Music, and the unbearable irony of Beijing

“Beijing wants to be an ‘international music capital’ by 2025,” says the South China Morning Post.

Let’s get this straight: The municipal government that has spent the last five years hounding every interesting live music venue out of existence has now unveiled a “plan to expand music and creative industries to the tune of US$17 billion [which] includes developing digital music, offering artists better copyright protections, and building more small-scale venues for live shows.”

—Jeremy Goldkorn