Los Campesinos! share their streaming money data (and it's... sobering); Could a new budget policy be "the death knell for small venues"?; And what are Steve & Stu's Spotify Wrapped 'listening ages'?

Dec 10, 2025

Delve into the sobering reality of streaming royalties as Los Campesinos! share their financial data. Discover how impending budget changes may sound the death knell for small UK venues struggling with increased business rates. Explore the urgent inquiry into the UK live music industry and the challenges young artists face. Plus, ponder the impact of AI-generated music on careers and listen in as hosts reveal their surprising Spotify Wrapped 'listening ages'. It's a ride through the joys and struggles of the music biz!

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Spotify Wrapped Broke Day‑One Records

Spotify Wrapped attracted a record ~200 million people checking it on day one and generated 500 million social shares.
Stuart and Steve also noted Wrapped's new 'listening age' feature sparked debate about perceived listener ages.

ANECDOTE

Bands Found Fake AI Tracks On Spotify

Architects had an AI‑generated track appear on their Spotify profile and fans got it removed.
King Gizzard faced a similar spoof where AI used their lyrics to create fake tracks that briefly streamed tens of thousands of times.

INSIGHT

Detection Relies On Systems And Fan Reporting

Platforms can't manually vet the huge daily upload volume, so detection relies on systems and fan reports.
Spotify often withholds royalties for flagged spoof content and removes tracks once alerted, but speed of response is critical.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. In this week’s episode of The Price of Music, Steve and Stu get stuck into a late-year flurry of big news:

"This could be the death knell for small venues" – enormous increases in business rates are coming for UK venues – Steve has a lot to say about how a seemingly-innocuous business rates policy point in the recent UK budget may prove to have a devastating effect;
UK band Los Campesinos! have laid bare their streaming royalties – by publishing some numbers for their 2024 album ‘All Hell’ – and it's fascinating (and sobering) info;
The UK government has launched an urgent major inquiry into how the country's live industry works – but why, and what are they trying to find out?
How safe is the music industry to work in for young people?
Stu's big number is 200 million – and there's a good chance you're one of them;
More evidence that the music biz might not be ready to truly deal with AI-music;
Christmas is coming, so for the heritage-rock-music fan in your life, what stocking-fillers are Mick Jagger and The Kinks selling?

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:

In Spotify Wrapped, Stuart’s ‘listening age’ was a sprightly 20... so why is that?
And what is Steve's 'listening age'?
Which of Steve and Stu are most anxious about next week's TPOM Christmas Quiz?
A veteran DJ thinks that phones are ruining dancefloors. His solution... is hardly less dystopian.
In Stu's quest to make up for insulting the whole of Australia (see last week's show...) he has news of something positive Olivia Dean is doing down under.

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!

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 - ⁠⁠joe@musically.com