Explore every episode of the podcast The Price of Music

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. As ever, Stu and Joe take a closer look at this week's music industry news, including:

→ TikTok’s ‘Song of the Summer’ this year is by HOT NEW BREAKING artist, erm, Katy Perry, and her 16-year old song ‘The One That Got Away’. So what is a summertime hit nowadays anyway?

→ Yes, yes, another lawsuit against AI-music firm Suno – but this one has a twist: it’s from musicians, rather than labels or publishers… and these artists won't back down easily.

→ Meanwhile, another artist, Mary J. Blige, was (we think) very supportive of Suno, but now (we think) she very much isn't. Or is she? It's complicated...

→ Sonos, the popular connected-speakers firm, is getting into AI agents. And apparently that means a you can have a virtual snarky record-shop clerk as your AI song-picking pal (or anything else you'd like).

→ India has had *how many* music streams in the first half of 2026? (It's a lot, as you'd imagine).

→ Joe doesn't know who Captain & Tennille are, but they got the biggest spike in Spotify streams from Grand Theft Auto IV’s big reveal – but there’s one caveat to their 130,730% boost…

→ Joe also doesn't know who Young Roddo is –but he's the first artist to film a music video entirely within Roblox. (Young Roddo is nine years old).

→ The New York Yankees stadium hosts concerts and now you can eat ice cream that looks like fried chicken while you watch the show. Are we entering a new phase of stadium gig snacking?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

→ What are the best-ever "songs of the summer", and are they even important now, anyway?

→ Who or what would your ideal "AI agents" be for music recommendations (and why not, Joe and Stu, wonder, just switch on the radio and listen to a human DJ?)

→ A conversation about snacks and music venues turns into a speculative series of suggestions for food that could be served at an Oasis show

→ And then, we regret to inform you, that it then turns into a too-much-information chat about using toilets at music festivals, and novel festival toilet strategies.

→And finally... Superfan Ian issues a Very Important Correction to Joe's misremembered Blue Peter time capsule story.

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As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe plan an ultraviolent trip through the criminal underworld* as they take a look at this week's music industry news, including:

→ We’re all going on a summer holiday… (a summer holiday that involves cocaine, strip clubs and lots of shooting people in the face.) Yes, the Cliff Richard / Grand Theft Auto crossover you've all been waiting for is here at last! *Yes, this is the extent of their violent plans, sorry.

→ The popular US Bonnaroo festival is taking a year off in 2027 because its venue has been battered by storms two years in a row. Is this a big warning klaxon for other festivals regarding the climate emergency?

→ We need to talk about Gina’s Pet Bangers. But what are they, and WHY do we need to talk about them?

→ $76m. That’s how much a company called Stability AI raised in funding last week, with investors including all three major labels AND their former nemesis Sean Parker.

→ Did streaming kill the downloads star? Now SoundCloud wants to bring it back from the dead by helping artists to sell MP3s and WAVs from their profiles. Is this a big deal?

→ OK Go have released a new mobile game, except it’s an old mobile game that they already released in 2013. What’s going on here, and are there any treadmills or tech brands involved?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• Joe and Stu wax lyrical about Dolly Parton, including some good Dolly Pub Facts from Stuart;

• Grand Theft Auto and music: what are the most impactful moments of hearing just the right song at just the right time in video games / movies etc – and will there be a GTA music streaming platform?

• Stu and Joe play the OK Go game (you'll be able to tell how successful they were right here)

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As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe show their age as they reference 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s pop culture whilst discussing this week's music industry news, including:

→ Should Netflix add streaming music to its streaming video? Warner Music Group’s boss thinks so.

→ Universal Music Group has signed a high-profile licensing deal with remixing app Hook. So what is Hook, and are fan-made remixes really the next big thing in music then?

→ YouTube counts a ‘view’ as soon as a video begins to play, even if you’re just swiping past it in your feed. Does this mean YouTube view counts are now meaningless?

→ 35% of the people buying tickets for Ariana Grande’s 10-show run at London’s The O2 were from overseas. But what about the environmental cost? We break it down.

→ You can now add notes to your Spotify playlists for the world to read (or not). But is this just a data-harvesting move to make the company’s AI even more powerful?

→ TikTok made a vast amount of money last year across Europe, Latin America, Africa and the UK. We break down what it means for musicians…

→ Christian metal band sues Netflix over KPop Demon Hunters

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

→ STU’S PUB FACT involves the 50 top Canadian tracks ranked by streams played OUTSIDE of their homeland. But 40 of them are from just one artist…

→ What songs are Stu 'n' Joe itching to remix?

→ Is the Spotify Playlist Notes feature going to bring back the glory days of music blogging?

→ Stuart finally has another live event lined up for 2026! And it involves masks, capes, and (maybe) grandmas...

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe revel in an extremely varied week of music biz news (including some more great pop football shirts AND a brand new jingle):

→ 200 musicians have written a letter to the UK's new prime minister Andy Burnham. No, it's not to tell him New Order are rubbish. It's a protest against a decision he might be taking soon...

→ $121bn. That’s how much recorded-music will be worth globally in 2033 according to the latest industry forecasts – but will it be that big, and why?

→ Listeners' Letters – Sarah shares some HOT Port Vale sponsor news; and Stefan has a couple of great questions about streaming fraud and whether innocent artists suffer. Stu investigates (Spoiler: yes, artists suffer).

→ It looks like the Grammy Awards are going to quickly reverse-ferret on their ‘Asian Pop’ category plans, after a protest from BTS.

→ Spotify is giving AI-generated artists their own special badge on its service. Is this good news for human musicians?

→ Fairground is the latest music startup focusing on independent artists and labels. And it’s all about the ‘scenes’...

→ Why have people stopped drinking quite as much in Berlin clubs? What are they doing instead? Berlin resident Joe has some family-unfriendly suggestions...

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• More pop football kits: upon discovering that Massive Attack are sponsoring Bohemian Football Club, Joe and Stu have a look at their many other pop sponsorships

• There’s a huge gap between demand and supply of music podcasts. But do we really need more music chat, and if so, what kind of shows? Joe has invented some potential new music podcast genres, and pitches them to Stu

• We're entering the end phase of the UK festival season and one thing that has caught our eye this year is the the number of festivals that have lineups consisting only of tribute bands, offering festival vibes, nostalgia, and live music at a fraction of the cost of major mainstream festivals. Our intrepid duo hypothesise why tribute bands are so popular, propose a sausage/cider festival index, and Stu tries to guess the tribute band names that sound almost – but not quite – like the real band.

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe wade into share prices, EU Law, and German legal judgements... NO WAIT, COME BACK! These are all actually really interesting insights into modern pop music and how it connects with the humans who make it and enjoy it (honest.)

Plus, TPOM Superfans get to hear Joe and Stu go deep – some may say too deep – into minor league Welsh football clubs seeking musical sponsorship opportunities. In this week's show:

• Universal Music Group is worth now than it was at the start of this year, based on its share price, and Spotify wobbled too… so why are people wondering whether music may not be making as much money as it could - and what is Spotify up to with independent labels?

• Welsh Ardal League South East football club Cwmbran Celtic have some new shirts for sale. Why are we telling you about this? Well, they feature some bands you might know…

• We need to talk about ‘Rubberz’. No, not erasers and – for our American listeners – not condoms either… it's an (allegedly!!!) AI-generated song that is becoming a cross-over hit.

• There’s a lot going on with AI-music company Suno at the moment: a big legal ruling in Germany; its latest promises about how much it supports human artistry; and a very unexpected move into… vinyl!

• Two things that music publications BrooklynVegan, AltPress, Goldmine and Revolver have in common: first, they’re all owned by Live Nation, which many people didn’t realise. And second, “nearly all” their staff have reportedly been laid off. Is this the final nail in the coffin for music journalism?

• LISTENER LETTERS: after last week's Lock-In look at expensive Discogs records sales, James The Joiner gets in touch about his weirdly and unfortunately mis-pressed Blur LP – so will it be worth LOADS of money or NOT MUCH AT ALL? We investigate.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• Mold Alexandra, Cefn Druids and Mumbles Rangers: what other rock/Welsh football sponsorships would you like to see?

• Who needs MTV when you can have Green Day TV? Although the lineup of artists featured is, well, quite a lot smaller than traditional music-TV channels…

• We’ve been talking about prediction-market Kalshi in recent episodes, and it turns out they’re also betting on Spotify’s financial results… [we also check if they were right.]

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe pivot the podcast to the popular TRUE CRIME format in order to woo a giant mainstream audience. OK, not quite – but sort-of.

We’ve spoken a lot recently about AI-generated music accounting for 50% of music uploaded to streaming platforms – and how the reason for it, mostly, is for it to be used for fraud. We had a few emails asking: so, how does AI music help fraudsters, and how does streaming fraud work anyway?

So we pulled on our trenchcoats and got investigating – and in this episode we’re going to have a good old root around music streaming fraud: and we think you’ll actually be surprised at how it works, who is doing it – and how much money can be made.

• The crime: Streaming fraud isn't indie bands cheating to boost their numbers; it’s organised crime laundering money, and stealing from real artists.

• The scale: anti-fraud firms estimate that a huge 7–10% of streams are fake, but streamign platforms claim that it’s far lower (but still costing artists a lot of money).

• How AI powers fraud: scammers use AI to flood platforms with songs, hiding billions of fake streams across thousands of low-profile tracks.

