Digital

A cyber attack linked to Russian hackers that took place more than a year ago is continuing to prevent a museum from accessing its artefact database.

The BBC reports that benefit payments, planning applications and house sales were all delayed when Gloucester City Council was hit by hackers in December 2021.

A new council report has revealed that the Museum of Gloucester is still being affected by the cyber incident.

"It is very worrying that in a council report it was mentioned that the museum services had not had access to its collections database, hindering important investigation into the city's historic monuments," Jeremy Hilton, Leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat group at the council, said.

"I hope this important information isn't lost forever or that officers will not have to spend their valuable time inputting data all over again."

Andy Lewis, Portfolio holder for Culture and Leisure at the council, said he believed no records had been lost.

The BBC has confirmed it will cut back its BBC Introducing programme, which profiles up-and-coming grassroots musicians.

The plans will see the loss of 12 BBC Introducing shows, with 20 of the BBC’s 39 local radio stations retaining their own editions.

In January, a coalition of music groups wrote to the BBC expressing “grave concern” the plans to streamline BBC Introducing shows would have an adverse effect on grassroots music in the UK.

In a statement released earlier this week, the broadcaster said the remaining BBC Introducing shows will be broadcast twice as often, to “give up-and-coming musicians a bigger platform and audiences than ever before”.

Each station will also “retain music expertise on site to support the production of the programmes and bring in new talent”, the statement adds.

The Guardian reports the cuts form a wider plan for the BBC’s regional stations to share more shows, in order to modernise local services and save money.

A new streaming service for classical and jazz music has said it is putting the fair remuneration of artists at the heart of its business.

Leamington Spa-based Presto Music's new service uses a 'pay-per-second model' rather than paying by track.

The ecommerce site said that classical artists in particular are disadvantaged by the per-track approach, due to the much longer length of individual pieces.

Chris O'Reilly, Chief Executive of Presto Music, said: "Recently there has been much discussion in the media about how poorly streaming services remunerate artists, and the regularly used track-play system certainly doesn’t favour the often much longer classical music tracks.

"Musicians are the lifeblood of our industry. We are proud that we are launching this model here in the UK which will pay artists and composers fairly."

O'Reilly added that the new service features over 200,000 classical and jazz albums available in CD-quality sound, plus more than 34,000 albums in Hi-Res Audio (up to 24-bit, 192kHz).

Subscribers to the service can also download albums to listen to offline.

Over 500,000 music performance grades assessed by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) have been completed remotely since the board launched online examinations two and a half years ago.

The online music assessment, which was introduced during the pandemic to meet demand from music learners unable to take traditional face-to-face exams, is assessed entirely digitally via video recordings.

Since its launch, ABRSM examiners have assessed more than 8m minutes of videoed submissions performed on 42 different instruments, with Grade 5 piano being the most popular online exam.

Students from 82 countries have completed this method of music examination.

ABRSM’s Deputy Chief Executive Penny Milsom said while face-to-face exam bookings continue to “build strongly” following the pandemic, appetite for online music assessment remains.

“It is fantastic that teachers and learners are taking advantage of the choice now available between digital and face-to-face, and practical and performance grades,” she said.

“Many candidates benefit from recording their exam in familiar surroundings. We also know that these exams work well for adult learners who are either returning to exams or learning for the first time.”

Plans to amend copyright law to allow artificial intelligence developers to exploit protected works without the permission of creators and rightsholders have been ditched by government.

During a debate in the House of Commons today Intellectual Property Minister George Freeman said he and DCMS Minister Julia Lopez felt that the proposals were not correct and that they would “not be proceeding" with them.

The changes of policy follows opposition to the proposals from the music industry.

“We are looking to stop them and to return to office to have a rather deeper conversation with the All Party Parliamentary Group who I met yesterday, with experts in both Houses and with the industry,” Freeman said.

Commenting on the announcement, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, Chief Executive of UK Music, said: “UK Music warmly welcomes the minister’s decision to scrap plans for a catastrophic blanket copyright exception.

“The whole music industry has been united in its opposition to these proposals, which would have paved the way for music laundering and opened up our brilliant creators and rights holders to gross exploitation.

“We are delighted to see the back of a policy that risked irreparable damage to the global success story that is the UK music industry."

A new archive project will see thousands of music recordings dating back to 1973 digitised and made publicly available online.

The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester will be delving into its vast archive of recordings for its Throwing Open the Concert Doors project.

The RNCM plans to conserve and digitise performances spanning a 50-year period, including everything from student recitals to full-scale opera productions.

As well as being available online, there are also plans to install a public listening booth at the college’s Oxford Road site.

Heather Roberts, RNCM Archivist, said: “The RNCM’s story is of great significance to Manchester’s cultural heritage, but it is ultimately a ‘hidden gem’ in terms of public awareness.”

She added that many of the older recordings are in danger of being lost due their deterioration over time.

“Due to the ravages of time, these [older recordings] are steadily and irreversibly degrading and, without conservation and digitations, will soon be lost forever.

Throwing Open the Concert Doors is supported by a £206,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It will be delivered in partnership with Manchester Digital Music Archive – a volunteer-run online community archive – and Manchester Central Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage initiative.