The Price of Music

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works: don't forget - you can become a ⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and access an extra 20 mins of show each week!⁠
This week, it's time for another interview with one of the people who make it all happen. Steve speaks to Niamh Byrne, who managed Blur, Elastica, and Turin Brakes, before founding Eleven management, which works with artists like Damon Albarn and Gorillaz – and she’s also the chair of the Music Managers Forum, the global organisation that represents music managers.
So... she is a great person to ask: what's it like being a manager today – and how is the role changing?
(As ever, our Patreon Superfans⁠⁠ get a bit extra - you’ll hear the full unedited interview, including Niamh’s thoughts on AI and the future of management.)
Niamh explains to Steve how:
Great management is built on trust and vision — artists need operational backing while they create, and managers must hold the long-term destination and strategy.

The manager role has expanded significantly — managers now carry much of the execution workload that labels historically handled.

How labels are still important — even though managers can now replicate many label functions, access to capital keeps traditional deals relevant.

Manager-led campaigns are increasingly viable — teams can now run marketing, digital, data and fan strategy directly (as with upcoming Gorillaz releases).

Managers are undervalued — despite delivering end-to-end commercial and operational value, compensation models often still reflect a “deal-maker only” role

Adaptability is now a survival skill — with more release paths and tools available, managers must continuously evolve and build flexible, independent-capable business models.

You can read Music Ally’s full report on the chat here too: https://musically.com/2026/01/26/today-managers-could-probably-do-everything-but-funding-is-really-difficult

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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: don't forget - you can become a ⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and access an extra 20 mins of show each week!⁠
This week, Steve and Stu get stuck into:
Stu's big number is $60 billion... and it's how much money YouTube made in 2025. But how much of this goes to music makers?

Taylor Swift’s new music video was deliberately delayed before it hit YouTube this week, but why?

Who cares what the US president thought about Bad Bunny - after his Super Bowl half-time show streams of his music spiked - but by how much?

Record Store Day is happening on 18th April in the UK: Steve and Stu discuss Elton John and RSD queuing strategies...

Artists are selling their new albums on online stores before they go on streaming services - but why, and is it a good idea?

A new company is selling off early demo tapes, studio kit and even instruments to superfans... so how much does this stuff cost?

Steve and Stu discuss a message from Superfan Kate Collins about teenagers and their interest (or otherwise) in going to gigs.

How much will you have to pay to play the video game Fortnite dressed as Chappell Roan in a Joan of Arc outfit?

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 two juicy issues this week:
Noel Gallagher has won the Brit award for best songwriter of the year – despite "not having written any songs for two years". Steve and Stu have plenty of thoughts…

Superfan James Bennet asks where to find new artists in a fragmented world of new music discovery – Steve and Stu share their tips!

(And Steve explains how he discovers good new artists despite being overwhelmed with suggestions)

===================================
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 Steve and Stu grapple with Harry Styles, Bonnie Tyler and Bruno Mars...
Don't forget - you can become a Superfan of the podcast for free – and access an extra 20 mins of show each week!

Stu's big number is $11bn - and that’s ⁠how much Spotify paid out to the music industry in 2025⁠. But will that be enough to get its critics off its back?

Apple Music ⁠identified up to 2 billion fraudulent streams on its service in 2025 alone⁠. But did it pay any money out for them?

Music is now ⁠a third of all the time people spend watching YouTube⁠. But is that good news?

UK venues complained bitterly about proposed changes to business rates tax which would increase ticket prices and force small venues to close: now the government has announced some changes…

Remember when we talked about Bonnie Tyler’s Spotify royalties in a show last year? ⁠Both Bonnie and Spotify have chipped in with a follow-up to that story⁠…

Harry Styles’ "world tour" is ⁠only playing in seven cities⁠. Is this a new model for superstar touring?

Bruno Mars’ latest concert ⁠attracted 12.8 million people⁠! But what's the twist?

⁠No one wanted a global chart for AI-generated music⁠ - but here it is anyway!

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:
Steve and Stu reflect on last week's excellent interview with Ricky from Southampton Joiners - and the pressures on venues; and the changes in touring routes.

... and also the dubious reality for young gig-goers: who's putting gigs on for them – and do they even want gigs?

Football’s January transfer window has just closed in most of the big countries, which made us think: what if there was an equivalent for bands...

If you’ve been wondering what Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel and the Pope think about AI music… it’s your lucky week!

===================================
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 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!

===================================
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]