The Price of Music

It's a MEGA-BUMPER episode this week, as Stu and Joe not only go over the biggest stories of the week, but also track down the man who pioneered AI generated music – and give him a good grilling*...
(*it actually turns out he doesn't like most AI generated music either...)
This week on The Price Of Music:
→ Just how many records were found by police when they raided the factory owned by a British businessman who’s just been sent to prison for vinyl fraud?
→ The show goes on for Ed Sheeran in his US stadium tour, but without any support acts or backing band. This is the fallout from the decision to remove support artist Macklemore from the tour after he spoke out about Palestine from the stage. Sheeran is taking the brunt of criticism for that decision, but is this fair?
→ In news that will surprise absolutely nobody who’s been on the internet this year, Oasis are playing some more concerts next year. But tickets WON’T be going on general sale. Why not? Plus, Joe explains his "Oasis will release a new album" theory.
→ AI music pioneer François Pachet speaks exclusively to TPOM...
Joe went to the Reeperbahn conference in Hamburg, and speaking at it was François Pachet, the man who helped pioneer AI generated music (so it’s his fault).
Jokes aside, he was fascinating to speak to, because he's a musician himself, and is more critical of the music industry's approach to AI music and of the AI music platforms than you might imagine.
AND FINALLY…
→ William Shatner is 95, and he's singing (kind of) The Ace Of Spades with his new band... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTfH3MZZ84&t=94s)
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 thoughts on the interview with François Pachet, AI music pioneer (and huge Beatles fan).
→ Listener Gez explains his unusual home record filing system that Stu and Joe both appreciate; and an approach to CD filing that also makes them both seethe.
→ SHATNER! We've done "what other songs would we like William Shatner to do" before; but which other celebs would we like to see pivot to cover songs, and what would those songs be?
→ Joe proposes the idea of forcing politicians to sing the songs they claim to like, like David Cameron singing “This Charming Man”, and Andy Burnham covering "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash".
→ UK PM Andy Burnham's top 13 albums, which Stu and Joe appraise (mostly enthusiastically):
The Beatles – 1962–1966 (The Red Album)

The Smiths – Hatful of Hollow

The Pogues – Rum Sodomy & the Lash

The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses

The Wedding Present – George Best

The La's – The La's

Billy Bragg – William Bloke

Radiohead – OK Computer

Doves – The Last Broadcast

The Strokes – Is This It

Big Thief – Capacity

New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies

Courteeners – Falcon

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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

This week, Stu and Joe tread verrrrrry carefully around a bunch of hot-button topics: on-stage politics, billionaires billionaire-ing, and whether AI music is getting to the believable stage. In this week's show:
You've probably already heard about the Macklemore and Ed Sheeran kerfuffle over the former's statements on Palestine. Now one big festivals promoter has launched an ‘artistic code’ explaining its policies when artists make statements on-stage...
The UK now has a ‘homegrown’ albums chart to showcase British artists. What’s it for, and will it work?
167 million people are using a streaming platform called Soda Music... and most of us have probably only just heard of it. So what – and where – is it?
Suno has released a "wild" version of its AI-music model, that gives you less-predictable results. Is it any good – or is AI music just like a covers band: you can be impressed by how convincing they they are, but you don't want to listen to their music?
Some unusual sounds are coming out of Lime Bikes in London this month. But no, it’s not because teenagers hacking them to ride without paying…
The music industry has launched its latest war on streaming fraud with a ‘Streaming Integrity Initiative’. Which sounds very dry, but how could it help beat the fraudsters?
Good news if you collect Beyoncé vinyl and like giving lots of money to billionaires – Beyoncé is selling a record box made of pine, and it costs a whopping $900 (and you have to buy the records separately).
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 was sent into a spiral of self-reflection by this fact: “The Rolling Stones still performing today is like a band formed in 1898 still performing when the Stones formed in 1962.” But what other fascinating temporal pop facts are there?
More songs of the summer! Mungo Jerry’s In the Summertime VS Stardust’s Music Sounds Better with You?  (Plus: “The ‘Song of the Summer’ Is Dead. Thank God for That”)
How do you file your records at home? This is extremely telling about a person's approach to life, and so Joe reveals his objectively chaotic system and Stu explains why CD singles and CD albums MUST be kept separate...
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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. As ever, Stu and Joe take a closer look at this week's music industry news, including:
→ TikTok’s ‘Song of the Summer’ this year is by HOT NEW BREAKING artist, erm, Katy Perry, and her 16-year old song ‘The One That Got Away’. So what is a summertime hit nowadays anyway?
→ Yes, yes, another lawsuit against AI-music firm Suno – but this one has a twist: it’s from musicians, rather than labels or publishers… and these artists won't back down easily.
→ Meanwhile, another artist, Mary J. Blige, was (we think) very supportive of Suno, but now (we think) she very much isn't. Or is she? It's complicated...
→ Sonos, the popular connected-speakers firm, is getting into AI agents. And apparently that means a you can have a virtual snarky record-shop clerk as your AI song-picking pal (or anything else you'd like).
→ India has had *how many* music streams in the first half of 2026? (It's a lot, as you'd imagine).
→ Joe doesn't know who Captain & Tennille are, but they got the biggest spike in Spotify streams from Grand Theft Auto IV’s big reveal – but there’s one caveat to their 130,730% boost…
→ Joe also doesn't know who Young Roddo is –but he's the first artist to film a music video entirely within Roblox. (Young Roddo is nine years old).
→ The New York Yankees stadium hosts concerts and now you can eat ice cream that looks like fried chicken while you watch the show. Are we entering a new phase of stadium gig snacking?
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:
→ What are the best-ever "songs of the summer", and are they even important now, anyway?
→ Who or what would your ideal "AI agents" be for music recommendations (and why not, Joe and Stu, wonder, just switch on the radio and listen to a human DJ?)
→ A conversation about snacks and music venues turns into a speculative series of suggestions for food that could be served at an Oasis show
→ And then, we regret to inform you, that it then turns into a too-much-information chat about using toilets at music festivals, and novel festival toilet strategies.
→And finally... Superfan Ian issues a Very Important Correction to Joe's misremembered Blue Peter time capsule story.
===================================
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 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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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 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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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