The Price of Music

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?
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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.com⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe go football crazy and stick a reducer early doors on this week's music biz news:
→ 270. That’s how many ‘unofficial anthems’ called ‘World Cup 2026’ have been uploaded to Deezer… and 70% of them are AI slop.
→ YouTube reckons that its terms of service allow it to use independent musicians’ uploads to train AI models. Is that really true?
→ Tupac Shakur has been dead for 30 years – or HAS he, etc etc – but if you think that will stop him returning to his acting career for a new console game, you’re wrong…
→ Say You, Say Me… just don’t Say It In My Voice Without Permission. Why has Lionel Richie been filing trademarks for some of his most famous sung phrases?
→ UK indie streaming service Cantilever has raised £250,000 of funding from a group of independent labels. Can it carve out a niche for itself against giants like Spotify though?
→ Ariana Grande is one of the ‘good eggs’ of the pop world, and this week brought more evidence of that: her new charitable foundation, and beef with the White House…
→ The Happy Mondays want to sell you a giant pill. But wait, it’s not what it seems! This is the latest, very literal meeting of physical music and merchandise…
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 has used AI to make a stereotypical England-oriented World Cup song. But is it any good? (No.) We listen anyway.

Joe and Stu dig into the weird and wonderful Official FIFA World Cup Album

What other overly-literal packaging could be made? (Stu has ideas for 'Revolver' and Portishead's 'Dummy')

Last week, Stu saw Rufus Wainwright and Joe saw Mike D – but which had the sparkliest shoes? And which one brought out a Pussycat Doll to do a duet?

Joe explains why he only buys his gravy and chips on The Strand
===================================
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.com⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works.
This week: two very special guests talk about how to actually make important change happen in the UK’s live industry at grassroots level, and improve the live music fan's experience: we welcome back Lord Kevin Brennan of Canton, Labour member of the House of Lords and a recording musician himself.
We also speak to Shain Shapiro, who amongst other things is author of This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better. (They are both speaking about this on 10th June at the Music Cities Convention in Hull, FYI.)

** As ever, our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ get the full interviews – with 50% extra conversation! Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section! ⁠⁠⁠**

We talk about the important stuff that fans care about: surge ticket pricing, local grassroots venues, music fan associations and more – and it’s all built on the results of the UK’s Fan–led Review of Live and Electronic Music, the House of Commons committee special report that Lord Brennan oversaw. He explains what he learned and what can – and should – be done next.
Then Shain explains why live music must be treated as a "vital public good" – i.e. just like libraries or the NHS – and how people like you can build real political heft, in order to save their struggling local spaces.

Lord Brennan reflects on his past work with the Music Streaming Inquiry, examining how parliamentary reports can ripple out to create real-world impact for creators, even when they don’t instantly become law.

Essential learnings from the live fans' report: From transport and safety to fair ticketing, Lord Brennan boils down the core pillars that everyday music lovers actually care about.

The surge pricing backlash: The data doesn't lie – fans are united in their hatred of dynamic ticket surging. We discuss the urgent need for primary market transparency and why standard "free-market" arguments don't apply to the emotional experience of a gig.

Shain Shapiro breaks down how society has prioritised the passive consumption of music (the noun) while deprioritising community participation (the verb), leading to the isolation of modern music fans.

Why you should know your ward councillor. Shain outlines how forming local "Music Fan Associations" can force local councils to unlock underutilised property and rethink how spaces are used.

The 24-Hour Dictators: Both guests flex their imaginary emergency powers to fix the ecosystem, including slashing VAT on tickets, restructuring property business rates, and mandating grassroots funding.

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.com⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

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:
→ Enigmatic duo Boards of Canada have beef with the White House. What on earth is going on?
→ €55bn: the amount that hedge fund Pershing Square WON’T be paying to buy Universal Music Group, because it has rejected the offer.
→ Last·fm was once so buzzy, a big US media corporation bought it for $280m. 19 years after that acquisition, it’s going independent again.
→ Warner Music Group is on the verge of settling its lawsuit with US cookies chain Crumbl. But why are so many brands and retailers getting sued by major labels for their social posts?
→ Another day, another 17 baffling trends on TikTok made up by young people to confuse older people. But the ‘text to song’ trend IS both amusing and interesting…
→ Talking of charts and rankings, a new site called Stream League wants to turn music releases into a fantasy-sports-style game…
→ Do you use Google’s Waze navigation app when driving? Have you always wished that its voice could be a bit more, well, a bit more Jamaican-music-royalty? Well, it’s your lucky day!
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 tries to persuade Stu, who has never listened to a Boards of Canada album, to play one of them – with the promise of satanism, the occult, biblical allusions, mathematics, numerology, cults, and, by the sound of their new LP, the end of the world itself.

Stuart has turned one of his messaging threads into a song; and he and Joe wonder if actually we need to think about music in a whole new way now.

Stream League! Does Stu fancy himself as an A&R now? Does he sit back in his black leather chair with his finger steepled, nodding along as he listens to new song? We find out...

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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.com⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com

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, Producer Joe steps into some big shoes to chat with Stuart about:
How many streams did Drake’s THREE new albums get since their release on 15 May. But is this a hit comeback or a flop?

Ozzy Osbourne is back! Wait, you say, isn’t he dead? Well, yes, but he’s the latest late star to be returning in avatar form.

Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger: which musical nostalgia is now a preserved cultural artifact in the UK?

Spotify held its Investor Day last week, unveiling some new features including two big pieces of music news: one around ticketing and one around AI.

Elsewhere in AI music-land, details have leaked out about the new ‘Starstruck’ service that Udio is building with its major-label deals. What can we expect?

Ed Sheeran is leaving Warner Music Group after 15 years being signed to the company’s Asylum Records imprint. So where might his next recordings home be?

Techno megastar Richie Hawtin is more than capable of making your nose bleed in a club, but can he help you study or sleep at home? His latest release aims to show he can…

You can make vinyl out of recycled records now, but does that affect the quality of how they sound? Yes, but no, is the answer...

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Stu and Joe prop themselves up at the bar – and while the barman may have changed, the game's the same... in this week's bonus material:
What other pieces of musical memory deserve to be preserved? (And Stu reminisces fondly about, erm, The Kersal Massive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uja3W-ibifc)

Do we actually want to remix our favourite artists using AI? (Joe has a one-word answer)

Which dead musicians do we want to see as avatars, if any?

Is Drake any good? Really though, is he?

===================================
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.com⁠⁠
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 - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com