The Fold

Gareth Shute, a music writer and historian, discusses his new book, 'Songs From the Shaky Isles', offering a comprehensive overview of New Zealand's pop music history. He highlights the transformative influence of television and commercial radio on music production and artist exposure. Shute dives into the significance of Māori show bands and the emergence of a vibrant counterculture in the 60s and 70s. He also tackles the challenges artists face in gaining international recognition today, especially in the streaming era.

Eugene Healey is an academic and brand strategist based in Melbourne, and a sharp critic of clumsy attempts from brands to play social justice activists. He's traveling back to New Zealand to speak at the Comms Council's Media Spotlight event, and joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss the unintended consequences of advertising's woke years, and explain why brands should only show up for a community if they're truly committed to the bit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anna Rawhiti-Connell joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss the way social media conspiracy theories have started to dominate the institutional media in the US, and ask what the local equivalents might be. They also talk about Lucy Blakiston from Shit You Should Care About's signing to venerable Hollywood talent agency WME, and The Spinoff's buzzy new social-first news show Now You Know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on an emergency edition of The Fold to discuss Sky's move to buy the New Zealand assets of Discovery NZ, including Three and ThreeNow. They discuss the price, what it does for Sky, how Three will evolve and how it changes the game for TVNZ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to dig into another incredible quarter for Netflix – and ask whether its run is over or it has more headroom. They also chat about what's next for Substack after its US$100m raise, the end of the Auckland Transport saga and break down the Beacon Awards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Becker is an Aucklander who spent 15 years in the UK, much of it in key roles with huge EPL teams Arsenal and Manchester City, before a spell in Melbourne. He returned home to launch the city’s first professional football team in more than a decade – one which overcame early doubts to become a phenomenon right out of the gate. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about the decision to let a documentary crew film their first season, how to build fan engagement and delve into the complexities of reach versus reward in sports rights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss a clutch of curiously under-covered stories which suggest major changes coming to streaming entertainment and news publishing. There’s Netflix’s massive deal with France’s biggest broadcaster to host its live channels and a vast library of content, along with a group of UK TV companies banding together to sell ads across their networks. Then there is the continual encroachment of AI into platforms, including the sharp rise on both Spotify and YouTube – along with the chance of a fightback, in Cloudflare’s desire to create a “pay-per-crawl” model. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Jeffries might be the most influential New Zealander in the global music industry you've never heard of. For many years he was a senior executive, in charge of programming more than 800 stations at iHeartRadio, the biggest radio company in America, with massive digital and events businesses too. But while he worked on the big show by day, by night he built out a really different operation. BrianFM disobeys many of the rules he enforced in his main job – no DJs, no ads, and a very eclectic and constantly changing playlist. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to explain the two sides of his extraordinary career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to recap the big takeaways from a new interview with TVNZ CEO Jodie O’Donnell. TVNZ is back in profit and looking at rugby and the Olympics, with an intriguing pay-per-view model on the horizon. He and Duncan Greive also discuss the implications of a widening lead for Stuff in Nielsen’s digital news rankings, and close on what the structural separation of WBD internationally means for Three and the rest of the local business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Campbell Smith trained as a lawyer, but was quickly drawn into the music business. He started out offering advice on bFM, then began representing artists like Brooke Fraser and The Naked and Famous. Then came his first promotional gig – running one of the country's most iconic festivals in the Big Day Out. At the same time he represented recorded music rights holders in a doomed battle against music downloading in the Napster era. He joins Duncan Greive to reflect on all this and discuss the current state of live music, while explaining his decision to wind down his management career, and his involvement with the campaign to turn Western Springs into a permanent music venue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices