The Price of Music

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: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠[email protected]

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: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠[email protected]

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: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠[email protected]

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: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠[email protected]

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: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠[email protected]