The three largest international recording combines, Sony, Warner and Universal, have suspended operations in Putin’s world. Live Nation, the concert promoter, also announces that “we will not do business with Russia,” The New York Times’ Ben Sisario reports:
Russia already had been ejected from the Eurovision song contest, and Spotify and Apple have restricted access to their streaming services.
Performative gestures, literally – Sisario cites International Federation of the Phonographic Industry data showing Russia to be a smaller market than Mexico and Sweden for recorded music – but also markers of the country’s rapid cultural isolation.
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