Latest / The Price of Music / Bangaranga post-Eurovision; Zara Larsson’s virtual pyjamas; Steve’s big announcement; How many songs have you heard on Spotify?; Plus: World Cup Muppets!

Transcript

Bangaranga post-Eurovision; Zara Larsson’s virtual pyjamas; Steve’s big announcement; How many songs have you heard on Spotify?; Plus: World Cup Muppets! · The Price of Music

0:03
Hello and welcome to The Price of Music brought to you by Music
0:06
Ally, the show that both looks at the finances of the music
0:09
industry. We'll also bring you some
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stories and comments about the past week in the pop business.
0:15
He's Stuart Dredge. I'm Steve Lemack.
0:18
Let's start, as always, with a show stopping figure, a big
0:23
number. What's your big number this
0:24
week, Stuart? I'm going big and very specific
0:27
this week, right? 41, 2307 and that is how many,
0:33
how many songs I've listened to on Spotify since 2008.
0:38
Oh, this is a new This is another spot, another new
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Spotify feature. This isn't it, Which I know,
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which I noticed came up. Yeah, recently.
0:48
We're celebrating its 20th birthday of anniversary of his
0:51
launch, which you may have seen or people have seen that the the
0:54
the Spotify logo has changed on people's phones to a disco ball
0:58
logo, which has predictably created anger and fury on the
1:03
Internet of people saying why is a Lego a disco ball?
1:06
Forcing Spotify yesterday to say no, it's not going to stay a
1:08
disco ball, it's just a temporary thing.
1:10
Come lighten up, people. But yeah, so in app now, you
1:14
know the Spotify rap thing that happens at Christmas where it
1:17
gives you all your stats. Well, they've basically done
1:18
that, but for as long as you've been on Spotify, which for me is
1:23
since 20th of October 2008, because we were writing about
1:26
it. They were out there and so.
1:28
And what? What was the number again?
1:29
4041 thousand. 41,307 I looked up.
1:34
So my most streamed artist is The Chemical Brothers, it turns
1:36
out, which I think is because for three years I was using them
1:39
as my gym playlist. I do love them, but 10,834
1:44
minutes of Chemical Brothers listening which I did some
1:47
crunching. That's roughly between $8 and
1:50
$14.00 of royalty payouts for The Chemical Brothers from my
1:53
listening. Which kind of sounds puny
1:56
doesn't it? Like 10,000 minutes plus.
1:59
But. They've got 7.4 million
2:01
listeners on Spotify, so if we all listened like I had, that's
2:05
like $80 million, which is simultaneously the kind of the,
2:10
the poultryness of my individual royalties.
2:12
Well, I spent more on on a mug with The Chemical Brothers on it
2:15
than I spent on that I've given them in streaming royalties,
2:17
clearly. So I've got a mug that cost me
2:18
£16.00. So I have found other ways to
2:20
put money in their pockets, but it does add up.
2:25
And yeah, yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't.
2:27
What I lacks is context. I don't know if I am really good
2:31
in terms of how much I've listened to.
2:32
I don't know how high up the kind of the engagement pyramid I
2:35
am, you know? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting,
2:37
isn't it? Because I suppose it's when you
2:39
signed up to Spotify and and what you use Spotify for.
2:42
If you're using it as a replacement for your stereo
2:45
where you used to play your CDs or we don't really listen to
2:48
actual physical records any more than your Spotify figure will
2:52
probably be higher than for instance, yours is doubled mine.
2:56
I looked, I looked up mine and mine is having joined a year
3:00
later, so a year after you, but mine's only around 21,000.
3:04
But then again, I listen to actual records, quite a.
3:06
Lot. That's it yeah, you're
3:08
listening. Time is surely lots of.
