The Price of Music

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works – and this week they speak to Ricky Bates, head of booking and promotion at the Joiners in Southampton - one of the UK’s great grassroots venues. But first they chat about:
Half a million pounds is being distributed in the UK to grassroots venues artists and events - and it’s money gathered from the levy on ticket sales in the UK. Steve and Stu discuss how this money is being spent – and how it will make a difference.

Last week, Steve spoke to highly successful UK manager Niamh Byrne (Blur, Gorillaz and more)  and you’ll be able to hear that interview in a couple of weeks.

But one notable thing she spoke about was how managers are working harder than ever, and need to provide more services than before. So what is a manager’s job now?

Also at the Music Ally Connect conference, a key Universal music exec spoke about how AI can create new songs when one song is “covered” by AI versions of other artists: “I really want to hear what it sounds like for Jimi Hendrix to play Bitches Brew”. But do people really want to hear AI-generated cover versions?

Then the duo speak to Ricky Bates and he discusses the reality of running a local grassroots venue in 2026 – and it’s a solid-gold local venue that has hosted most of today’s biggest bands on their way up. It's where both Coldplay and Manic Street Preachers signed their first deals, and how Green Day "accidentally" played their Kerplunk! album launch show at the Joiners.
The public podcast contains highlights of the interview – however Patreon Superfan listeners can hear the whole interview as this week’s lock-in content! (Become a Patreon Superfan here! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠)
Ricky speaks about:
How he started at the venue  by being thrown in at the deep end – and how he cleared a huge rent debt (with help from some Frank Turner gigs)

How a “reset button” has been hit in the last few years – and how people’s gig-going habits have changed recently

What the hidden costs are of running a venue – and why the profit margins are so tight

The stressful process of buying the venue with the help of the Music Venue Trust

How artists are starting to book shorter “big city” tours that avoid the regional towns and cities, leaving local fans with fewer options.

How under-18s fans are often drawn to the huge arena shows at the expense of cheap local shows.

The future of the venue and what decades of moshing has done to the floor of the dancefloor!

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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: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠
See you next week!
Steve and Stuart
======
TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/
Support The Price of Music on Patreon:
⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠
Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq
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 – and this week, Stu’s Big Number is also the Big Story – and here are some mind-boggling facts to bewilder your friends with: 
There are now 253 million tracks available on streaming sites

… and 55.3 million songs were not played even once in 2025

(And, over 100 million songs have been played less than 100 times)

Over 50 million songs - 20% of all the music available on streaming – were uploaded in 2025

106,000 songs were uploaded each day - that’s 7,000 hours of music or 10,000 albums per day

Naturally, this gave Steve and Stu a lot to talk about, including:
On many platforms, artists don’t get paid until their song gets over 1000 streams – is this fair?

Nearly half of those daily song uploads might, data suggests, be AI-generated – and this means more noise for real artists to fight through to be heard.

How much does it cost a company like Spotify to host all this music? (And what about the carbon footprint?)

Should the platforms pay money out when AI-generated songs are played?

If there were 50m+ new tracks last year, doesn’t that mean there will be even more this year - and who wants this AI slop?

Also this week: the UK’s Music Venue Trust released it’s annual report which revealed, amongst the data, that the profit margins for its member venues are razor thin – under 3%.
The state of play for grassroots venues is still precarious – Steve digs deep into the data. Plus – music platform Bandcamp has banned all AI-generated music from its platform.
And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:
A question for you, dear listener: have you ever missed the last bus or train home after a gig? Did you end up sleeping in a bus shelter? Let us know! [email protected]

(Steve remembers spending a lot of time trying to nap at Liverpool Street station having missed the last train home… and which superstar band was “so bad” that Stu got accidentally drunk and fell asleep on the train on the way home?)

Steve’s Shameless Plug – after months of praise, he finally got Little Grandad into the famous BBC Maida Vale studios for a live session [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ps7b]

Which big towns and cities are starting to be left off touring schedules in the UK? (people in Coventry, Stoke and Milton Keynes may wish to avert your ears)

And what happens to artists and music fans if quality emerging artists are not able to go and perform in cities (very slightly) off the beaten track?

Some of the biggest songs on YouTube are… nursery rhymes. One Wheels on the Bus video got over 2 BILLION streams in 2025, and Bah Bah Black Sheep is the 15th biggest video of ALL TIME.

And finally… a company called Alan’s Factory Outlet has a  fascinating/hyperbolic piece of indie band data.

