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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe show their age as they reference 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s pop culture whilst discussing this week's music industry news, including:

→ Should Netflix add streaming music to its streaming video? Warner Music Group’s boss thinks so.

→ Universal Music Group has signed a high-profile licensing deal with remixing app Hook. So what is Hook, and are fan-made remixes really the next big thing in music then?

→ YouTube counts a ‘view’ as soon as a video begins to play, even if you’re just swiping past it in your feed. Does this mean YouTube view counts are now meaningless?

→ 35% of the people buying tickets for Ariana Grande’s 10-show run at London’s The O2 were from overseas. But what about the environmental cost? We break it down.

→ You can now add notes to your Spotify playlists for the world to read (or not). But is this just a data-harvesting move to make the company’s AI even more powerful?

→ TikTok made a vast amount of money last year across Europe, Latin America, Africa and the UK. We break down what it means for musicians…

→ Christian metal band sues Netflix over KPop Demon Hunters

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’S PUB FACT involves the 50 top Canadian tracks ranked by streams played OUTSIDE of their homeland. But 40 of them are from just one artist…

→ What songs are Stu 'n' Joe itching to remix?

→ Is the Spotify Playlist Notes feature going to bring back the glory days of music blogging?

→ Stuart finally has another live event lined up for 2026! And it involves masks, capes, and (maybe) grandmas...

===================================

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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For 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 sponsorships

• There’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 Stu

• We'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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe wade into share prices, EU Law, and German legal judgements... NO WAIT, COME BACK! These are all actually really interesting insights into modern pop music and how it connects with the humans who make it and enjoy it (honest.)

Plus, TPOM Superfans get to hear Joe and Stu go deep – some may say too deep – into minor league Welsh football clubs seeking musical sponsorship opportunities. In this week's show:

• Universal Music Group is worth now than it was at the start of this year, based on its share price, and Spotify wobbled too… so why are people wondering whether music may not be making as much money as it could - and what is Spotify up to with independent labels?

• Welsh Ardal League South East football club Cwmbran Celtic have some new shirts for sale. Why are we telling you about this? Well, they feature some bands you might know…

• We need to talk about ‘Rubberz’. No, not erasers and – for our American listeners – not condoms either… it's an (allegedly!!!) AI-generated song that is becoming a cross-over hit.

• There’s a lot going on with AI-music company Suno at the moment: a big legal ruling in Germany; its latest promises about how much it supports human artistry; and a very unexpected move into… vinyl!

• Two things that music publications BrooklynVegan, AltPress, Goldmine and Revolver have in common: first, they’re all owned by Live Nation, which many people didn’t realise. And second, “nearly all” their staff have reportedly been laid off. Is this the final nail in the coffin for music journalism?

• LISTENER LETTERS: after last week's Lock-In look at expensive Discogs records sales, James The Joiner gets in touch about his weirdly and unfortunately mis-pressed Blur LP – so will it be worth LOADS of money or NOT MUCH AT ALL? We investigate.

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:

• Mold Alexandra, Cefn Druids and Mumbles Rangers: what other rock/Welsh football sponsorships would you like to see?

• Who needs MTV when you can have Green Day TV? Although the lineup of artists featured is, well, quite a lot smaller than traditional music-TV channels…

• We’ve been talking about prediction-market Kalshi in recent episodes, and it turns out they’re also betting on Spotify’s financial results… [we also check if they were right.]

===================================

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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For 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 Harp

• Dove Ellis: Blizzard

• Florence + the Machine: Everybody Scream

• Jade: That’s Showbiz Baby

• Knats: A Great Day in Newcastle (Joe's tip- listen here!)

• Kojey Radical: Don’t Look Down

• Nia Archives: Emotional Junglist

• Olivia Dean: The Art of Loving

• Paul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon Lane

• Raye: This Music May Contain Hope

• Suede: Antidepressants

• War 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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe comb their Emo fringes, use a tie as a belt, and pout about this week's music industry news:

→ A surprising percentage of Americans are actually MORE interested in music if it was made using AI – according to a new survey.

→ In last week’s episode, we talked about a data breach at Suno that seemed to have given the game away on what music it trained its models on. But there’s been a development…

→ Spotify has a brand new daily music videos chart. Is it now officially The New MTV? And does this mean full-length music videos haven’t been killed off by TikTok after all? 

→ The UK has a new prime minister, he’s a New Order stan, and one of his first moves was focused on helping grassroots music venues and clubs…

→ What’s the latest big music trend in Mexico? It's erm, emo…

→ Live Nation wants YOU to become a festival promoter. But happily for your stress levels and financial standing, this is just for pretend on Roblox.

→ AND FINALLY… KPop Shark Heroes!

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:

• Stuart has a new favourite music wearable: a Game Boy-inspired digital music player on Kickstarter.

• It's time for a Little Grandad Update!

• Discogs and crazy vinyl prices: which 00's band has the highest-priced record sold on Discogs so far this year?