3:10
Them it's it's down to what's. Yeah, it's down to your music
3:13
listening habits. I imagine it's not a
3:15
competition, all right. I'm feeling, but it is it is a
3:20
weird slice because like you could as part of this thing, you
3:22
can get it to make a playlist, can't you, of your your topmost
3:25
dream songs. Mine is confidence man
3:28
boyfriend, which I'm quite happy about because it's I really like
3:30
that. But, but mine is again dominated
3:32
by there was a period of time when I had this one playlist
3:35
that I played, but every time I go to the gym, so every, every
3:37
couple of days. And so that those are the songs
3:40
that high up there. So it's kind of, it's not really
3:42
measuring what I love, it's measuring what I've played most.
3:45
And it it there is a difference. There I guess.
3:48
If you use it for a purpose, but yeah.
3:50
It's OK. Three talking points from the
3:52
past week. Well, this first one is
3:54
something which we've mentioned in the past couple of weeks,
3:58
something we've been speculating about, which is whether the UK's
4:02
planned crackdown on ticket counting would appear in The
4:06
King's Speech which was announced last week.
4:08
That's all the proposed legislation for the next round
4:12
of government. The answer is unfortunately no,
4:16
but slightly yes. Explain this.
4:20
Well, yeah, so the king gave his speech and what my government's
4:23
going to do and it wasn't mentioned in there, but it's if
4:26
you go to page 64 in the background briefing notes of The
4:29
King's Speech, which we all of course are reading that really
4:33
carefully. It's in.
4:34
There was a draft bill which, and you can correct me if I'm
4:38
wrong here, but it basically means it will be discussed in
4:41
review, but there's no guarantee it'll actually become law in the
4:44
next session of Parliament. Yeah, it's interesting.
4:47
It was the draft bill. It was actually, it was defined
4:49
by the enemy as being designed to be subject to consultation
4:54
and pre legislative scrutiny from parliamentary committees,
4:58
industry groups and consumers before being formally introduced
5:02
to parliament as legislate legislation.
5:05
All this of course takes time and as you say, there's no
5:08
guarantee at this moment in time when it will get shunted up the
5:13
list. So although this is, I mean,
5:16
it's one small step forward when it comes to fighting the towns,
5:20
one very small step forward, but it's also at least half a step
5:23
back because again, this is going to open up another
5:25
opportunity I'm sure for big ticket resale websites to start
5:29
lobbying MPs all over again. I shouldn't wonder on that.
5:32
Topic actually had an e-mail after we, we covered it from
5:35
Viagogo's PR right. And they had a, they had a
5:38
statement and their statement was they, they don't they, they
5:41
think the government's got it all wrong and they think it
5:43
should focus more on the primary ticketing market.
5:45
So, you know, first sales focusing only on price caps
5:49
risks entrenching a dominant primary player.
5:51
That's Ticketmaster. So exactly as you say, they're
5:54
gearing up to now say a new argument.
5:57
I mean, I thought the spiciest quote I saw was, you know, UK
6:00
music. So that the umbrella body,
6:02
they're generally quite measured, aren't they, because
6:04
they represent a lot of different interests.
6:06
But Tom Keel, the boss of that, was that it was a betrayal of
6:08
millions of music fans, which is, you know, a no nonsense
6:12
quote saying we're really, really disappointed with this
6:14
government which. I'm not, I mean obviously I'm
6:16
not going to go, I'm going to go through all the arguments which
6:18
we've put forward over the past fortnight.
6:21
But it's just it's such a missed opportunity to do something easy
6:26
and positive. And no one apart from the
6:29
secondary tickets, reso websites, no one is, I don't
6:33
think it's against this. And it is, you know, for music
6:36
fans, it's going to mean, you know, another year, 2 year,
6:40
three years of having to live with, you know, exorbitant
6:44
resale prices and touts employing thousands and
6:48
thousands of bots to to buy tickets, thus taking them away
6:53
from real fans. And it just seems as say a
6:56
missed opportunity. It's not.
6:58
It's not the only story this week which concerns government
7:02
either, because the British labels body, the BPI, has put
7:06
out some advice for the government's about how to handle
7:09
AI music licensing, but again, based based on story one.
7:15
Well, in this case, will will MPs listen to what they're
7:18
saying? What?