• It might be you: Fraudsters hijack real users' streaming accounts to stream the fake songs overnight and exploit bot farms to manipulate payout thresholds.

• Betting manipulation: people using prediction platforms like Kalshi are accused of artificially pumping track streams to win trades – risking account bans for innocent artists.

• DSP crackdown: Platforms are fining distributors, purging dead AI catalogue, and wiping fake streams to protect payouts for real creators.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

Stu and Joe chat about the recently announced 2026 Mercury prize nominees – which include young upstart songwriter Paul McCartney. So who do they think should win it, and who do they think will win it? Here's the list in full, in case you missed it:

• Dave: The Boy Who Played the Harp

• Dove Ellis: Blizzard

• Florence + the Machine: Everybody Scream

• Jade: That’s Showbiz Baby

• Knats: A Great Day in Newcastle (Joe's tip- listen here!)

• Kojey Radical: Don’t Look Down

• Nia Archives: Emotional Junglist

• Olivia Dean: The Art of Loving

• Paul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon Lane

• Raye: This Music May Contain Hope

• Suede: Antidepressants

• War Child Records: Help(2)

And then Stu poses an idle question that might expand into a running feature: what's your favourite music video of all time – and why?

Joe's answer was "every Michel Gondry video" – including the White Stripes' famous Lego-powered "Fell In Love With A Girl" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl3Hr9RYX6gPSyj7-_cRTcMi06DqZW9xh

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe comb their Emo fringes, use a tie as a belt, and pout about this week's music industry news:

→ A surprising percentage of Americans are actually MORE interested in music if it was made using AI – according to a new survey.

→ In last week’s episode, we talked about a data breach at Suno that seemed to have given the game away on what music it trained its models on. But there’s been a development…

→ Spotify has a brand new daily music videos chart. Is it now officially The New MTV? And does this mean full-length music videos haven’t been killed off by TikTok after all? 

→ The UK has a new prime minister, he’s a New Order stan, and one of his first moves was focused on helping grassroots music venues and clubs…

→ What’s the latest big music trend in Mexico? It's erm, emo…

→ Live Nation wants YOU to become a festival promoter. But happily for your stress levels and financial standing, this is just for pretend on Roblox.

→ AND FINALLY… KPop Shark Heroes!

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• Stuart has a new favourite music wearable: a Game Boy-inspired digital music player on Kickstarter.

• It's time for a Little Grandad Update!

• Discogs and crazy vinyl prices: which 00's band has the highest-priced record sold on Discogs so far this year?

• https://www.discogs.com/digs/collecting/the-most-valuable-records-sold-on-discogs-in-2026-so-far/

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe are back from two weeks' holiday in Rhyl – and immediately hop into a golf cart along with Ronaldo and Ronaldinho to go through this week's music biz news:

→ More than 50%(!) of all new music being uploaded to streaming services is now AI-generated. How might the music industry respond to this? With... a system of labels (not the record kind…)

→ Stu's Big Number is 1.124 billion... but which mega-song does it relate to? (If you’re a parent, you’ll know it only too well…)

→ Someone's leaked the code of Suno, the biggest AI-music service, and they claim they know what it trained its models on...

→ The latest startup hoping to help artists make some money directly from their biggest fans is Lume, and it’s got Lorde’s backing

→ Lorde has also been giving a right Royals bashing to Meta and Spotify... but why?

→ Michael Jackson biopic ‘Michael’ got a mixed response from critics (OK, they thought it was rubbish). But at the box-office it’s a huge hit: to the tune of ONE BILLION dollars…

→ The Rolling Stones (collective age of their three founder members: 243) are now on Roblox, the platform famously used by children. But is this a surprisingly good fit?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

→ Following the last episode featuring plastic bottles being turned into Ed Sheeran Records – could Ed Sheeran records be turned back into plastic bottles?

→ A recap on the World Cup half-time extravaganza: Madonna! Ronaldo/Ronaldinho! Muppets! Bieber! Vuvuzelas! BTS!

→ Stuart rhapsodises about seeing the Beta Band live, including some epic four-man bongo wigouts

→ Good overlooked deep-cut World Cup songs, including  Chin Up by The Rhythm Method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KqmUtU1QEM)

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Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe are still on their summer holidays in Rhyl, but before they packed their bags, they had a chat with the team behind EcoRecord. It's a PVC-free, injection-moulded alternative to the traditional vinyl record, which cuts factory energy use by up to 85%, and swaps PVC for recyclable PET plastic. Recently, artists like Coldplay and Lorde have released versions of their albums using the process.

We chatted to Sven Deutschmann, CEO of record manufacturer Sonopress, about what he's learned over the last two years of production, whether the records sound as good as traditional vinyl, how Coldplay have switched all of their back catalogue from PVC to PET, and if most records will be made this way in the future. (Plus, Joe gets very excited by some gold and silver coloured records.)

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• Ecological vinyl roundup: what other types of ecologically-friendly records are there anyway; and how big a difference can these records make?

• A Little Grandad Update - the band are playing Sŵn, and it got Joe and Stu talking about...

• Band names!: which are are the good bands with bad band names, and bad bands with good band names? Are there any good bands with good names? Band names discussed include: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Teardrop Explodes and Nickelback!

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe get ready for their summer holidays and punt a beachball at this week's music biz news:

How much has controversial secondary-ticketing firm StubHub has just been fined in the UK for illegal ‘drip pricing’? (Also, what is that?)

The news seems bit AI-heavy this week, but it's actually all about artists:

→ 31 groups representing artists and managers have written an open letter about AI music… but it’s not AI companies who it’s addressed to…

→ AI-music company Suno is giving some money to musicians at last! But there are some strings attached…

→ Meanwhile, streaming service Tidal isn’t giving ANY money to wholly AI-generated music, according to its new policies on this area.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS?

→ James Blake has been making friends in the world of music journalism. Hasn’t he? Oh.

→ And talking of good causes, more than 200 artists have signed an open letter calling for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. So who’s signing, and what exactly do they want? (and there is some new advice on how we as music fans can reduce the impact our streaming has on the planet.)

AND FINALLY…

→ Recommendations of classic, influential hip-hop bangers from a maker of fizzy, lemonade-adjacent drinks.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• Can you make money by investing on things mentioned in a Kraftwerk song?

• A Little Grandad Update - a segment that now has its own jingle!

• In a section recorded before England get knocked out on penalties / gloriously proceed on penalties against DR Congo, Stu and joe take a look at the successful use of the much-mocked 'hydration break' as a massive singalong

• They also venture further into the Official FIFA World Cup Album™ and dare to ask the question: who is iShowSpeed anyway, and why does he have a song?

• Assorted football songs discussed:

• IShowSpeed - World Cup (Champions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrY1THC_NQE&list=OLAK5uy_nsOacWtSBM2kV8c_yjosYwk3hQq1A7-JY&index=19

• Alejandro Fernández - Mi Mexico Lindo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk-8wMflT34

• Belle and Sebastian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8riNobpEyg 

• Peter Beardsley doing the John Barnes rap from "World In Motion" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPh63Y6sSKA

  ===================================

  As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

  Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

  See you next week!

  Stuart and Joe

  ======

  TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

  Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

  ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

  Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

  Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

  For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe focus on one very interesting and rapidly-developing story in the music biz...

Did you know that music fans and industry insiders have quietly built a massive half-billion-dollar market trading purely on pop culture gossip and chart data? Stuart and Joe take a deeper look at how prediction platforms saw a staggering $400 million staked on "music outcomes" on a single app alone in the first half of 2026. That includes a mind-boggling $110 million wagered by people just to guess what the opening song of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show would be.

From fans turning passive streaming into high-stakes gamification to the legally murky waters of music industry insider trading, they talk about how (lots of) real cash is changing the way we forecast what's going to happen in the music business, including...

• What are Prediction Markets anyway?: Online platforms where users buy and sell financial contracts based on the likelihood of real-world future outcomes.

• Is it gambling or what?: Technically, no, but... The market has exploded into a multi-million-dollar sector in 2026, led by platforms like Kalshi and the crypto-powered Polymarket.

• What could the music industry do with it?: platform, fan and release data could be used for future forecasting, such as assessing fan interest or adjusting album release dates.

• Insider trading and addiction: The space introduces risks of insider trading from industry professionals who know when things are going to happen before the wider public – and presents addiction risks similar to traditional gambling.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• A long-awaited, much-requested Little Grandad Update: what are our indie heroes up to? Successful festival bookings, and a London residency await...

• The Music-Prediction Prediction Quiz: Joe tests Stu on various active Kalshi markets, covering Spotify listener stats, album sales, and future album genres, including...

• Which artist will have the highest monthly Spotify listener count by the end of June? What will Olivia Rodrigo's first-week chart sales data for her new album be? When will Selena Gomez debut a new song on Spotify? What will the musical style and genre of Beyoncé’s next studio project be?

  ===================================

  As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

  Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

  See you next week!

  Stuart and Joe

  ======

  TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

  Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

  ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

  Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

  Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

  For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe go football crazy and stick a reducer early doors on this week's music biz news:

→ 270. That’s how many ‘unofficial anthems’ called ‘World Cup 2026’ have been uploaded to Deezer… and 70% of them are AI slop.

→ YouTube reckons that its terms of service allow it to use independent musicians’ uploads to train AI models. Is that really true?

→ Tupac Shakur has been dead for 30 years – or HAS he, etc etc – but if you think that will stop him returning to his acting career for a new console game, you’re wrong…

→ Say You, Say Me… just don’t Say It In My Voice Without Permission. Why has Lionel Richie been filing trademarks for some of his most famous sung phrases?

