The Price of Music

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)===================================As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠See you next week!Stuart and Joe======TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

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 sponsorshipsThere’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 StuWe'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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠See you next week!Stuart and Joe======TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

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 HarpDove Ellis: BlizzardFlorence + the Machine: Everybody ScreamJade: That’s Showbiz BabyKnats: A Great Day in Newcastle (Joe's tip- listen here!)Kojey Radical: Don’t Look DownNia Archives: Emotional JunglistOlivia Dean: The Art of LovingPaul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon LaneRaye: This Music May Contain HopeSuede: AntidepressantsWar 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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠See you next week!Stuart and Joe======TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

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)===================================As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠See you next week!Stuart and Joe======TPOM online: ⁠http://tpom.uk/⁠Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