Caught this article on Yahoo about the recent (and very small) expansion in the recording activities of some US orchestras.
Here’s the first couple paragraphs:
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Not long ago, American orchestras considered the notion of creating new recordings an almost impossible dream.
Among the hurdles: longstanding union regulations that made the process untenably expensive in the United States, a market flooded with mid-priced catalog reissues and budget recordings that made new full-priced titles less appealing to consumers, changed financial expectations at major labels (demanding that classical recordings earn their keep rather than be prestige money-losing projects) and the sales woes of the broader recording industry.
But several world-renowned American orchestras have figured out how to start recording again — many adopting a do-it-yourself mind-set that centers on digital retail. Already familiar to indie rock acts, the approach was entirely new terrain to orchestras that in decades past had enjoyed lavish contracts.