→ UK indie streaming service Cantilever has raised £250,000 of funding from a group of independent labels. Can it carve out a niche for itself against giants like Spotify though?

→ Ariana Grande is one of the ‘good eggs’ of the pop world, and this week brought more evidence of that: her new charitable foundation, and beef with the White House…

→ The Happy Mondays want to sell you a giant pill. But wait, it’s not what it seems! This is the latest, very literal meeting of physical music and merchandise…

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• Stu has used AI to make a stereotypical England-oriented World Cup song. But is it any good? (No.) We listen anyway.

• Joe and Stu dig into the weird and wonderful Official FIFA World Cup Album

• What other overly-literal packaging could be made? (Stu has ideas for 'Revolver' and Portishead's 'Dummy')

• Last week, Stu saw Rufus Wainwright and Joe saw Mike D – but which had the sparkliest shoes? And which one brought out a Pussycat Doll to do a duet?

• Joe explains why he only buys his gravy and chips on The Strand

  ===================================

  As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

  Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

  See you next week!

  Stuart and Joe

  ======

  TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

  Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

  ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

  Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

  Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

  For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works.

This week: two very special guests talk about how to actually make important change happen in the UK’s live industry at grassroots level, and improve the live music fan's experience: we welcome back Lord Kevin Brennan of Canton, Labour member of the House of Lords and a recording musician himself.

We also speak to Shain Shapiro, who amongst other things is author of This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better. (They are both speaking about this on 10th June at the Music Cities Convention in Hull, FYI.)

** As ever, our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ get the full interviews – with 50% extra conversation! Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section! ⁠⁠⁠**

We talk about the important stuff that fans care about: surge ticket pricing, local grassroots venues, music fan associations and more – and it’s all built on the results of the UK’s Fan–led Review of Live and Electronic Music, the House of Commons committee special report that Lord Brennan oversaw. He explains what he learned and what can – and should – be done next.

Then Shain explains why live music must be treated as a "vital public good" – i.e. just like libraries or the NHS – and how people like you can build real political heft, in order to save their struggling local spaces.

• Lord Brennan reflects on his past work with the Music Streaming Inquiry, examining how parliamentary reports can ripple out to create real-world impact for creators, even when they don’t instantly become law.

• Essential learnings from the live fans' report: From transport and safety to fair ticketing, Lord Brennan boils down the core pillars that everyday music lovers actually care about.

• The surge pricing backlash: The data doesn't lie – fans are united in their hatred of dynamic ticket surging. We discuss the urgent need for primary market transparency and why standard "free-market" arguments don't apply to the emotional experience of a gig.

• Shain Shapiro breaks down how society has prioritised the passive consumption of music (the noun) while deprioritising community participation (the verb), leading to the isolation of modern music fans.

• Why you should know your ward councillor. Shain outlines how forming local "Music Fan Associations" can force local councils to unlock underutilised property and rethink how spaces are used.

• The 24-Hour Dictators: Both guests flex their imaginary emergency powers to fix the ecosystem, including slashing VAT on tickets, restructuring property business rates, and mandating grassroots funding.

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section! ⁠ This week:

→ Enigmatic duo Boards of Canada have beef with the White House. What on earth is going on?

→ €55bn: the amount that hedge fund Pershing Square WON’T be paying to buy Universal Music Group, because it has rejected the offer.

→ Last·fm was once so buzzy, a big US media corporation bought it for $280m. 19 years after that acquisition, it’s going independent again.

→ Warner Music Group is on the verge of settling its lawsuit with US cookies chain Crumbl. But why are so many brands and retailers getting sued by major labels for their social posts?

→ Another day, another 17 baffling trends on TikTok made up by young people to confuse older people. But the ‘text to song’ trend IS both amusing and interesting…

→ Talking of charts and rankings, a new site called Stream League wants to turn music releases into a fantasy-sports-style game…

→ Do you use Google’s Waze navigation app when driving? Have you always wished that its voice could be a bit more, well, a bit more Jamaican-music-royalty? Well, it’s your lucky day!

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – in this week's bonus material:

• Joe tries to persuade Stu, who has never listened to a Boards of Canada album, to play one of them – with the promise of satanism, the occult, biblical allusions, mathematics, numerology, cults, and, by the sound of their new LP, the end of the world itself.

• Stuart has turned one of his messaging threads into a song; and he and Joe wonder if actually we need to think about music in a whole new way now.

• Stream League! Does Stu fancy himself as an A&R now? Does he sit back in his black leather chair with his finger steepled, nodding along as he listens to new song? We find out...

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section! This week, Producer Joe steps into some big shoes to chat with Stuart about:

• How many streams did Drake’s THREE new albums get since their release on 15 May. But is this a hit comeback or a flop?

• Ozzy Osbourne is back! Wait, you say, isn’t he dead? Well, yes, but he’s the latest late star to be returning in avatar form.

• Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger: which musical nostalgia is now a preserved cultural artifact in the UK?

• Spotify held its Investor Day last week, unveiling some new features including two big pieces of music news: one around ticketing and one around AI.

• Elsewhere in AI music-land, details have leaked out about the new ‘Starstruck’ service that Udio is building with its major-label deals. What can we expect?

• Ed Sheeran is leaving Warner Music Group after 15 years being signed to the company’s Asylum Records imprint. So where might his next recordings home be?

• Techno megastar Richie Hawtin is more than capable of making your nose bleed in a club, but can he help you study or sleep at home? His latest release aims to show he can…

• You can make vinyl out of recycled records now, but does that affect the quality of how they sound? Yes, but no, is the answer...

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – and while the barman may have changed, the game's the same... in this week's bonus material:

• What other pieces of musical memory deserve to be preserved? (And Stu reminisces fondly about, erm, The Kersal Massive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uja3W-ibifc)

• Do we actually want to remix our favourite artists using AI? (Joe has a one-word answer)

• Which dead musicians do we want to see as avatars, if any?

• Is Drake any good? Really though, is he?

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!

This week... Steve is back from the Great Escape music showcase festival and joins Stuart to discuss:

• How many songs have Steve and Stu listened to on Spotify since 2008, according to its latest nostalgia-baiting feature?

• BANGARANGA! Eurovision was this weekend and Steve watched it for the first time in a decade. We get his thoughts – plus find out who the most successful post-Eurovision artists are.

• Last week we were speculating about whether the UK’s planned crackdown on ticket-touting would go ahead. And the answer is… no (but also yes)…

• British labels body the BPI has some advice for the UK government about how to handle AI-music licensing. But will it listen?

• Those cartoon KPop Demon Hunters are going on a global tour… we just don’t know when, where, who, or how yet…

• The full lineup for the World Cup final half-time show has been announced. Madonna! Shakira! BTS! And… The Muppets?

• You may not have heard but Steve has announced that he's reluctantly leaving the podcast... he explains why (it's not because him and Stu have had a huge diva-ish artistic differences fall-out... or is it? (No, it's not.))

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's definitely getting the first round in this time – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

• More on Eurovision; and the reluctance of TV to make music-oriented shows

• Steve reports more on what he saw and heard at The Great Escape in Brighton – and the challenge of getting good conflicting conversations on stage at conferences

• Half-time live performances at football matches: do the artists get paid a fortune (or not at all?)

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This week... Stu's back from his travels and joins Steve to discuss beer, AI music, and Los Campesinos!:

→ $5bn is how much controversial AI-music firm Suno could be valued at – and it might raising $250... so what is it going to do with that money?

→ The phrase of the week is ‘Blue Dot Fever’, and it’s all about big tours being cancelled or delayed due to reportedly-poor ticket sales…

→ While we’re on live music, indie band Los Campesinos! have explained exactly just how much it costs to tour North America…

→ Sony Music Publishing is spending $4 billion for a company that owns a lot of songs: Recognition Music Group. And some very famous musicians’ rights are changing hands as part of the deal…

→ British charity Youth Music has warned that 37% of grassroots music projects in the UK are in danger of shutting down. But what can you do about that?

→ We’ve talked about how sales of alcohol can be crucial to the grassroots circuit. Now there’s a specific beer that’s been made to support artists on tour…

→ We talked last week about the possible delay to the UK’s ticket-touting ban. Now an update: industry bodies have been weighing in with their disappointment…

→ Clankers With Attitude are an entirely AI group, releasing entirely AI-generated music on a label that is entirely run by, yes, AIs. And if you want to listen to their new album, you have to be an AI too…

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

→ More on the "Blue Dot" tickets story – why are some artists selling a lot of tickets, and others... not so much? And: is Suno really worth $5bn?

→ With the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ recordings catalogue being sold for $300m, does this blow Stuart’s ‘the worst band in the world’ theory out of the water? And what happens to the value of a band or artist's songs if they go out of fashion?

→ Metal band Zao have been flagged as releasing AI-generated music. The only problem? It wasn’t, and they aren’t happy about the mistake…
→ Stu has heard the first release by Little Grandad at last!

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This week... Steve and Producer Joe grapple with some big numbers, mergers, and warnings about signing your rights away:

• The UK government promised to ban ticket touting (scalping). But now the ban may be delayed for a year or so: and the industry (and Steve) is not happy....

• The estates of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix's Experience bandmates, have lost a court case in which they were seeking more money from the band's albums – but why did they lose?

• The resurgence of vinyl isn’t all good: LPs aren’t the most climate-friendly product. But that could be changing, and a group of independent labels wants to show how…

• 761 million people are now using Spotify every month, according to its latest financial results.

• Talking of Spotify, you may have seen a new ‘green tick’ badge on artist profiles to verify that they are human. What’s that all about?

• The music industry’s latest mega-merger will see BMG and Concord coming together - but who are these two businesses and why is this one so big - and meaningful for indie artists?

• Have Taylor Swift or Rihanna tried to get you to sign up to an online service you’ve never heard of on TikTok? Here's why...

• William Shatner has a full-length heavy metal album featuring 35 hand-picked collaborators from across the genre, including Dave Lombardo of Slayer, and Rob Halford of Judas Priest(!)

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

• More thoughts from Steve on the UK government's pause on the touting ban

• Apparently Angine de Poitrine are ‘2026’s first breakout band’ according to the streaming stats. But what does Steve think about them? And what does Steve think of Dadaist Math Rock, anyway?

• Plus: Grebo! Fraggle! Baggy! Which genre deserves (perhaps) a revival?

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This week... Stu and Steve grapple with:

→ Brace yourself - how many AI-generated tracks are being uploaded every single day now?

→ Steve uses his knowledge of London pubs to try and figure out which one Olivia Rodrigo shot her new video in... but wait: both Spotify and Apple Music have a an exclusive new Olivia Rodrigo music video. How can this be possible?

→ The UK’s voluntary levy on stadium and arena concerts is starting to pay off for the grassroots live scene - some latest news on that...

→ Superfan David joined in the debate on buying tickets at the last minute –  in particular the non-refundable fees on tickets being a possible cause of delays.

→ Greater Music Group is a brand new record label – run by an army of AIs. Is this really the future we’re heading towards? (And what vital skill does Steve realise that AI's can't do with new bands?)

→ You can get music, podcasts and audiobooks on Spotify, but now you can also get… fit?

→ With AI deepfakes getting ever more convincing, Taylor Swift, has taken action with trademark filings…

→ And introducing.... Finnish band Heavysaurus, who make “high-quality heavy metal music for children” while dressed up as dinosaurs.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

• Steve has an update on the sale of the BBC's legendary Maida Vale studios – where everyone from the Beatles and Nirvana to Adele and Amy Winehouse recorded sessions

• Can Stu guess how many summer festivals Little Grandad will perform at?

• Vinyl is so popular now that criminals are creating fake versions of official vinyl

• Record Store Day took place recently - but which records didn't sell?

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠⁠⁠⁠

This week...

→ Geese have been one of the big breakthrough rock bands of the last year. But now some of the marketing tactics that helped them cut through are under the spotlight…

→ Live Nation has lost a major lawsuit in the US that could see it forced to sell its Ticketmaster division. But is that likely to happen?

→ 739.1m - that’s how many streams the new BTS album got in its first week (and yes, this is an official, not-made-up number this time…)

→ There’s a big argument in the UK between the Music Venue Trust and collecting society PRS for Music, and it’s all about how royalties from concerts are collected and divided…

→ While we’re on the subject of live music in the UK, a new report from a parliamentary committee made some interesting recommendations for reforms…

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

• Steve shares a story about trying to bring artist Victor Jones to the UK and wonders if he could sleep in Steve's loft;

• "Industry Plants" – the music industry's "conspiracy theory", and a chance to reminisce about major labels using offshoots to appear independent.

• Almost-free-jazz: analysis of the UK parliamentary report showing that Jazz receives only 2% of Arts Council grant money, compared to 49% for Opera and 24% for Classical music.

• Physical Tickets: do you collect your paper ticket stubs?

• 75,000 AI tracks are now uploaded to Deezer every day.

• Vintage merch value: the prices of secondhand band t-shirts are soaring –  so what have Steve and Stu got in their wardrobes?

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠⁠⁠⁠

This week, there's a change to our normal schedule – with a whistlestop tour around the news and then a very special interview with Ashli Todd, owner of the legendary Spillers Records, the world's oldest record shop (founded in 1894, fact fans!)

Ashli takes time out from filing vinyl to chat to us about Record Store Day 2026, which is taking place on Saturday 18th April. She also talks about the logistical hurdles of running a record store today. She also gives an authoritative answer on whether PJ Harvey should be filed under 'P' or 'H'!

In this episode...

• The Ye/Wireless fallout: what are the financial and contractual "cleaning up exercises" facing Festival Republic after headliner Ye (AKA Kanye West) was denied UK entry – resulting in the entire festival's cancellation?

• Radiohead’s Coachella Bunker: the band's new "audiovisual installation" is located in a literal bunker beneath the Coachella festival (and if you visit, they put stickers over your phone cameras)

• A billion-dollar milestone: Latin American music has topped $1 billion in US label revenue for the first time - but which artists have driven this?

Then, Ashli Todd, owner of Spillers Records, joins the show to chat about Record Store Day! (Our extra-special ⁠⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠⁠ get the full, unedited interview... including some hearty debate about Simply Red!)

• RSD reality check: Ashli reveal what it's like to run a record shop during Record Store Day – including the high-stakes gamble of ordering for the big day.

• Ashli explains how shops cannot return any unsold Record Store Day stock: so if a shop is left with too many unsold titles, it can negate the entire profit margin for the event.

• CDs are... back: Ashli sees teenagers gravitating toward them as a "retro" and affordable alternative to increasingly expensive vinyl.

• How sales of popular albums can "fall off a cliff" simply because it’s impossible to reorder from the warehouse, due to labels' unwillingness to sit on large quantities of stock.

• The Jools Holland Effect vs. the TikTok Effect: While the Jools Holland effect on sales has waned, TikTok now has a tangible impact on what (especially younger) customers ask for.

• We finally settle the argument: does PJ Harvey belong under 'P' or 'H'?

• A bonus filing complication: Record Store Day filing rules follow the official list order, which is alphabetical by first name. (We're still not 100% clear how this effects PJ Harvey, though.)

• (If you'd like to know more about the history of Spillers, this interview with Ashli is well worth a read: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/story-uks-oldest-record-shop-15805068)

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠⁠⁠

This week...

• $63.5bn is a very big number – but is it worth paying this much for Universal Music Group?

• A report suggests that 2025 and 2026 saw a ‘pop slump’ in the streaming charts –  but what does ‘pop slump’ even mean?

• If you were on the Artemis II moon mission, what space-related songs songs would you force your fellow astronauts to listen to?

• And another study has found that nearly half of music fans think merch is becoming unaffordable – what's your t-shirt buying budget?

• Do you have an irrational hatred of a certain artist's music – and just can't change your mind?

• People are getting hesitant about buying gig tickets – and gig cancellations due to poor ticket sales are starting to happen. Steve digs in and has some concerns.

• Celine Dion: Now Big With The Kids! (OK, maybe not The Kids, but people under the age of 35 are reviving her career...)

• Guitars, synths, drum machines... they're definitely all musical instruments. Mayonnaise? Not so much. Or is it...?

• Instagram says it’s the "home of music superfans". But what does that actually mean for those fans and their favourite artists?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

• Steve remembers Paul Jackson, the man responsible for UK indie venue stalwart The Hull Adelphi.

• More chat on the possible takeover of Universal Music - and what does it say about the state of the most successful music company? Is it good for artists? And what about fans?

• Recommendations of music in other media: some good books to read on the music industry, and in the theatre, Rebecca Lucy Taylor (AKA Self Esteem) in the revived play Teeth 'n' Smiles.

• The huge increase in women headlining the major UK venue The O2 – and what it means about where pop is going.

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠⁠

This week...

→ Stu's Big Figure is... £50,000 – and it's been donated by that good egg Sam Fender... but to whom?

→ Music’s latest bitter lawsuit is Twigs versus Twigs. (That’s FKA Twigs versus indie band The Twigs, BTW.) So who really owns the name - and can people really lay claim to band names?

→ Superstar producer Timbaland has collaborated with everyone from Jay-Z to Madonna, but his latest musical partner is not so... real.

→ Grab your stetsons: we have a listener question from Pete Feldon, who wants to know if country music is really the fastest growing genre in the UK?

→ A new website called The Hidden Jams  to help people discover the obscurities in bands’ catalogues (... so what would you recommend?)

→ AI-generated songs have appeared on some people's Spotify profiles. Now the streaming service is doing something about it…

→ Last week, we reported that BTS had 300 million people watching their concert on Netflix... well, let’s just say that was a little exaggerated…

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

→ Talking of Patreon superfans, guess who’s joined us on Patreon this month? It’s only Bob Dylan…

→ Steve's been on the road again to the 6Music Festival and elsewhere... and why was he DJing to a mostly-empty room?

→ A new website called Slop Tracker claims to show you how much money AI tracks are “draining away” from human artists. So how much is slop worth?

→ Steve and Stu dig into some of the rankings on The Hidden Jams looking for deep cuts... and some of them are not exactly an overlooked (obscure b-side ‘Mr Brightside’ is number two on The Killers’ table, for instance...)

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!⁠

This week... Steve's back from Austin, Texas and has plenty of stories to tell about SXSW. Plus Radiohead, BTS, and, erm, Salt 'n' Pepa – all in this week's TPOM:

→ Radiohead's Ed O’Brien has revealed the band will do ‘20 shows each year: no more, no less’.

→ Steve's fresh (kind of...) back from SXSW in Austin, Texas, and here's what he saw... (plus: his travel nightmare, in full!)