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!
Steve and Stuart
======
TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/
Support The Price of Music on Patreon:
⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠
Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq
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 – and this week, it’s a Billionaire Special!
Stu’s big figure has three commas: Beyonce is now worth a billion dollars – the fifth musician to do so, according to Forbes. (Experience being ultra-wealthy by listening to TPOM's extra content for FREE here: https://www.patreon.com/12218634/join)

Elon Musk versus the music industry: the world’s richest man doesn’t like paying for music

The head honcho of Universal Music has thoughts on how AI slop shouldn’t be paid in the same way as human artists

The state of the UK industry – people are streaming more and spending more on music than ever

Classic label Sun records have been selling records at 1952 prices – so what could you have bought?

There’s a listener question from Martin Bull, who asks about making a short run of vinyl records: Steve explains how to do it, how pricing can vary a lot – and how to make money doing it.

(Also check out this earlier episode on physical album sales https://open.spotify.com/episode/40JrxtmsGfZwzPki0HFGzC?si=GQgiojyrTU2Io7XADcHTUA)

 Spotify has a new feature that lets you see what friends are playing - but why?

And finally, a rare feel-good internet story: there’s now a “London Metal Ladies” WhatsApp group.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:
Rapper La Russel sells $57,000 of records to Superfans in one day, selling albums on a pay-what-you-want basis.

Steve has a neat idea: what if Bandcamp was a touring festival?

The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess had Merch Market last week - and how has he become such an interesting and multi-faceted influence in UK music?

And speaking of artist merchandise: Elton John has released his own zero-alcohol, vegan-friendly sparkling wine (and how does a product like this come about in the first place?)

Plus, Stu reveals that he’s a Norwich City fan.

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!
Steve and Stuart
======
TPOM online: http://tpom.uk/
Support The Price of Music on Patreon:
⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠
Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq
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. And it’s a bumper episode as Steve and Stu take a look ahead into 2026: what will the big stories be in the coming year? Here are their predictions:
It’s a year of change for the UK record industry, and where the UK stands in terms of influence in a global context – including acts like Sleep Token who have broken through in the USA.
And there’s been a lot of layoffs at UK major labels – why might that be good for indie artists? 

(BTW - get a free trial of our extra content, The Lock In, right here! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/12218634/join⁠)

AI inevitably will be playing a major role (again) – but what are the potentially erosive impacts now that it’s an established technology, what difficult decisions might the streaming platforms need to make, and how might it be used by indie music-makers?

Live music will reach a pivotal point this year: the mega stadium shows will continue – but will people keep paying mega ticket prices? And what about the smaller venues who are under more pressure than ever?

And will Oasis play Knebworth in 2026 – or 2027? The rumour mill is aggregated by Steve.

Those reunion tours will keep coming – but can the bands keep doing it; and what happens when they find they can’t sell any more tickets?

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠Patreon Superfans⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to chat about:
Are bigger gigs becoming like Premier League Football - where tickets (and everything else at the show) are expensive, gigs are once-yearly events, and people with less cash are being priced out?

And what do people want from smaller, cheaper gigs these days anyway? Steve has been jostling shoulders with The Kids to find out.

In TPOM fandom news: Steve has already seen Little Grandad in 2026! Stu squeezes in the first Black Crowes mention of the year!

Stu tries to create an AI version of a Dry Cleaning song – how did he do it and what did it sound like? And what if a human band took his song, developed it, and performed it live?

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!
Steve and Stuart
======
Support The Price of Music on Patreon:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠⁠
Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq
Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge
Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod
For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]

Here it is! The long awaited, much feared Great Price of Music Christmas Quiz 2025 – which sees Steve pitted against Stu in a battle for the ages, as both vie to be crowned QUIZ CHAMP 2025.
Our daring duo face questions about the show, band names, and each other – as well as especially tricky questions submitted by our Patreon Superfans, plus one question from a Very Special Indie Guest Star. Spoiler alert: it was a fiendishly tricky quiz, and a very close-run race.
Look, the best thing to do is to hit play and just listen (Superfans get an extra 30 mins in the Lock-In, where Steve and Stu answer their questions about favourite gigs, best new bands, frozen toilets and much more.)
We will be back after Christmas in the first full week of January. But until then, grab a glass of sherry and a mince pie and enjoy the sound of your two favourite music biz commentators squirming in the face of of some tricky trivia.
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]⁠⁠
Steve and Stuart
======
Support The Price of Music on Patreon:
⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠
Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq
Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge
Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod
For sponsorship opportunities, please email - ⁠⁠[email protected]