Support Nialler9 on PatreonThe lack of income in the last year for musicians during a pandemic highlighted just how little streaming pays out in terms of an artist's overall revenue.The most streamed artist in the world in 2019 was Drake who only made 30% of his money from streaming.Something is broken.The #BrokenRecord campaign started by Tom Gray in the UK has been mounting pressure on music streaming services and labels to change the way they do business. Aided by UK Parliamentary Inquiries and a groundswell of support that lead to 156 musicians including Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn, Gary Barlow, Kano, Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, Mike Skinner, Noel Gallagher and Roots Manuva release an open letter to the Prime Minister calling him to intervene to put the value of music back "in the hands of music makers."On this episode, Niall and Andrea contextualise how the campaign got here, how a typical major label deal works, the issues around streaming rates and how Spotify royalties works, recent streaming developments and the responses in the past year from musicians towards the issue.Plus, why your algorithmic playlists on Spotify might be problematic, and the alternatives to the big DSPs.Support Nialler9 on Patreon and join our Discord chatAndrea has a Substack newsletter to subscribe to.Subscribe in Apple | Android | ACAST | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS FeedSubscribe to the podcast and please leave a review on iTunes, tell your friends or commit to supporting us directly. Support us on Patreon.Previous podcast episodes in this series

Niall and Andrea take you deep into how US disco morphed into Italo, how Moroder and Hi-NRG fits in, the characteristics of Italo disco, the glitz, the glamour and the keytars. Plus, we talk about the Nialler9 Podcast theme song..

Will we actually get to go to gigs this year? Niall looks at what could actually happen this summer, while Andrea casts her critical eye over Lana Del Rey's seventh album Chemtrails Over The Country Club in her typical considered fashion.

A podcast special interview with David Balfe about his crushing album about love, loss and impermanence.

Support Nialler9 on PatreonArtists such as Aphex Twin, Grimes, Kings Of Leon 3LAU, Jacques Greene, Disclosure and Azealia Banks have jumped on the NFT trend that sees digital art being sold at exorbitant prices on cryptocurrency auction sites.We explain what non-fungible tokens (NFTs)  are exactly, why people are buying them, why musicians are selling them, whether they have real-word value, why they are bad for the environment and why NFTs probably have a future in music.It's the Nialler9 Podcast, episode 127 with Niall and Andrea.Notes:Jacques Greene interview on his NFTThe Unreasonable Ecological Cost of #CryptoArt (Part 1)Wired: The Future of NFTSupport Nialler9 on Patreon because we have a Discord nowAndrea has a Substack newsletter to subscribe to.Subscribe in Apple | Android | ACAST | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS FeedSubscribe to the podcast and please leave a review on iTunes, tell your friends or commit to supporting us directly. Support us on Patreon.Previous podcast episodes in this series

Support Nialler9 on PatreonIt's Grammys week and Niall and Andrea are asking the big question - so how do you actually win a Grammy Award?We look at the submission process, how not all of the 13,000 plus Recording Academy members are elligible to vote. We look at what the demographic of the voters and how the selection committees that decide the shortlists have lead to artists like Zayn Malik, The Weeknd and many more to ask for greater transparency.We look into what a for your consideration campaign to promote a Grammy win means including VIP boxes from Taylor Swift, pressing flesh at Grammys mixer parties and how artists try to calculate their media appearances so Grammys voters might think of them favourably.We look at the snubs, the tactics that labels and artists employ, a weird genre categorisation rule, how the Grammys have tried to address the criticism amidst accusations of misconduct that allegedly include  rampant conflicts of interest and voting irregularities.And, we ask how important a Grammy win is anyway?Listen here:Support Nialler9 on Patreon because we have a Discord nowAndrea has a Substack newsletter to subscribe to.Subscribe in Apple | Android | ACAST | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS FeedSubscribe to the podcast and please leave a review on iTunes, tell your friends or commit to supporting us directly. Support us on Patreon.Previous podcast episodes in this series

Support Nialler9 on PatreonWe're talking to two people on this episode who we know well here at Nialler9. One who will represent the city, and one who will represent the country.Two people who have output and work that responds to the environment around them, the community that holds them and the landscape that inspires them. Both R&B artist Gemma Dunleavy and gig and festival promoter Emmet Condon of Homebeat are presenting their work as part of the St. Patrick’s Festival this month, which will be broadcast virtually and for free to watch on SPFTV at stpatricksfestival.ie. First, I chat to Gemma Dunleavy, who will be performing from the Guinness Storehouse alongside Pillow Queens and & Adam Mohamed on Paddy’s Day at 6:30pmGemma is an R&B artist who has sung with people   like White Collar Boy,  Murlo, Swing Ting and Simon Raymonde’s Lost Horizons project but its her own music,  the Up De Flats EP, that celebrates the Sheriff Street community in Dublin’s northern inner city where Gemma grew up, that really catapulted Gemma to the next level. Homebeat’s Transition series which will be broadcast across the week starting this Friday March 12th to Tuesday March 16th  which asks five electronic producers to write and perform music in response to the idea of transition.Those artists include David Kitt aka New Jackson, Ships’ Simon Cullen and Sorcha McGrath,  Gareth Quinn Redmond And Polytunnel. I talk to Emmet from Homebeat about how he brought some of that musical magic to South KerryHere's the episode:Support Nialler9 on Patreon because we love having a music communityAndrea has a Substack newsletter to subscribe to.Subscribe in Apple | Android | ACAST | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS FeedSubscribe to the podcast and please leave a review on iTunes, tell your friends or commit to supporting us directly. Support us on Patreon.Previous podcast episodes in this series