→ Annoyed that Spotify doesn’t really understand you? It’s testing a feature where you can give its algorithm a shove in the right direction…

→ Last week a huge Global Music Report revealed how much money the industry made from recorded music last year. (Spoiler: it was a lot)

→ Good news for artists: the UK government has u-turned on its plan for how AIs can be trained on music.

→ 300 million people (reportedly) watched K-Pop’s biggest stars BTS in their livestreamed comeback

→ Black Music has contributed £24.5bn out of the £30bn made by the UK music industry over the last 30 years.

→ Big Nostalgia Tour Bingo: Salt-n-Pepa, TLC AND En Vogue are hitting the road together…

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

→ We hear more about SXSW from Steve, including his band tips...

→ Are Kiss and Tina Turner about to receive the ABBA Voyage treatment?

→ And is the virtual avatar show experience the only way we'll see The Smiths back onstage (and how would they programme Morrissey's grumpy ad-libs?)

→ What did Steve 'n' Stu think of last week's (great!) Picture Parlour interview?

→ Could the 6Music Dads turn into a national community of local gig assistants?

→ Why is Belgium and the Nordics the hot new place for artists to break?

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy a weekly Superfan Lock-in section!⁠

This week Katherine and Ella from ace UK indie band Picture Parlour talk about the stark economic realities of being a touring artist in the modern music industry. They're joined by David Martin from the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), who explains why his organisation is handing out top-up financial support to help artists like Picture Parlour get out on the road.

(As ever, our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠ get the full interview with extra bonus conversation!)

In this episode:

• Katherine and Ella explain the huge financial pressures of touring – while inflation has soared, artist fees have remained largely unchanged, and yet ticket prices are kept low to maintain demand.

• How Picture Parlour lost approximately £10,000 on a recent support tour, even when trimming their budget by asking fans to help at the venues.

• With this in mind, David explains why The FAC is distributing £125,000 to artists to help get them on the road – and how he hopes to put the money to work effectively and fairly.

  The band also talk about the reality of a major deal, where the initial financial boost depletes rapidly when paying for tour transport, crew salaries, and accommodation.

• They explain how a record deal doesn't provides even a living wage – and that artists often still struggle to pay basic rent while being signed.

• There's lots of positive news too! They all talk passionately about why independent venues remain so important (for example: they met in The Castle in Manchester!) and how they're essential melting pots where people can meet and community can thrive,.

• Plus the band are excited to go on the road again in support of their newest album.

More on the fabulous Picture Parlour: pictureparlour.co.uk - and get yourself tickets to their tour here https://linktr.ee/pictureparlour.

More on the Featured Artist Coalition’s UK Artist Touring fund, which aims to plug shortfalls and de-risk touring for all types of artists: https://thefac.org/ukatfund

You can apply here – but be quick – the deadline for applications is 23:59pm on Friday 20th March 2026: https://forms.gle/SLvWLASSR9o3nodv8

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy a weekly Superfan Lock-in section!

This week... Steve's about to head off to SXSW in Austin, Texas, so we interrupted him as he was packing his suitcases, and grapple with non-league football, buying pieces of your favourite artist, why Tr*mp deliberately annoys artists by using their music, and much more, all in this week's TPOM:

→ How many millions of Instagram views did the Brit Awards got this year – and why is that now An Important Thing?

→ Radiohead and Kesha are the latest artists furious that their music has been used in social-media posts by the US government. But can they do anything about it?

→ Apple Music subscribers will soon know if and how AI has been used in the music they listen to. And is there a huge loophole? (Yes)

→ Good news for UK artists who are struggling with the economics of touring: a new Touring Fund.

→ Jon McClure from Reverend and the Makers has a new job as... chairman and part-owner of the world’s oldest football club…

→ A listener question: how does this Dune app, which lets fans buy stakes in the work of artists, work – and will it help artists?

→ Another music / football crossover - but this time it's Arsenal and England winger Bukayo Saka?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve's getting the first round in – as they discuss this week's bonus material:

→ Steve went to see the new Britpop play by John Niven, which is about the Oasis vs Blur Battle of Britpop – so was it any good?

→ The UK’s Eurovision entry this year is partially sung in German, mentions ‘roly poly with custard’, and has been described as “Blur covering Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus”. Is it a winner in waiting?

→ Steve is about to fly out to SXSW... so what Steve’s looking forward to and what are his thoughts as SXSW hits its 40th anniversary?

→ The first ‘AI Music Creators Accelerator’ happened last week. What on earth is that?

VARIOUS LINKS:

You can check out the Weekender mix CD – including some really interesting liner note photos – that Steve put together with John Niven here (can anyone find the audio of it anywhere online? We can't!): https://www.discogs.com/release/89176-Various-Weekenders

And Kate, who asked this week's listener question, also shared some bands with under 1000 plays on Spotify, following our discussion a few weeks ago...

• True Heads - Public Pressure

• Jester - Pamphlets

• Glue Smells - TV Moms

• Sell With Confidence – Aiming

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy a weekly Superfan Lock-in section!

This week... Steve and Stu get Phonky with the biggest overlooked genre in the world: so what is Phonk anyway? Also on TPOM this week:

• How much music streaming is “passive” – where the platform chooses what you listen to?

• What impact does that have on our listening habits – and just who is controlling what we listen to?

• A listener question: what is “radio plugging” and how does it work – and how does it affect (or not) what Steve plays on the radio? (Email us your own question here!)

• Only 20% of tracks in the 2025 UK top 100 were performed by UK artists: so is music by UK artists being listened to less in its home country? And if so, why?  

• Would you want your ashes stored in an urn that doubles as… a bluetooth speaker?

• Why are Brazil and Mexico listening to so much UK music? (And how much of it is just Oasis?)

• Legendary UK grassroots venue the Sheffield Leadmill is finding a new home – and how are they going to raise the money to do it?

• Plus: cultural catnip for listeners of a certain age – not one but two mentions of Jim Bob from Carter USM rugby-tackling people on stage.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to discuss this week's bonus material:

• Something light to consider: what are the songs that will be played at Steve and Stu’s funerals?

• Some reflections on the BRIT awards, including wondering who thought interviewing Shaun and Bez from Happy Mondays live on TV was a good idea…

• More on radio plugging (something Steve has a lot of thoughts on...)

• AI music generation platform Suno now has 2m paying users… and does this mean that people are using it to flood the world with AI music?

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy a weekly Superfan Lock-in section!

This week... Steve and Stu dig into the charts – and take a look at a load of data that’s been released about singles, albums and streams:

• Do you know Japanese rock band Mrs Green Apple? They were the 13th biggest artist in the world last year. (Bigger than Eminem, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber)

• The Fleetwood Mac chart syndrome: why are there so many old bands in the albums chart?

• And why are there so few bands in the Top 30 singles?

• Sam Fender and Olivia Dean are number one – but why has it taken 35 weeks after its release to reach the top spot?

• And in non-chart news: it’s been dragging on for a while… but now EU regulators have approved Universal’s deal to buy independent music firm Downtown Music. So what happens next? And why are so many people still so angry?

• Another children’s music superstar for Stu and Steve to discuss: behold, it’s The Wiggles!

• How to get tickets into the hands of fans, not touts,

• Streaming full songs inside of TikTok (kind of...).

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to discuss this week's bonus material:

• Gold discs: how much are they worth - and why does Steve have more of them than he knows what to do with? (and who did he give his Stone Roses gold disc to?)

• Why is Zara Larsson battling a Wikipedia editor about her Wikipedia photo?

• (And what vital – and incorrect – info did Steve wrestle with Wikipedia over?)

• The live music landscape is changing fast: artists are now playing sold-out multi-night residencies at big venues – so is there growing appetite for arena gigs? 

• You can use AI powered apps to make your own remixes – but do you even want to?

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works: don't forget - you can become a ⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and access an extra 20 mins of show each week!⁠

This week, it's time for another interview with one of the people who make it all happen. Steve speaks to Niamh Byrne, who managed Blur, Elastica, and Turin Brakes, before founding Eleven management, which works with artists like Damon Albarn and Gorillaz – and she’s also the chair of the Music Managers Forum, the global organisation that represents music managers.

So... she is a great person to ask: what's it like being a manager today – and how is the role changing?

(As ever, our Patreon Superfans⁠⁠ get a bit extra - you’ll hear the full unedited interview, including Niamh’s thoughts on AI and the future of management.)

Niamh explains to Steve how:

• Great management is built on trust and vision — artists need operational backing while they create, and managers must hold the long-term destination and strategy.

• The manager role has expanded significantly — managers now carry much of the execution workload that labels historically handled.

• How labels are still important — even though managers can now replicate many label functions, access to capital keeps traditional deals relevant.

• Manager-led campaigns are increasingly viable — teams can now run marketing, digital, data and fan strategy directly (as with upcoming Gorillaz releases).

• Managers are undervalued — despite delivering end-to-end commercial and operational value, compensation models often still reflect a “deal-maker only” role

• Adaptability is now a survival skill — with more release paths and tools available, managers must continuously evolve and build flexible, independent-capable business models.

• You can read Music Ally’s full report on the chat here too: https://musically.com/2026/01/26/today-managers-could-probably-do-everything-but-funding-is-really-difficult

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works: don't forget - you can become a ⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and access an extra 20 mins of show each week!⁠

This week, Steve and Stu get stuck into:

• Stu's big number is $60 billion... and it's how much money YouTube made in 2025. But how much of this goes to music makers?