7:19
What are they putting, what are they recommending, and how will
7:22
this go down, do we think? Well, it was very unfortunate
7:24
because this report came out, which is basically saying here's
7:26
what the government should do. Came out on the very day the
7:28
government was imploding in terms of leadership battles and
7:31
infighting. So it might got lost a bit in
7:34
the main news. But yeah, basically it's saying
7:36
to the government, we're licensing AI music companies.
7:39
It's from the label saying we're doing licensing deals.
7:41
And I think it mentions 26 so far with AI companies and
7:45
saying, look, this is working, so don't mess this up.
7:49
And by that they're saying don't relax copyright rules to let AI
7:53
companies kind of train on music without permission.
7:56
Let us continue to do licensing deals with them and also back us
7:58
up. So this this report is saying
8:00
that they want more transparency from AI companies telling you
8:03
what they've trained their stuff on and they want the rules to
8:06
apply to all the AI models that are available here, even if they
8:09
were trained somewhere else in the world.
8:11
So it's kind of it's just saying this is what we want, but it's
8:14
also saying it's working like we're signing deals.
8:18
So just kind of almost don't, don't do things that will mess
8:21
that up for us. It's a gist of this report,
8:25
weirdly. I mean, it's a lot of
8:28
complicated subject because I mean, just today I was writing
8:30
about a story in the about the US where there's going to be
8:33
some protest marches from musicians who are unhappy with
8:36
the major labels AI deals, and they think it's not going to be
8:39
fair to musicians. So there's a lot of discussions
8:42
still about these deals that are being signed by Universal and
8:44
Warner and Sony in the UK. They're saying, yeah, let us
8:48
carry on, but there are musicians saying, hang on a
8:51
minute, we want some transparency from you about
8:53
these deals and how they're going to reward us.
8:54
So it's all, it's all still arguments basically.
8:56
But this, if you, the report's called, it's got one of those
9:00
reportee titles. It's called Driving UK Growth,
9:03
the Role of Licensing Music in the Age of AI.
9:05
But if anyone wants a primer on what the industry is asking for,
9:08
it's a very good summary list. There's a good job of setting up
9:10
their demands. OK, right, not content with
9:15
infiltrating 90% of parental streaming algorithms and making
9:21
your Spotify raps look like an 11 year old's birthday party
9:24
playlist, those cartoon K pop demon hunters are going out on a
9:29
global tour. Although details so far a bit
9:33
sketchy. Yeah, it was an announcement
9:36
that there'll be more announcements basically.
9:39
But yeah, I mean, so we I think we all knew this was coming
9:41
because kids love K pop Demon Hunters and so they're going to
9:45
do a big tour. And it's Netflix and it's AEG
9:47
Presents. It's one of the big, big kind of
9:49
live promoters, isn't it? And they said we're going to do
9:52
a tour and that was the announcement.
9:54
And it doesn't say how big it is.
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I mean, I'm assuming it's at least arenas, maybe stadiums, I
10:00
don't know, maybe stadiums is too big, but doesn't say where
10:03
it's going to be and when it's being announced later this year.
10:06
So I would assume it's a 2027 tour, but we don't even know if
10:09
the singers in because the real singers behind them have
10:12
actually been more prominent recently.
10:13
They performed at the Brits, they performed in America.
10:17
I don't know. We don't know if it's going to
10:18
be. I sort of think of it as like
10:20
old gorillas and new gorillas, right?
10:22
So you remember old gorillas when they had the characters at
10:24
the front and the musicians behind them.
10:26
Is it going to be that or they're going to have the people
10:28
up front, you know, like new gorillas do and have the the
10:31
characters behind them? I I would bet on the former,
10:33
wouldn't you? Yeah, I think so.
10:36
Because if your if your target audience is basically the kids
10:39
who've watched the film, then surely they're going to want to
10:43
see that the characters in the film, unless, unless there are
10:49
screens running animations and real people so that they might
10:54
be a mix. I can't believe I'm talking.
10:56
I can't believe we're now talking about what the K pop
10:58
Demon Hunter. This is what I've done Tour may
11:00
consist of. On do you know, though, I think
11:03
it's a risk because say this tour is next year, are kids
11:06
still going to like K pop demon hunters then?
