What were the biggest stories in music this year?  No, not the releases or the hype cycles but the forces reshaping how music is made, played, toured, and valued.

In Part 1 of Drowned in Sound’s Stories of the Year, Sean Adams and Emma Wilkes count down stories #5 and #4, starting with a contradiction that defined 2025: record-breaking mega-gigs and billion-pound industry headlines on one side, and a grassroots ecosystem under existential pressure on the other.

They talk through the “mega gig” (stadium shows, park festivals, corporate-backed cultural events) and also ask what their success is hiding. Taylor Swift-level touring power continues to drive economic growth but artists at every other level are cancelling tours. What is the purpose of growth if the foundations are cracking?

From there, the conversation turns to AI. A now present-day force that is reshaping music. This is the year artificial intelligence stopped being theoretical and started demanding political, legal, and cultural responses.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the countdown.

The Drowned in Sound podcast is presented in partnership with Qobuz, the pioneering high-quality music streaming and download platform for music enthusiasts and audiophiles. Each week we curate playlists on Qobuz, featuring our favourite records, artists, and the themes we explore on the show.

Visit https://drownedinsound.org/playlists/ to discover new music in rich Hi-Res lossless quality and start your 30-day free trial of Qobuz at https://qobuz.com/dis.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

01:15 - Story #5 begins: mega gigs vs grassroots

02:10 - What defines a “mega gig” now?

04:11 - £8bn industry headlines vs lived reality

06:26 - Taylor Swift, scale, and monopoly economics

07:18 - Employment figures and the invisible labour of music

08:43 - Grassroots venues as cultural homes

09:32 - Inequality, wealth concentration, and responsibility

13:22 - How the industry decides who gets tipped

16:01 - Why discovery systems feel broken

19:30 - Story #4 begins: artificial intelligence enters music

23:19 - Consent, transparency, and “human-made” music

28:30 - Power, control, and social isolation

35:30 - Outro

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It’s that time again: lists, arguments, consensus (or lack of it). So.. how do we choose an ultimate “Album of the Year’?

In this episode, Emma Wilkes joins Sean Adams to talk through their favourite albums of 2025. No this is not the definitive list, not the ‘right’ list, just the stuff that has stuck, been obsessed over, demanded repeat listens, or just briefly rearranged their internal wiring.

They also talk openly about the collapse of monoculture, the impossibility of ‘keeping up’, and why criticism still matters amongst the fractured scenes, algorithmic bubbles, and overwhelming volume of new music to choose from.

This is not so much a ranked list and more as two very online music obsessives trying to map a year that refuses to be summarised.

The Drowned in Sound podcast is presented in partnership with Qobuz, the pioneering high-quality music streaming and download platform for music enthusiasts and audiophiles. Each week we curate playlists on Qobuz, featuring our favourite records, artists, and the themes we explore on the show.

Visit https://drownedinsound.org/playlists/ to discover new music in rich Hi-Res lossless quality and start your 30-day free trial of Qobuz at https://qobuz.com/dis.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

Chapters

00:00 – Hayley Williams and the case for a bold AOTY

01:00 – Emma’s pick: The Callous Daoboys and joyful heaviness

04:00 – Grassroots venues, noise scenes, and Atlanta’s rise

06:30 – Introducing Emma Wilkes: rock, metal & Kerrang!

09:00 – Why heavy music needs catharsis, humour, and chaos

12:00 – Hardcore’s new era and the crossover wave

14:00 – The collapse of monoculture in 2025

16:00 – Discovery fatigue and the algorithm problem

18:30 – Model/Actriz, grief albums, and theatrical noise

22:00 – Heartworms and the art of gothic storytelling

24:00 – Ska, cowbells, and unexpected nostalgia

27:00 – Honourable mentions: Lambrini Girls, Wolf Alice, Nova Twins

30:00 – Hayley Williams’ political arc and southern identity

32:00 – Easter eggs, vocal shifts, and how fans decode albums

34:00 – Allyship, perspective, and storytelling in pop

35:00 – Production notes: Efterklang, Daniel James & sonic detail

37:00 – Why music criticism still matters

39:00 – Emma’s Top 10: heavy, emotional, ambitious

42:00 – Sean’s curveballs: Postcards, DARKSIDE & more

45:00 – So… who really made Album of the Year?