• Taylor Swift’s new music video was deliberately delayed before it hit YouTube this week, but why?

• Who cares what the US president thought about Bad Bunny - after his Super Bowl half-time show streams of his music spiked - but by how much?

• Record Store Day is happening on 18th April in the UK: Steve and Stu discuss Elton John and RSD queuing strategies...

• Artists are selling their new albums on online stores before they go on streaming services - but why, and is it a good idea?

• A new company is selling off early demo tapes, studio kit and even instruments to superfans... so how much does this stuff cost?

• Steve and Stu discuss a message from Superfan Kate Collins about teenagers and their interest (or otherwise) in going to gigs.

• How much will you have to pay to play the video game Fortnite dressed as Chappell Roan in a Joan of Arc outfit?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about two juicy issues this week:

• Noel Gallagher has won the Brit award for best songwriter of the year – despite "not having written any songs for two years". Steve and Stu have plenty of thoughts…

• Superfan James Bennet asks where to find new artists in a fragmented world of new music discovery – Steve and Stu share their tips!

• (And Steve explains how he discovers good new artists despite being overwhelmed with suggestions)

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works – and this week Steve and Stu grapple with Harry Styles, Bonnie Tyler and Bruno Mars...

Don't forget - you can become a Superfan of the podcast for free – and access an extra 20 mins of show each week!

• Stu's big number is $11bn - and that’s ⁠how much Spotify paid out to the music industry in 2025⁠. But will that be enough to get its critics off its back?

• Apple Music ⁠identified up to 2 billion fraudulent streams on its service in 2025 alone⁠. But did it pay any money out for them?

• Music is now ⁠a third of all the time people spend watching YouTube⁠. But is that good news?

• UK venues complained bitterly about proposed changes to business rates tax which would increase ticket prices and force small venues to close: now the government has announced some changes…

• Remember when we talked about Bonnie Tyler’s Spotify royalties in a show last year? ⁠Both Bonnie and Spotify have chipped in with a follow-up to that story⁠…

• Harry Styles’ "world tour" is ⁠only playing in seven cities⁠. Is this a new model for superstar touring?

• Bruno Mars’ latest concert ⁠attracted 12.8 million people⁠! But what's the twist?

• ⁠No one wanted a global chart for AI-generated music⁠ - but here it is anyway!

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Steve and Stu reflect on last week's excellent interview with Ricky from Southampton Joiners - and the pressures on venues; and the changes in touring routes.

• ... and also the dubious reality for young gig-goers: who's putting gigs on for them – and do they even want gigs?

• Football’s January transfer window has just closed in most of the big countries, which made us think: what if there was an equivalent for bands...

• If you’ve been wondering what Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel and the Pope think about AI music… it’s your lucky week!

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works – and this week they speak to Ricky Bates, head of booking and promotion at the Joiners in Southampton - one of the UK’s great grassroots venues. But first they chat about:

• Half a million pounds is being distributed in the UK to grassroots venues artists and events - and it’s money gathered from the levy on ticket sales in the UK. Steve and Stu discuss how this money is being spent – and how it will make a difference.

• Last week, Steve spoke to highly successful UK manager Niamh Byrne (Blur, Gorillaz and more)  and you’ll be able to hear that interview in a couple of weeks.

• But one notable thing she spoke about was how managers are working harder than ever, and need to provide more services than before. So what is a manager’s job now?

• Also at the Music Ally Connect conference, a key Universal music exec spoke about how AI can create new songs when one song is “covered” by AI versions of other artists: “I really want to hear what it sounds like for Jimi Hendrix to play Bitches Brew”. But do people really want to hear AI-generated cover versions?

Then the duo speak to Ricky Bates and he discusses the reality of running a local grassroots venue in 2026 – and it’s a solid-gold local venue that has hosted most of today’s biggest bands on their way up. It's where both Coldplay and Manic Street Preachers signed their first deals, and how Green Day "accidentally" played their Kerplunk! album launch show at the Joiners.

The public podcast contains highlights of the interview – however Patreon Superfan listeners can hear the whole interview as this week’s lock-in content! (Become a Patreon Superfan here! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠)

Ricky speaks about:

• How he started at the venue  by being thrown in at the deep end – and how he cleared a huge rent debt (with help from some Frank Turner gigs)

• How a “reset button” has been hit in the last few years – and how people’s gig-going habits have changed recently

• What the hidden costs are of running a venue – and why the profit margins are so tight

• The stressful process of buying the venue with the help of the Music Venue Trust

• How artists are starting to book shorter “big city” tours that avoid the regional towns and cities, leaving local fans with fewer options.

• How under-18s fans are often drawn to the huge arena shows at the expense of cheap local shows.

• The future of the venue and what decades of moshing has done to the floor of the dancefloor!

===================================

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works – and this week, Stu’s Big Number is also the Big Story – and here are some mind-boggling facts to bewilder your friends with: 

• There are now 253 million tracks available on streaming sites

• … and 55.3 million songs were not played even once in 2025

• (And, over 100 million songs have been played less than 100 times)

• Over 50 million songs - 20% of all the music available on streaming – were uploaded in 2025

• 106,000 songs were uploaded each day - that’s 7,000 hours of music or 10,000 albums per day

Naturally, this gave Steve and Stu a lot to talk about, including:

• On many platforms, artists don’t get paid until their song gets over 1000 streams – is this fair?

• Nearly half of those daily song uploads might, data suggests, be AI-generated – and this means more noise for real artists to fight through to be heard.

• How much does it cost a company like Spotify to host all this music? (And what about the carbon footprint?)

• Should the platforms pay money out when AI-generated songs are played?

• If there were 50m+ new tracks last year, doesn’t that mean there will be even more this year - and who wants this AI slop?

Also this week: the UK’s Music Venue Trust released it’s annual report which revealed, amongst the data, that the profit margins for its member venues are razor thin – under 3%.

The state of play for grassroots venues is still precarious – Steve digs deep into the data. Plus – music platform Bandcamp has banned all AI-generated music from its platform.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• A question for you, dear listener: have you ever missed the last bus or train home after a gig? Did you end up sleeping in a bus shelter? Let us know! thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com

• (Steve remembers spending a lot of time trying to nap at Liverpool Street station having missed the last train home… and which superstar band was “so bad” that Stu got accidentally drunk and fell asleep on the train on the way home?)

• Steve’s Shameless Plug – after months of praise, he finally got Little Grandad into the famous BBC Maida Vale studios for a live session [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ps7b]

• Which big towns and cities are starting to be left off touring schedules in the UK? (people in Coventry, Stoke and Milton Keynes may wish to avert your ears)

• And what happens to artists and music fans if quality emerging artists are not able to go and perform in cities (very slightly) off the beaten track?

• Some of the biggest songs on YouTube are… nursery rhymes. One Wheels on the Bus video got over 2 BILLION streams in 2025, and Bah Bah Black Sheep is the 15th biggest video of ALL TIME.

• And finally… a company called Alan’s Factory Outlet has a  fascinating/hyperbolic piece of indie band data.

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

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For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works – and this week, it’s a Billionaire Special!

• Stu’s big figure has three commas: Beyonce is now worth a billion dollars – the fifth musician to do so, according to Forbes. (Experience being ultra-wealthy by listening to TPOM's extra content for FREE here: https://www.patreon.com/12218634/join)

• Elon Musk versus the music industry: the world’s richest man doesn’t like paying for music

• The head honcho of Universal Music has thoughts on how AI slop shouldn’t be paid in the same way as human artists

• The state of the UK industry – people are streaming more and spending more on music than ever

• Classic label Sun records have been selling records at 1952 prices – so what could you have bought?

• There’s a listener question from Martin Bull, who asks about making a short run of vinyl records: Steve explains how to do it, how pricing can vary a lot – and how to make money doing it.

• (Also check out this earlier episode on physical album sales https://open.spotify.com/episode/40JrxtmsGfZwzPki0HFGzC?si=GQgiojyrTU2Io7XADcHTUA)

•  Spotify has a new feature that lets you see what friends are playing - but why?

• And finally, a rare feel-good internet story: there’s now a “London Metal Ladies” WhatsApp group.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Rapper La Russel sells $57,000 of records to Superfans in one day, selling albums on a pay-what-you-want basis.

• Steve has a neat idea: what if Bandcamp was a touring festival?

• The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess had Merch Market last week - and how has he become such an interesting and multi-faceted influence in UK music?

• And speaking of artist merchandise: Elton John has released his own zero-alcohol, vegan-friendly sparkling wine (and how does a product like this come about in the first place?)

• Plus, Stu reveals that he’s a Norwich City fan.

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. And it’s a bumper episode as Steve and Stu take a look ahead into 2026: what will the big stories be in the coming year? Here are their predictions:

• It’s a year of change for the UK record industry, and where the UK stands in terms of influence in a global context – including acts like Sleep Token who have broken through in the USA.

  And there’s been a lot of layoffs at UK major labels – why might that be good for indie artists? 

• (BTW - get a free trial of our extra content, The Lock In, right here! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/12218634/join⁠)

• AI inevitably will be playing a major role (again) – but what are the potentially erosive impacts now that it’s an established technology, what difficult decisions might the streaming platforms need to make, and how might it be used by indie music-makers?

• Live music will reach a pivotal point this year: the mega stadium shows will continue – but will people keep paying mega ticket prices? And what about the smaller venues who are under more pressure than ever?

