The Price of Music

Bonus episode! Steve is joined by Lord Kevin Brennan, the ex-MP – and now member of the UK's House of Lords – who is also a musician, and has been described as “a writer of songs and a righter of wrongs.”He talks to Steve about his leadership of the UK parliament’s new fan-led review of live and electronic music, with the aim of improving the sustainability of grassroots live and electronic music to safeguard the success of the wider UK music industry.. You can take part in this review right now – just go to https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9161The initiative seeks to place fans’ voices at the centre of decisions about ticketing, venues, accessibility, and transport, similar to football’s fan-led reform from a few years ago. Lord Brennan stresses that live music depends on fair treatment of fans and transparency over ticket pricing, fees, and resale practices. Lord Brennan argues for a “fans’ charter” to ensure shared values across the live sector, from small venues to major promoters. Drawing from his experience in Parliament and his previous inquiry into music streaming, he also explains how policy can protect grassroots venues, improve access and late-night transport, and encourage community ownership models. He also exclusively reveals the future plans for his cross-party, all-MP band with the pun-tastic name of... “MP4”.As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠See you next week!Steve and Stuart======Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacqFollow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Steve and Stu dive into intriguing listener questions about the music industry. They explore why ticket prices can differ significantly at the same venue, revealing factors like demand and production costs. A real-world comparison between Maximo Park and Suede highlights this disparity. The duo also tackles the issue of missing songwriter credits on streaming platforms, discussing how gaps in metadata affect payments. Plus, they hint at an exciting upcoming bonus interview with a member of the House of Lords focused on grassroots music sustainability.

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu crunch the numbers and figure out...Exactly how much does a Mercury prizewinner’s streams really go up after a win?Spotify is going to make a licensed AI music something – but what is it going to be? And will artists get paid?Is TPOM now a Baby Shark fan-podcast? Steve politely requests that Stu stops singing a mooted Peppa Pig/Baby Shark collaboration.In Australia, people are listening to less music by Australian artists (and it’s the same in the UK too) … so what are they listening to instead? And what can be done to increase fans’ local listening?MTV is shutting down its last music channels – so are we witnessing the death of the music video?What about Ireland’s idea of a basic minimum income for musicians?And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:Festival Goose Poo Vacuuming!What did Steve chat about with Damon Albarn in the 100 Club last week (and what drink did he order?)Steve has some exclusive hints about the forthcoming John Niven-penned Britpop musical!More on the UK’s Mercury Music prize - and the growing gap between the pop-single megastars at the top and the more niche album-oriented artists at the bottom.What are the benefits of Neil Young being grumpy (or bold and individualist, depending on your perspective)?As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠See you next week!Steve and Stuart======Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacqFollow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

A special episode for you this week - where TPOM wonders: just how hard is it to run a festival in 2025, anyway? Spoiler: it's tricky, but rewarding! To find out more, we spoke to John Rostron, who started in the festival world when he co-founded the award-winning multi-venue festival Sŵn in Cardiff in 2007.He's now CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals which represents over 150 independent UK Music Festivals – making it the single largest collective of festival audiences in the UK, with 1.3 million tickets sold.So, we wanted to know what challenges festivals are facing today, and he shines light on what goes into putting a festival on, including sharing some astonishing facts and figures around the economics of it all. It's a fascinating interview!As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠See you next week!Steve and Stuart======Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacqFollow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. And in this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu wrap their minds around...How much would it cost to buy Coldplay’s very first single today?; Steve reveals the “best new band he’s seen in months”;A proper AI vs human band dust up!;Are the major labels about to sign deals with music-generating AI platforms?A splendidly indignant speech from RAYE;Major labels are buying up indie businesses – and now hundreds of indie labels are very angry;The Spotify CEO is “stepping down” (and yet is still somehow the boss);How have Steve and Stu finally removed ‘Baby Shark’ from their music algorithm?;Listeners' letters: how on earth did the UK once have four weekly music newspapers? And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:Steve and Stu wonder exactly why second-hand records are so expensive at the moment (and how disappointingly little is Steve’s teenage copy of “Message In A Bottle” on green vinyl worth?)And more on Slady - the only all-female Slade tribute band, don’t forget – and on buying tickets in advance.Do bands get a better reception when they travel to remote cities to perform?Should we call AI artists “artists” – or something else entirely?As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠See you next week!Steve and Stuart======Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacqFollow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Steve dives into the evolution of music journalism, reflecting on its past and questioning its future in a digital world. He reveals Spotify's shocking removal of 75 million 'spam' tracks, prompting a discussion about what qualifies as a spam song. The importance of TikTok to music trends is highlighted, especially with the resurgence of tracks from artists like Billie Eilish and Rihanna. The ongoing debate about how to file records brings a quirky twist, while Steve ponders if today’s influencers are replacing traditional music journalists.