• https://www.discogs.com/digs/collecting/the-most-valuable-records-sold-on-discogs-in-2026-so-far/

===================================

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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For 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)

===================================

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe are still on their summer holidays in Rhyl, but before they packed their bags, they had a chat with the team behind EcoRecord. It's a PVC-free, injection-moulded alternative to the traditional vinyl record, which cuts factory energy use by up to 85%, and swaps PVC for recyclable PET plastic. Recently, artists like Coldplay and Lorde have released versions of their albums using the process.

We chatted to Sven Deutschmann, CEO of record manufacturer Sonopress, about what he's learned over the last two years of production, whether the records sound as good as traditional vinyl, how Coldplay have switched all of their back catalogue from PVC to PET, and if most records will be made this way in the future. (Plus, Joe gets very excited by some gold and silver coloured records.)

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:

• Ecological vinyl roundup: what other types of ecologically-friendly records are there anyway; and how big a difference can these records make?

• A Little Grandad Update - the band are playing Sŵn, and it got Joe and Stu talking about...

• Band names!: which are are the good bands with bad band names, and bad bands with good band names? Are there any good bands with good names? Band names discussed include: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Teardrop Explodes and Nickelback!

===================================

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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠[email protected]

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe get ready for their summer holidays and punt a beachball at this week's music biz news:

How much has controversial secondary-ticketing firm StubHub has just been fined in the UK for illegal ‘drip pricing’? (Also, what is that?)

The news seems bit AI-heavy this week, but it's actually all about artists:

→ 31 groups representing artists and managers have written an open letter about AI music… but it’s not AI companies who it’s addressed to…

→ AI-music company Suno is giving some money to musicians at last! But there are some strings attached…

→ Meanwhile, streaming service Tidal isn’t giving ANY money to wholly AI-generated music, according to its new policies on this area.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS?

→ James Blake has been making friends in the world of music journalism. Hasn’t he? Oh.

→ And talking of good causes, more than 200 artists have signed an open letter calling for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. So who’s signing, and what exactly do they want? (and there is some new advice on how we as music fans can reduce the impact our streaming has on the planet.)

AND FINALLY…

→ Recommendations of classic, influential hip-hop bangers from a maker of fizzy, lemonade-adjacent drinks.

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:

• Can you make money by investing on things mentioned in a Kraftwerk song?

• A Little Grandad Update - a segment that now has its own jingle!

• In a section recorded before England get knocked out on penalties / gloriously proceed on penalties against DR Congo, Stu and joe take a look at the successful use of the much-mocked 'hydration break' as a massive singalong

• They also venture further into the Official FIFA World Cup Album™ and dare to ask the question: who is iShowSpeed anyway, and why does he have a song?

• Assorted football songs discussed:

• IShowSpeed - World Cup (Champions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrY1THC_NQE&list=OLAK5uy_nsOacWtSBM2kV8c_yjosYwk3hQq1A7-JY&index=19

• Alejandro Fernández - Mi Mexico Lindo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk-8wMflT34

• Belle and Sebastian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8riNobpEyg 

• Peter Beardsley doing the John Barnes rap from "World In Motion" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPh63Y6sSKA

  ===================================

  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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

  Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

  Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

  For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠[email protected]

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe focus on one very interesting and rapidly-developing story in the music biz...

Did you know that music fans and industry insiders have quietly built a massive half-billion-dollar market trading purely on pop culture gossip and chart data? Stuart and Joe take a deeper look at how prediction platforms saw a staggering $400 million staked on "music outcomes" on a single app alone in the first half of 2026. That includes a mind-boggling $110 million wagered by people just to guess what the opening song of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show would be.

From fans turning passive streaming into high-stakes gamification to the legally murky waters of music industry insider trading, they talk about how (lots of) real cash is changing the way we forecast what's going to happen in the music business, including...

• What are Prediction Markets anyway?: Online platforms where users buy and sell financial contracts based on the likelihood of real-world future outcomes.

• Is it gambling or what?: Technically, no, but... The market has exploded into a multi-million-dollar sector in 2026, led by platforms like Kalshi and the crypto-powered Polymarket.

• What could the music industry do with it?: platform, fan and release data could be used for future forecasting, such as assessing fan interest or adjusting album release dates.

• Insider trading and addiction: The space introduces risks of insider trading from industry professionals who know when things are going to happen before the wider public – and presents addiction risks similar to traditional gambling.

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:

• A long-awaited, much-requested Little Grandad Update: what are our indie heroes up to? Successful festival bookings, and a London residency await...

• The Music-Prediction Prediction Quiz: Joe tests Stu on various active Kalshi markets, covering Spotify listener stats, album sales, and future album genres, including...

• Which artist will have the highest monthly Spotify listener count by the end of June? What will Olivia Rodrigo's first-week chart sales data for her new album be? When will Selena Gomez debut a new song on Spotify? What will the musical style and genre of Beyoncé’s next studio project be?

  ===================================

  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/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠

  Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge

  Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod

  For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠[email protected]