Albums mentioned:

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82% of music fans want to stop climate breakdown but only 3% know what to do. Climate activist Tori Tsui reveals how Billie Eilish, Brian Eno, and Massive Attack are building the infrastructure to turn that care into action.

Recorded backstage at EarthSonic Live in Manchester, this conversation bridges the gap between wanting to help the planet and knowing how.

Drowned in Sound founder Sean Adams meets Tori Tsui, the climate justice activist, author of "It's Not Just You," and senior advisor to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Tori works with Brian Eno's EarthPercent and Billie Eilish's Overheated climate conferences.

IN THIS EPISODE:

Organizations mentioned include:

Read Tori's book "It's Not Just You" https://www.toritsui.com/ 

ABOUT DROWNED IN SOUND:

Recorded at EarthSonic Live, Manchester Museum, November 2024.

#ClimateChange #MusicIndustry #BillieEilish #BrianEno #MassiveAttack #ClimateActivism #Podcast

The UK Government have announced a landmark decision: ticket resale above face value is to be made illegal, backed by strict limits on service fees and new enforcement powers. After decades of music fans being fleeced by industrial-scale touting, could this be the turning point?

In this special episode, the FanFair Alliance’s Adam Webb (a central figure in the long-running campaign against exploitative secondary ticketing) joins Sean Adams to unpack the announcement, its implications, and what it means for fans, artists, venues, and the future of the live industry.

Webb lays out how the crisis unfolded, with resale platforms enabling huge mark-ups that now cost fans an estimated £112 million a year. They trace the steady pressure that’s been building for years: Trading Standards investigations, CMA interventions, tabloid exposés, Ed Sheeran’s court cases, and sustained evidence-gathering by managers, artists, unions, and campaigners.

Together, Adam and Sean explore the possibilities opened up by this week’s announcement and ask the simple question: what happens when fairness is restored? And will these reforms be delivered quickly enough to stop another cycle of exploitation?

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

00:00 – The scale of the problem: how industrialised touting took hold

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Fan-Led Review of Music: Parliamentary Inquiry into Ticketing Reform

Music Fans Voice: Campaigning for Fair Ticketing and Fan Rights

Which? – Stop Fleecing Fans: Ending Rip-Off Ticket Resale

Robert Smith: 7,000 Cure Tickets Cancelled on Secondary Sites

FanFair Alliance: Guide to Buying Tickets Safely

CMA Investigation: Enforcement Action on Secondary Ticketing

STAR: The UK’s Ticketing Standards and Consumer Protection Body

Ed Sheeran’s Legal Battle Against Ticket Touts (BBC)

Your Consumer Protection Rights (Gov.uk)

Adam Webb – Updates and Advocacy on Ticketing Reform

How can the UK music industry be both in crisis and booming? In 2024, the sector was worth a record £8 billion to the UK economy but at the same time, grassroots venues are closing, artists are struggling to tour, and AI threatens to steal musicians’ work for the profit of broligarchs.

In this week’s episode, Sean Adams speaks with Tom Kiehl, CEO of UK Music, about the findings in the organisation’s brand new annual report This Is Music 2025. Together they unpack the contradictions of a sector growing on paper but straining at its foundations from slowing post-pandemic growth and the fight for fair AI regulation, to the obstacles making it harder for new artists breaking through.

With reflections on Brexit’s lasting damage, AI’s issues with consent, and a new £1 grassroots levy, it’s a revealing look at an industry at a crossroads.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

Chapters

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How “sleazy” was Indie Sleaze, really - and was it ever a scene that Paul Smith of Maxïmo Park recognised himself in?

At a time when the air was thick with lager and leather jackets, Smith was more inspired by art-school notebooks, Robert Wyatt, and the idea that pop could be poetry.