• And will Oasis play Knebworth in 2026 – or 2027? The rumour mill is aggregated by Steve.

• Those reunion tours will keep coming – but can the bands keep doing it; and what happens when they find they can’t sell any more tickets?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠Patreon Superfans⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Are bigger gigs becoming like Premier League Football - where tickets (and everything else at the show) are expensive, gigs are once-yearly events, and people with less cash are being priced out?

• And what do people want from smaller, cheaper gigs these days anyway? Steve has been jostling shoulders with The Kids to find out.

• In TPOM fandom news: Steve has already seen Little Grandad in 2026! Stu squeezes in the first Black Crowes mention of the year!

• Stu tries to create an AI version of a Dry Cleaning song – how did he do it and what did it sound like? And what if a human band took his song, developed it, and performed it live?

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Here it is! The long awaited, much feared Great Price of Music Christmas Quiz 2025 – which sees Steve pitted against Stu in a battle for the ages, as both vie to be crowned QUIZ CHAMP 2025.

Our daring duo face questions about the show, band names, and each other – as well as especially tricky questions submitted by our Patreon Superfans, plus one question from a Very Special Indie Guest Star. Spoiler alert: it was a fiendishly tricky quiz, and a very close-run race.

Look, the best thing to do is to hit play and just listen (Superfans get an extra 30 mins in the Lock-In, where Steve and Stu answer their questions about favourite gigs, best new bands, frozen toilets and much more.)

We will be back after Christmas in the first full week of January. But until then, grab a glass of sherry and a mince pie and enjoy the sound of your two favourite music biz commentators squirming in the face of of some tricky trivia.

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu get stuck into a late-year flurry of big news:

• "This could be the death knell for small venues" – enormous increases in business rates are coming for UK venues – Steve has a lot to say about how a seemingly-innocuous business rates policy point in the recent UK budget may prove to have a devastating effect;

• UK band Los Campesinos! have laid bare their streaming royalties – by publishing some numbers for their 2024 album ‘All Hell’ – and it's fascinating (and sobering) info;

• The UK government has launched an urgent major inquiry into how the country's live industry works – but why, and what are they trying to find out?

• How safe is the music industry to work in for young people?

• Stu's big number is 200 million – and there's a good chance you're one of them;

• More evidence that the music biz might not be ready to truly deal with AI-music;

• Christmas is coming, so for the heritage-rock-music fan in your life, what stocking-fillers are Mick Jagger and The Kinks selling?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• In Spotify Wrapped, Stuart’s ‘listening age’ was a sprightly 20... so why is that?

• And what is Steve's 'listening age'?

• Which of Steve and Stu are most anxious about next week's TPOM Christmas Quiz?

• A veteran DJ thinks that phones are ruining dancefloors. His solution... is hardly less dystopian.

• In Stu's quest to make up for insulting the whole of Australia (see last week's show...) he has news of something positive Olivia Dean is doing down under.

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu pull on their Santa hats and get stuck in to:

• Spotify Wrapped 2025 has just launched (and has now taken over your social feeds) But why is it such a big deal this year?

• Steve answers a great listener question: "why don’t more bands and venues do afternoon gigs for people who can't stay out late?"

• Olivia Dean is the breakout British star this year... and is now taking on Ticketmaster – but why?

• Is it or isn't it Jorja Smith? (It isn't). She's at the centre of a row about AI technology and vocal soundalikes.

• Stu's big number this week is £134 million – and indie labels have spent it... but on what?

• Part 654 of the "Universal wants to buy indie firm Downtown Music" story

• Last week we predicted that AI music firm Suno might finally sign licensing deals... and two hours after we recorded, they did! So who’s the partner?

• Why have Oasis reopened their pop-up merch stores in London and Dublin? (VFX: Sleigh bells jingling)

• When bands implode spectacularly: Steve and Stu revel in the story of Portland death metal band Vitriol, who abandoned their frontman at a remote gas station, mid tour

• Is Spotify Wrapped a good thing?

• Stu accidentally insults all of Australia

• Steve and Stu chat more about matinee gigs and weigh up the pros and cons (and their boozing opportunities)

• Stu has a news based joke about Johnny Cash, his song ‘A Boy Named Sue’, and the Coca-Cola corporation

• Would you like an art print of Amy Winehouse in the bath? (It’s not as creepy as that sounds…)

🎄🎄 DON'T FORGET TO SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS FOR OUR XMAS QUIZ! (SUPERFANS: https://www.patreon.com/posts/price-of-music-n-144529777 AND FANS: https://www.patreon.com/posts/price-of-music-n-144542513) 🎄🎄

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Get more TPOM in the post-show "lock-in" – try it for FREE!: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/thepriceofmusic/membership⁠

====

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu unwrap the week's music biz goings-on:

• An exploding toilet caused a gig cancellation – but what now for the band, fans and the venue?

• Stu’s Big Number is $2.45bn - it’s big, but why might it feel scary to artists and labels?

• Spotify might also put their prices by a dollar in the US - who will welcome this (and who won’t?)

• Three AI music-making companies have struck deals with major labels - but who and why?

• The UK ticket levy to help smaller grassroots venues is taking off – so what's next? Stu's been chatting to an MP to find out.

• TPOM’s continued role as your Primary Baby Shark News Resource continues as Stu explains how many millions of dollars it made last year (it was a lot).

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Steve once flew several thousand miles to watch a band, only for them to quit after a mere three songs. But which now-massive band was it?

• Who are Steve and Stu's artists of the year? (Including Wet Leg and Self Esteem)

  What was the annual Reader's Poll like behind the scenes at the NME for Steve?

• More unusual gig cancellation stories - including pigeons pooping on Kings of Leon, Neil Young’s sandwiches, and more

• What’s the city of Manchester doing to support local venues and promoters?

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

One more round? The post-show "lock-in" is just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠ - try it for FREE!: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/thepriceofmusic/membership

====

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu pour a couple of foaming pints of:

• Stu’s Big Number is 10 million – but how does it relate to the premature jingling of Christmas bells?

• The UK government has announced that tickets will soon only be able to be resold at face value – but will the law work in reality?

• Why don't some venues share set times for concerts? (And if you knew when the artists were onstage would you arrive earlier or later?)

• Paul McCartney's released a completely silent song - but why?

• Why has a UK radio DJ spent 24 hours playing songs that peaked at number two in the charts? (‘Number two' is a clue.)

• Metal legends Megadeth have released their own beer

• Spotify is shaking up its subscription tiers as a test in five countries. What does it say about its future plans elsewhere in the world?

• Veteran British band Squeeze are releasing a brand new album... of songs written when they were teenagers.

• Why is streaming service Tidal adding an ‘upload’ feature for DIY artists?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Steve weighs in on venues and artists announcing venue stage times - who is it good for, and how might doing this harm venues? 

  • (Read the piece this relates to here: https://markdavyd.substack.com/p/the-room-where-it-happens)

• Stu’s Megadeth beer taste test (spoiler: it’s very hoppy)

• • Steve recalls a time when he and Suggs were forced to drink Madness’ own beer
  • Mariah Carey is starting to dominate the charts again… so when is it appropriate to start playing Christmas music?

• 
  

  As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

  Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

  See you next week!

  Steve and Stuart

  ======

  Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

  ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

  Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

  Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

  Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

  For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

• Stu’s Big Number is 713 million – and you are quite possibly one of them. But what is it?

• Can YOU tell the difference between human-made music and AI-generated music? A study suggests: almost certainly not.

• The 1975 have deleted a song from their last album on streaming services... because frontman Matty Healy didn’t like it any more. (And are artists, as Steve says, often bad judges of whether their songs are actually any good?)

• Music contributed a record £8 billion to the UK economy last year... but why is there still a reason to be concerned?

• Last week Steve said he couldn’t understand why Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ is still popular … well, it turns out someone literally wrote the book that answers the question.

• A quick update on the music biz deals with AI companies and what they mean for musicians;

• Music Venue Properties, which saves UK grassroots venues from closing, has bought two more venues;

• A vinyl record made using… coal dust?

• Thundercat’s remix of Diana Ross’ ‘Upside Down’ can be listened to via – oh yes – a ‘bone-conduction lollipop’.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• 97% of people can't tell AI music from human music. Stu is going to put Steve to the test by playing an AI song about… rock bands in Camden.

• The Grammy Awards nominations have been announced - including one for… Milli Vanilli?

• More on the ‘live show value for money’ debate… featuring Radiohead!

• All-seater shows in small venues – Steve’s got a puzzler for Stu about Southampton Joiners...

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. And in this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu grapple with:

• Stu's Big Number is 11.5 million – but what does it have to do with Billie Eilish and a room full of billionaires?

• One AI-music company is working on a new service with the world’s biggest major label... so will be be able to create our own sound-a-like tracks?

• How Spotify is coming under fire in the US over controversial ICE ads running on its service.

• For the first time in 35 years, there are no rap tracks in the US Top 40 singles chart. So what's happened?

• A new tech startup in the UK wants to help musicians ‘poison’ their own recordings - how is that a good thing?

Also! Please let us know what you'd like to hear more of in TPOM in our listeners' poll! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/listeners-poll-142732962 – or if you're on Spotify you can find the poll beneath the show!

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Steve went to see his favourite new band Little Grandad again. But how much should emerging artists charge for tickets?

• And how long should a band’s set be, does a three-hour stadium set make your heart sink, and what its your ideal set length?