This week dives into the shocking withdrawal of Massive Attack's music from Spotify, sparking a debate on corporate ethics and AI connections. The ongoing legal troubles for Ticketmaster raise questions about ticket resale practices. Lizzo challenges the relevance of traditional music videos, advocating for genuine, short clips instead. The hosts explore the curious resurgence of 'My Humps' among younger audiences. Additionally, discussions on AI-generated music raise ethical dilemmas, highlighting the evolving landscape of the music industry.

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s action-packed episode of The Price of Music: a bunch of extremely interesting music biz questions are answered by our intrepid duo...Stu’s Big Number is 30,000 and relates to the number of AI-generated songs… but why so many songs and where are they going?Why are Radiohead’s fans getting angry about tickets (“that don’t exist”)?The Great TPOM Record-Filing Debate continues: do you file Van Morrison under ‘V’ or ‘M’? And where does a record by the band 86TVs go?Why has Spotify given paying users lossless music for free (and is ‘Lossless’ a long-lost My Bloody Valentine album?Did Steve and Stu cause Morrissey to get so many offers for his Smiths songs that he deleted his email address?How did King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard fill the entire Top 30 album chart on Bandcamp (and why)?What is the (depressing) reason that Bad Bunny has chosen not to tour in the mainland USA?How much is Bjork’s VR album re-master?And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:The UK’s Mercury Prize shortlist has been announced – what do Steve and Stu think of the finalists and why is Steve “flabbergasted” by one specific missing nominee?Steve and Stu’s true feelings about lossless audio - is it actually worth it?What is the sole record on Steve’s Discogs Want List, and why does he regret not buying it when it came up for sale recently?What is Stu’s ideal Christmas gift? And could it possibly be connected to The Black Crowes, much to Steve’s amusement?Can you guess Steve’s response to Stu saying “I should now give you a lecture on The Black Crowes’ ‘Amorica’ album”?What is the best song about the fans of The Smiths?As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠See you next week!Steve and Stuart======Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacqFollow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship, email - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s The Price of Music: an urgent-ish delve into the news that Morrissey has announced he wants to sell his ownership of The Smiths’ songs… including a suggestion from Steve and Stu about how Johnny Marr might buy the songs off Morrissey via a gmail address that Morrissey put online.And then Steve and Stu take a deep dive into a fantastic question from listener Simon who asked: artists often say that they are not making enough money from music streaming but are artists REALLY worse off today in the music streaming age?To answer this, Steve and Stu wander down some... interesting pathways. They:talk to their Top Secret Sources in the artist and label world, and found out the answer… (which may surprise you);hypothesise about both Mazzy Star AND Bonnie Tyler’s record contracts;chat to Spotify, which reveals to our dynamic duo about how much they paid Mazzy Star and Bonnie Tyler(!);wonder how being a ‘radio artist’ pays compared to a ‘streaming artist’;dig into artist deals: because the money paid from streaming doesn’t go to the artist first;ask why the artists who ARE doing well from streaming platforms aren’t talking about it?…and tangentially… is TPOM better to listen to on a treadmill than Hi-NRG house music? A brief discussion.And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart prop themselves at the bar to chat about:The time Steve worked in a record shop for a day; and he immediately faced a quandary: which letter should he file PJ Harvey under?Steve gently chides Stu over his love of a Songs Of The Summer Stats List from TikTok, which includes a load of old nostalgia songsRadiohead are back – and how do you sell tickets to shows that will be massively-oversubscribed and make sure those tickets get to real fans?After Covid’s impact, money spent on live music is up - and more popular than ever.  But what were Steve and Stu’s first gigs after Covid?A call for your suggestions of hard-to-file records!As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!Email us: ⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠See you next week!Steve and Stuart======Support The Price of Music on Patreon:⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacqFollow Stuart on X - @stuartdredgeFollow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpodFor sponsorship, email - ⁠joe@musically.com

Discover The Weeknd's staggering 5 billion Spotify streams and the mystery behind his billion-dollar plans. Explore ABBA Gold's record 1,216 weeks on the UK chart and debate The Smiths' track sequencing. Learn about Spotify's reintroduced in-app messaging and Apple Music Radio's exciting expansion. TikTok breathes new life into Radiohead's 'Let Down' while Bandcamp launches curated clubs for music lovers. And don’t miss the quirky segment on rocket-fuel tank speakers!