year after the appearance of Covid-19, the French cultural sector is still suffering from vagaries and absurdities at the highest level.

Many arts leaders have shared their thoughts with us over this pandemic year. Here are some reflections on what's happened and what's coming up.

As a streaming platform, how do you stand out in such a competitive market? What do you offer audiences beyond pointing cameras and microphones at musicians in an empty room? 

Lockdown, anti-infection measures, curfew, second lockdown. One trial follows another for a live performance world which, in spite of it all, holds its head high and produces repeated miracles.

A personal reflection on the world of streaming through lockdown... and how the attitude to free content needs to change. 

As our government endeavours to help the arts recover from COVID-19, what should our priorities be? We argue for a rebalancing of the objectives aimed at spreading the arts more widely.

Audiences are telling us now is not the time to be dark. We should listen to them.

Stripped of its ability to earn revenue, large swathes of the performing arts industries could be wiped out within six months. The silence from the UK government is deafening.

The loss of revenue from ticket sales and touring has put most British orchestras into a parlous financial situation. The Director of the ABO discusses what has been done and what is needed.

Jason Cady, artistic director of Experiments in Opera and opera composer writes about all the exciting paths opera is taking nowadays.

Mitchell says he has an irrational fear of opera. We'd love to help him out of it...

The words come first: Mark Wigglesworth, former Music Director of English National Opera, puts the case for singing opera in English.

In the fantasy world of the people drafting the GDPR, businesses would change their ways to impose self-restraint in the use of personal data and draft clear, straightforward notices. Here's what actually happened.

They’re being beastly on Twitter! David Karlin offers some thoughts on why and whether we should be worried and how to react.

Google “virtuoso pianist” and the image search results will throw up pictures of Richter, Brendel, Rubenstein, Horowitz, Argerich, Arrau, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Trifonov, Pollini, Cziffra, Gould, Kissin, Uchida, Hough, Pires, Ogdon, Schiff, Cliburn, Hamelin, Schnabel, Cortot, Horowitz, Hess, von Bulow, Andsnes...

David argues that typical UK concert times are almost guaranteed to put off the under 55 age group, especially those with kids.

Many composers enjoyed a drop of the hard stuff. But why do classical music venues allow audiences to indulge during concerts?

I knew Martha Argerich’s Prom with Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra would be long sold out, but the intrepid ticket ninja in me hoped that a return may have sprung up on the website. It was then I stumbled upon this year’s wheeze.

Culture and Europe are intertwined and far the richer for it. The personal desires of UK politicians must not separate us from the mainland and the rich cultural exchange we currently enjoy.

14% of our users have ad blockers installed, but everyone still wants to use the site free. The money has to come from somewhere, so how should we respond?

Travel broadens the mind. It also opens the ears. For years, I was very happy to hear concerts in London… until I heard halls elsewhere.

When is opera not opera? When companies wheel out a musical...

An outraged audience noisily disrupted a concert in Cologne last weekend, raising the question if we have closed our ears and minds to the unfamiliar.

Yesterday, Benjamin Millepied stepped down as director of Paris Opéra Ballet, prompting the question: can the director of a large international company juggle a management role with the desire to create?

In 2015, which performances were the ones which really stuck in the memory of our editor? 

On Monday’s Today programme on BBC Radio 4, presenter John Humphrys boldly – deliberately even – stepped into an operatic minefield. It blew up in his face.

A flutter of the fingers, a whirl of the toothpick and he was gone... So does Valery Gergiev really deserve the criticism of his LSO tenure that's come his way?

It’s that time of the year when orchestras are unveiling their wares to tempt us back into the concert hall after the summer break. What do you look for in new season brochures? 

There is apparently no reason for young people not to give opera a try. The Royal Opera House sells £10 student standby tickets, as well as advance booking for cheap standing or slip tickets.

Is opera “stratospherically inaccessible”? How can opera houses encourage new audiences? James Imam explores some of the inventive ways in which opera companies are trying to build audiences to secure opera's future.

Opera lovers have never had it so good. Last December alone, I saw Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros star in Martin Kušej's new Bavarian State Opera production of La forza del destino, watched Piotr Beczała booed at the opening night of La Scala’s new season and experienced the Metropolitan Opera’s Eugene Onegin – all without leaving the house. 

Societies tend to classify dance in an effort to organize and understand what exists outside their own circle of familiarity. What are the benefits (or not) of categorisation?

Through the years, music and dance have come together to entertain, enlighten and provide art in our lives. Take a look at historical roots and cultural differences, with personal experiences of a ballet dancer and audience member. 

One need only watch television programmes featuring Gareth Malone to witness the appetite for community singing. Many claims are made about the supposed health benefits of joining a choir, but how much truth is there in this? Rohan Shotton bursts a few bubbles…

Dance has entered the museums and exhibitions spaces of several major European cities, but does it belong there? Katja Vaghi examines this recent trend and asks how best to exhibit dance, drawing inspiration from Sasha Waltz's Installations Objects Performances at th ZKM, Karlsruhe, and Table of Contents by Siobhan Davies Dance at the ICA, London.

The widespread use of MP3s and other music players has led to a jump in hearing loss among teenagers, says a new survey. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts report that a growing number of 12-19 year olds have suffered slight hearing loss. Between 1988-94 and 2005-06, the percentage of teenagers with hearing loss jumped by around a third, from 15% of 12-to-19-year-olds to 19.