In this conversation, the Maxïmo Park frontman joins Sean Adams who also lived through the era being retrospectively called “indie sleaze”, was at those early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and Libertines shows, released records by Metric and Kaiser Chiefs, etc. 

In this conversation they revisit the making of Maxïmo Park’s Mercury-nominated debut and reflect on what it meant to be outsiders during Britain’s mid-2000s indie boom. Recorded for the album’s twentieth anniversary, the pair unpack the contradictions of that moment - art rock vs lad rock and sincerity vs posturing whilst tracing how those tensions still shape British guitar music today.

From signing to Warp Records and headlining the NME Awards Tour alongside Arctic Monkeys, Mystery Jets and We Are Scientists, to the band’s art-school roots, working-class perspectives, and enduring faith in pop’s emotional truth, this is a deeply human glance back at the legacy of one of the era’s most literate frontmen.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

00:00 – Indie Sleaze, revisionism, and the myth of 2005

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Live music is nothing without the fans. Generating £5.2 billion to the UK economy PA, employing over 210,000 people and building the careers of those who contribute over £4bn to the export of live music, there is no doubting the UKs reputation as the international home of live music and the birthplace of the festival industry. Every pound of this economic success comes from a fans pocket and the House of Commons Culture Media and Sport committee have decided it’s finally time to put them in the centre of decision making, with a fan led review of Live and Electronic Music. This review aims to champion the areas that work, safeguard the areas under threat and ensure that the health and growth of live music is fair and accessible to all.

Recorded live at Sŵn Festival in Cardiff, Sean Adams introduces a special panel arranged as part of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s Fan-Led Review into Live Music and Electronic Music - a landmark inquiry bringing music lovers together to discuss ideas to protect the live music industry and ensure it works in the best interests of music fans across the country. 

The discussion draws fascinating parallels between football and music, two cultures built on passion, loyalty, and community, yet often structured around systems that treat fans as consumers, not stakeholders.

Panellists

Chair – Sam Duckworth 

With a recording artist career as Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly spanning 20 years, Sam has most recently been working with Music Venue Trust to advocate for greater fan input into Music industry decision making, co-founding the Music Fans Voice survey.

Lord Kevin Brennan

Lord Brennan is Chair of the Fan-Led Review of Live Music, on behalf of the Culture Media and Sport Committee. The Review is bringing music lovers together to discuss ideas to protect the live and electronic music industry and ensure it works in the best interests of music fans across the country. The aim is to produce a report to the Government setting out the perspectives of fans based on survey responses, stakeholder meetings and public engagement events. Lord Brennan has held positions as a Government Minister, former Chair of the APPG on Music and was a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which produced reports on ‘The future of music festivals’ and ‘The economics of music streaming’. He is also a performing musician.

Dr Lucy Bennett – Lecturer at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture

Lucy is a leading academic voice on music fandom and popular music culture. She co-founded the Fan Studies Network, has consulted for YouTube, and delivered analysis for the Recording Academy/Grammys. Widely published, she also provides expert commentary for the BBC, The Guardian and The Washington Post. Her teaching spans Media Fandom and Popular Music, Media & Culture, and she recently worked on the Music Fans’ Voice Survey, amplifying live music audiences.

Cathy Long – CEO of Aposto

Having worked with 64 football clubs at the Premier League (spearheading safety and fan experience) , The FSA and co-author of the Accessible Stadia Guide, Cathy is one of English Football’s leading fan experts and a passionate and experienced advocate for Equality and Safety within the game.

Julian Jenkins 

Julian Jenkins is a seasoned sports executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the  global sports industry. He has held senior leadership roles across football, licensing, and commercial development, helping to grow fan engagement, brand value, and international partnerships. Julian now lead multiple ventures spanning professional women’s football, AI-driven sports analytics, and creative IP development, blending his passion for sport, community, and innovation. His work focuses on building sustainable models that connect clubs, fans, and brands in more meaningful ways.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

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With 41% of grassroots community music spaces at risk of closure due to financial pressures, what does the future hold for young musicians trying to break through? And what role can the wider industry and everyday fans play in keeping these vital pathways alive?

