What is slop and spam music? (And why is there so much of it?) Daft Punk Lego! What makes venues "fair" for artists? Killing Grannies! Michael Bublé! And more...

With Stuart under the weather and taking a well-earned rest to recover his lost voice, Joe wrangles full control of the podcast for one week only, and gets stuck into a question that will resonate with most TPOM fans: what's going on with music radio? You'd think that, with music streaming booming, and personalised algorithmic feeds promising to dominate music discovery, music radio would be fading. But it's not - the opposite, in fact. And, it's changing into something more interesting – the centre of discovery and community around genres, niches and scenes. Joe is joined by Laura Fisher, an analyst at MIDiA Research, to speak about its recent report on radio's evolving role in the music ecosystem. Their research shows a growing shift back toward human-curated audio and community stations. (Note: our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠ get the full, unedited, 50% longer interview!) Joe and Laura discuss: The rise of independent & community stations: How platforms like NTS, Balamii, Rinse FM – and even big stations like BBC 6 Music – have created thriving cultural hubs around niche genres and scenes.

This week on The Price Of Music, we end up talking philosophically about the, erm, price of music (as well as the actual philosophical value of it): → If you were considering spending up to £1.6m on some unheard Oasis recordings at auction this month, well, we have some bad news for you… → Chicago band The Empty Pockets have a special edition of their new album just for billionaires. It’s a snip at just $285,000, with absolutely no extras compared to the $20 edition for the rest of us… → 1,300. That’s how many original songs have been released by the world’s favourite precocious, pink, porky pop star… → When is it acceptable to start playing Christmas music? Well, people in the Philippines, Colombia and Barbados don’t care what you think: they’re cracking out the tinsel tunes already… → Is Elon Musk’s X a friend to the music industry? Not if you take the opinion of global labels body the IFPI, which thinks it’s a piracy haven… → Some of Spotify’s biggest playlists are getting smaller – in terms of how many followers they have. But this may not be a bad thing… → Next year’s Grammy Awards are going to be missing another huge K-Pop act. Stray Kids have joined BTS in refusing to enter – despite there being a dedicated ‘Asian Pop’ category for the first time. Or rather, they have refused to enter BECAUSE there is a dedicated ‘Asian Pop’ category… 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 ’n’ Joe go deep on, erm, Christmas songs: When DO we think it’s acceptable to start listening to Christmas music?

This week on The Price Of Music, there's a vague but tangible 'us vs them' theme, and lot of hoo-ha about secondary ticketing: Secondary-ticketing firm Viagogo is having its latest public argument in the UK, with anti-touting group FanFair Alliance. And it’s all about Manchester, and ticketing at smaller venues...

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)

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... =================================== 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! 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 - ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