Support Nialler9 on PatreonIt's Choice Music Prize week. On Thursday 11 judges will gather together virtually and crown the best Irish album of the year 2020. In the absence of a night out for Irish music lovers, we decided to mark the occasion by gathering 5 previous judges of the prize together over Zoom to discuss each of the 10 albums on the list and ultimately, pick a winner from the 10 between us. At the virtual round table is: Una Mullally (Irish Times / United Ireland Podcast), Eoghan O'Sullivan (The Point Of Everything / Irish Examiner), Claire Beck (Today FM) along with hosts Niall and Andrea Cleary.We've all been judges before and our discussion was an interesting one that questioned the very act of crowning a piece of art above others, explored the dichotomy between transportive escapist art and muic born of lived experience and feelings.Here's the chat:The 10 albums are:Falcon – Staring at Clocks Denise Chaila – Go Bravely Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death JyellowL – 2020 DIvisionRóisín Murphy – Róisín Machine Nealo – All The Leaves Are Falling  Pillow Queens – In Waiting  Ailbhe Reddy – Personal History  Niamh Regan – Hemet Silverbacks – Fad  In lieu of the industry shindig that normally takes place in Vicar Street, the winner will be announced on in a special broadcast on RTÉ Player and RTÉ 2FM from 12-3pm on the day.Support Nialler9 on Patreon because we find the great artAndrea has a Substack newsletter to subscribe to.Subscribe in Apple | Android | ACAST | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS FeedSubscribe to the podcast and please leave a review on iTunes, tell your friends or commit to supporting us directly. Support us on Patreon.Previous podcast episodes in this series

Support Nialler9 on PatreonOn the week, when it emerged that Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter would no longer make music together as Daft Punk after 28 years, we look at the French dance's duo influence on the world of music, our own music tastes and discovery, go through their discography and talk about the outsiders on the inside whose true musical story was the stuff of a larger-than-life music biopic.We talked about Daft Punk way longer than we originally intended so we're putting everything else from the episode - including a chat with Cian O'Ciobhan about Andrew Weatherall and our new music chat into a Patreon-only episode dropping in the coming days aka once I edit it.It's the Nialler9 Podcast with Niall and Andrea.See also: 5 Daft Punk live sets & DJ mixes that encapsulate the Homework eraSupport Nialler9 on Patreon because we are human after all.Andrea has a Substack newsletter to subscribe to.Subscribe in Apple | Android | ACAST | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS FeedSubscribe to the podcast and please leave a review on iTunes, tell your friends or commit to supporting us directly. Support us on Patreon.Previous podcast episodes in this series

Support Nialler9 on PatreonWyvern Lingo are in the virtual studio with Niall and Andrea to discuss the last 18 months of the band's activities which leads up to the release of their second album Awake You Lie on February 26th on Rubyworks.Karen Cowley, Saoirse Duane and Caoimhe Barry moved to Berlin and made a new life for themselves as they recorded their second album. Then COVID happened and they finished the record at home in locked down Ireland. “This album is so much about us comforting each other. It’s about being in your late-twenties, when all the pieces are starting to settle into place and you worry whether or not you’ve made the right moves” - Wyvern Lingo, October 2020.Like the Bray trio's first album, Awake You Lie was self-recorded by the band and that close kinship between them lead to the construction of a record that leaned into the aesthetic of classic-sounding records. We discuss six songs from artists Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Anderson .Paak, White Denim, Fleetwood Mac and Solange and how they informed the record and discussed the change, growth and new beginnings the band have experienced.The band are doing a live streamed gig on February 25th from the Mermaid in Bray also. See pre-order links. merch and ticket options here.It's the Nialler9 Podcast with Niall and Andrea.Support Nialler9 on Patreon because we work hard for the moneyAndrea has a Substack newsletter to subscribe to.Subscribe in Apple | Android | ACAST | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS FeedSubscribe to the podcast and please leave a review on iTunes, tell your friends or commit to supporting us directly. Support us on Patreon.Previous podcast episodes in this series