In this special DiSpatch episode of the Drowned in Sound podcast, Emma Wilkes heads to Troxy in London for Youth Music's annual awards ceremony, which celebrates some of the stars of tomorrow and the grassroots projects behind them. Youth Music is the UK’s largest music charity, providing funding for hundreds of grassroots music organisations and supporting over 100,000 children and young people every year up and down the UK. Their work has never felt so urgent.

Through conversations with industry leaders, grassroots organisers, and emerging artists, this episode explores what equal access to music looks like, the vital importance of grassroots opportunities for young people, and what music fans can actually do to help. From major label perspectives to Cambridge's rising rap talent, we hear how the music industry can and must support the next generation.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

Chapters:

01:50 – Charlotte Edgeworth (Sony Music) on the industry’s role in supporting grassroots music.

05:50 – Dan Tsu (Lyrix Organix) on money vs creativity and mapping pathways for young people.

09:40 – Matt Griffiths (CEO, Youth Music) on meeting young people where they're at.

14:00 – Sister Bliss (Faithless) on giving every young person the opportunity to create. 

17:50 - Dan Tsu (Lyrix Organix) on creating spaces for young people

23:50 – Sister Bliss (Faithless) on what we can do next

28:50 – What comes next? A grassroots funding crisis, and what music fans can do to help.

30:50 – JayaHadADream on Youth Music's impact on her life and career.

32:20 – Resources, Rescue the Roots, and Youth Music’s call to action.

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Links & Resources:

Cover photo by Jack Oliver.

In this episode of the Drowned in Sound podcast, Sean Adams and Emma Wilkes are joined by Sophie K and Yasmin from the podcast, ’On Wednesdays We Wear Black’. Together they unpack what accountability really looks like inside the music industry - and why it’s still lagging decades behind.

From the Marilyn Manson, Chris Brown and Brand New controversies to the long-standing normalisation of abuse in classic rock (as laid bare in The Guardian’s review of Look Away), the group explores how power, money, and silence continue to shape who gets forgiven…and who doesn’t.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

Chapters:

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In part two of our Drowned in Sound podcast series on the Spotify exodus, Sean Adams sits down with Alexa Speed (founder of Cut Off The Spigot), and artist Kadhja Bonet alongside returning guest Laura Burhenn (The Mynabirds) to unpack the growing backlash against Spotify and other streaming giants.

From Spotify’s billion-dollar AI investments and Daniel Ek’s controversial war drone ventures to the ethics of billionaire ownership and music’s place in post-capitalist culture, Sean and this week’s guests dive into the details and ask what happens when artists say enough is enough.

We hear why Kadhja pulled her music from Spotify, how Alexa interrogates corporate influence behind streaming platforms, and what the alternatives are (including Bandcamp, Qobuz and more). We also imagine a future where creativity and community outweigh convenience, and where art is valued for its inherent social good, not algorithmic profitability. Far-fetched? Let’s find out.

Edited by: 

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

00:00 – Introduction: The Spotify Exodus

03:15 – Why Artists Are Leaving Streaming Platforms

08:45 – Daniel Ek’s Investments in AI and Defence Tech

13:20 – The Ethics of Streaming: Profit vs Planet

18:05 – Billionaires, Protest, and Power

22:40 – Kadhja Bonet: Why I Pulled My Music from Spotify

27:55 – Laura Burhenn on Journalism, Accountability & Platforms

34:10 – Alternatives: Bandcamp, Qobuz, and Ethical Listening

40:00 – The Role of Joy and Dance in Resistance

46:45 – Building a Post-Capitalist Music Culture

52:30 – What Comes After Spotify?

57:00 – Closing Reflections & Future Visions

Try Qobuz (Ethical Streaming Alternative):

Artists get paid 10x more than Spotify. Human-curated playlists. High-quality audio. Start your free trial via DiS (supporting independent music journalism).

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