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...
$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: ⁠⁠[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'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: ⁠⁠[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'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: ⁠⁠[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 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: ⁠⁠[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]
===================================
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 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: ⁠⁠[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]