In her decades-long career, star Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca has seen the ups and downs of the music industry first hand.

But the business has changed drastically with the rise of social media, even impacting the way many people inside and outside the industry approach classical music -- namely "without patience or time", she told AFP.

"Nowadays young singers are immediately put on a maximum platform through social media even without any experience, which I find very cruel," Garanca, 48, told AFP in an interview over the weekend ahead of a gala concert in Vienna.

Lured by promises from the industry of quick success, the fledgling singers can get "discouraged by small failures", amplified by the intense scrutiny they are subjected to on social media platforms, she warned.

They r

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