• Why are so many people treating the lyrics from the new Lily Allen album as if they are literally true?

• What are Steve’s (frank) thoughts on Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”?

• Which albums are hanging around in the charts for years – and how many weeks has ABBA Gold been in there?

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Bonus episode! Steve is joined by Lord Kevin Brennan, the ex-MP – and now member of the UK's House of Lords – who is also a musician, and has been described as “a writer of songs and a righter of wrongs.”

He talks to Steve about his leadership of the UK parliament’s new fan-led review of live and electronic music, with the aim of improving the sustainability of grassroots live and electronic music to safeguard the success of the wider UK music industry..

You can take part in this review right now – just go to https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9161

The initiative seeks to place fans’ voices at the centre of decisions about ticketing, venues, accessibility, and transport, similar to football’s fan-led reform from a few years ago. Lord Brennan stresses that live music depends on fair treatment of fans and transparency over ticket pricing, fees, and resale practices.

Lord Brennan argues for a “fans’ charter” to ensure shared values across the live sector, from small venues to major promoters. Drawing from his experience in Parliament and his previous inquiry into music streaming, he also explains how policy can protect grassroots venues, improve access and late-night transport, and encourage community ownership models.

He also exclusively reveals the future plans for his cross-party, all-MP band with the pun-tastic name of... “MP4”.

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu dip into the postbag and answer some very astute listeners’ questions which get to the heart of music streaming and live music!

• Matt asks why ticket prices can vary so much at the same venue? And he has a good real-world example: Maximo Park and Suede are playing Cambridge Corn Exchange soon – and tickets for Maximo Park £36.50 and Suede’s are £45.50. If they both sell out, Suede will be making an extra £12,600 a night by his calculations. But does it really work like that? And why do the prices vary? Steve has dug in and found out.

• Richard asks about the credits information for songs on Spotify – and he has noticed that there’s missing or incomplete information – so does this mean the songwriters don’t get paid properly? Where is all this information anyway? And how is this one of the music industry’s “big, big problems,” as Stu puts it? 

AND: look out later this week because we've got a bonus episode on its way . We'll bring you an actual Lord: Steve will be joined by Lord Kevin Brennan, the ex-MP – and now member of the UK's House of Lords – who talks to Steve about his leadership of the UK parliament’s new fan-led review of live and electronic music, with the aim of improving the sustainability of grassroots live and electronic music to safeguard the success of the wider UK music industry.

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu crunch the numbers and figure out...

• Exactly how much does a Mercury prizewinner’s streams really go up after a win?

• Spotify is going to make a licensed AI music something – but what is it going to be? And will artists get paid?

• Is TPOM now a Baby Shark fan-podcast? Steve politely requests that Stu stops singing a mooted Peppa Pig/Baby Shark collaboration.

• In Australia, people are listening to less music by Australian artists (and it’s the same in the UK too) … so what are they listening to instead? And what can be done to increase fans’ local listening?

• MTV is shutting down its last music channels – so are we witnessing the death of the music video?

• What about Ireland’s idea of a basic minimum income for musicians?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Festival Goose Poo Vacuuming!

• What did Steve chat about with Damon Albarn in the 100 Club last week (and what drink did he order?)

• Steve has some exclusive hints about the forthcoming John Niven-penned Britpop musical!

• More on the UK’s Mercury Music prize - and the growing gap between the pop-single megastars at the top and the more niche album-oriented artists at the bottom.

• What are the benefits of Neil Young being grumpy (or bold and individualist, depending on your perspective)?

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

A special episode for you this week - where TPOM wonders: just how hard is it to run a festival in 2025, anyway? Spoiler: it's tricky, but rewarding! To find out more, we spoke to John Rostron, who started in the festival world when he co-founded the award-winning multi-venue festival Sŵn in Cardiff in 2007.

He's now CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals which represents over 150 independent UK Music Festivals – making it the single largest collective of festival audiences in the UK, with 1.3 million tickets sold.

So, we wanted to know what challenges festivals are facing today, and he shines light on what goes into putting a festival on, including sharing some astonishing facts and figures around the economics of it all. It's a fascinating interview!

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. And in this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu wrap their minds around...

• How much would it cost to buy Coldplay’s very first single today?;

• Steve reveals the “best new band he’s seen in months”;

• A proper AI vs human band dust up!;

• Are the major labels about to sign deals with music-generating AI platforms?

• A splendidly indignant speech from RAYE;

• Major labels are buying up indie businesses – and now hundreds of indie labels are very angry;

• The Spotify CEO is “stepping down” (and yet is still somehow the boss);

• How have Steve and Stu finally removed ‘Baby Shark’ from their music algorithm?;

• Listeners' letters: how on earth did the UK once have four weekly music newspapers? 

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Steve and Stu wonder exactly why second-hand records are so expensive at the moment (and how disappointingly little is Steve’s teenage copy of “Message In A Bottle” on green vinyl worth?)

• And more on Slady - the only all-female Slade tribute band, don’t forget – and on buying tickets in advance.

• Do bands get a better reception when they travel to remote cities to perform?

• Should we call AI artists “artists” – or something else entirely?

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. And goodness me, there's a lot in this week’s episode of The Price of Music for our dynamic duo to get stuck into...

• Listener Richard sent us a great question about music journalism – and Steve has a lot to say when answering: what’s changed about music journalism, whether music journalism is still important, where the music print media has gone, and what the future of music writing holds.

• (Plus - does Steve get paid when his 1991 “Nevermind” NME review is re-printed today?)

• Stu’s Big Number is 75 million – and they are “spam tracks” that Spotify has removed from its service in the last year alone. But what on earth is a spam song anyway?

• What extra information do artists need to attach to their songs when they upload music? 

• Spotify has new rules around AI music – so what’s banned, and what’s not banned?

• TikTok is apparently about to be sold in the US (maybe) – but why is TikTok so important to the music industry?

• Why are old Billie Eilish and Rihanna songs re-emerging to huge popularity?

• The Great Record Shop Album Filing Debate rumbles on – where would you file Elton John – “E” or “J”? 

• (Plus: a listener report from the Resident Records shop that started it all…)

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• More on music journalism: are video creators being ‘encouraged’ to do certain reviews? (And in what ways in the past were journalists persuaded to write reviews?)

• Doing an artist interview in real life versus doing it over Zoom

• Should online influencers who help songs become successful get a cut of the song’s profits?

• Introducing Slady – the all-women Slade tribute band! (And why did they have to cancel a gig?) 

• Why are people now buying tickets at the very last minute - and why does the economics of ticketing mean artists won’t be able to do as many gigs?

• Do you always turn up early for support bands – and have you ever discover a new favourite band this way?

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s multi-faceted episode of The Price of Music our intrepid duo get to grips with...

• Stu’s Big Number is One Hundred Billion Dollars… but who has paid it to whom and should that number actually be bigger?

• Ticketmaster is being sued by the US government for ‘illegal ticket resale tactics’ and deceiving artists and fans - but what will happen now?

• Why have Massive Attack also pulled their music from Spotify everywhere? (and how does it relate to AI drone weapons?)

• And why have hundreds of artists pulled their music from streaming platforms in Israel?

• The Great Album Filing Debate: If Ben Folds is filed under "F" is Ben Folds Five filed under "B"? What about Prince when he was a symbol?

• More AI-artists are finding success – including Steve’s nightmare: an AI-generated Country music album. 

• Artist Lizzo thinks that music videos are dead and that authentic self-videos are key; meanwhile, major research says that "going viral" on social media may not help artists build their fanbases after all. So who is right??

• Stu once again gets excited by Taylor Swift (and this time it’s a cinema-based launch party)

• Why are people suddenly listening to "My Humps" again?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• Which instrument did Steve (reluctantly) learn at school? (And how did he get tricked into learning it again just after he'd given it up?)

• Which nationality of people travels abroad the most to visit music events?

• How does learning an instrument make you a better doctor?

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s action-packed episode of The Price of Music: a bunch of extremely interesting music biz questions are answered by our intrepid duo...

• Stu’s Big Number is 30,000 and relates to the number of AI-generated songs… but why so many songs and where are they going?

• Why are Radiohead’s fans getting angry about tickets (“that don’t exist”)?

• The Great TPOM Record-Filing Debate continues: do you file Van Morrison under ‘V’ or ‘M’? And where does a record by the band 86TVs go?

• Why has Spotify given paying users lossless music for free (and is ‘Lossless’ a long-lost My Bloody Valentine album?

• Did Steve and Stu cause Morrissey to get so many offers for his Smiths songs that he deleted his email address?

• How did King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard fill the entire Top 30 album chart on Bandcamp (and why)?

• What is the (depressing) reason that Bad Bunny has chosen not to tour in the mainland USA?

• How much is Bjork’s VR album re-master?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:

• The UK’s Mercury Prize shortlist has been announced – what do Steve and Stu think of the finalists and why is Steve “flabbergasted” by one specific missing nominee?

• Steve and Stu’s true feelings about lossless audio - is it actually worth it?

• What is the sole record on Steve’s Discogs Want List, and why does he regret not buying it when it came up for sale recently?

• What is Stu’s ideal Christmas gift? And could it possibly be connected to The Black Crowes, much to Steve’s amusement?

• Can you guess Steve’s response to Stu saying “I should now give you a lecture on The Black Crowes’ ‘Amorica’ album”?

• What is the best song about the fans of The Smiths?

As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

======

Support The Price of Music on Patreon:

⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship, email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com