The Price of Music

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)
===================================
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 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: ⁠⁠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 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: ⁠⁠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 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: ⁠⁠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