11:08
Like, I think, I think they're going to need a new film at
11:10
least just to get everyone excited again because there's a
11:13
long gap. But I mean, it's peak was its
11:16
peak was last year and it's still popular.
11:18
Yeah. But I don't know.
11:19
I mean, a year is a risk. They could have all moved on to
11:21
something completely different then.
11:23
There'll be another film, won't there?
11:25
Must be part of the plan. I mean, if it's made, it's been
11:28
so closely successful, you're not just going to walk away from
11:32
it, are you? Without making a sequel.
11:34
Imagine. Imagine if all the kids have
11:35
moved on and you've booked Wembley Arena.
11:38
But it's one, I think it's going to be a big, a big deal.
11:41
But yeah, it'll be, it'll be really fascinating if they do
11:43
something genuinely like creative with it, with the
11:45
characters and with the staging. So we'll see, but I think.
11:49
What, what? What a turn up and what a lovely
11:51
link back to last week's program if K pop demon hunters are the
11:55
latest victims of blue dot fever.
11:59
Yeah, right on to any other business.
12:02
Can we start with the Eurovision Song Contest, which I haven't
12:09
watched for about, I mean, no exaggeration, I haven't watched
12:13
it for at least 15, possibly 20 years.
12:16
So. So I'm not the most informed and
12:19
I don't know the recent history, but my daughter has obviously
12:21
become slightly interested in it for the first time this year.
12:25
So where do you stand on Eurovision Politics aside,
12:28
Stuart? I, I enjoy it, but you know, it
12:31
makes me miss old Twitter because Eurovision with Twitter
12:34
used to be the most wonderful night because all the comedians,
12:37
all the all music journalists and my friends are on there
12:39
being funny. And now we've all left Twitter.
12:43
But yeah, I, I enjoy it. I mean, I wasn't sure this was a
12:45
vintage year in terms of there wasn't much silliness and there
12:48
weren't many cast iron bangers. It was all a bit mere.
12:50
But what did you think coming back to it after 15 years?
12:53
Well, three things. 1, I actually really liked the UK
12:58
entry. I mean, I'm all up for novelty
13:01
New rave me. And obviously he's a really
13:04
interesting chap, isn't he? Because he runs this little
13:07
museum museum in Ramsgate, which is called this museum is not
13:11
obsolete, which if you ever happen to find yourself in
13:15
Ramsgate, I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who likes,
13:19
you know, old, old school analogue synths.
13:23
In fact, any old tech really. It's amazing.
13:25
It's, I mean it's a tiny, tiny room really, well, 2 rooms, but
13:30
it's got like just weird stuff like old telephone exchanges and
13:36
yeah, weird keyboards and theremins and, you know, a very
13:40
early version, you can play a very early version of, you know,
13:42
the game Pong, just the tennis. It's just got loads of brilliant
13:46
stuff in it. So, so I like him and I liked
13:50
the song and I just feel quite sorry for him, particularly
13:54
having seen some of the pictures.
13:56
The good folk of Ramsgate all came out to watch it on a
13:59
screen. That was a long night for them.
14:02
I. Don't think there's any shame in
14:03
it for him though. I feel like it's not like it's a
14:06
big star who's flopped, you know?
14:08
I think he came and did it. He did his thing.
14:10
And even when he got 0 points in the audience vote, I think he
14:13
stayed up that lazy. But he just, he just laughed.
14:16
He seemed to take it and he didn't seem, you know, So I
14:18
don't think he's going to go back home crashed or I hope not,
14:20
because I think he's not let himself down at all.
14:23
Secondly, where did they get the presenters from?
14:27
Oh God, they weren't good this year.
14:28
Who was that fellow who looked like like something that was
14:31
dreamt up by the League of Gentlemen, if you know if the
14:34
League of Gentlemen were doing Eurovision and a pastiche of
14:38
Eurovision in the 70s or 8? I mean, honestly, he looked like
14:41
he'd fallen through a time warp from 1976.
14:44
That guy. That was my second thought.
14:47
My third is does it, and this is the question for you.
14:51
Does does it make anyone any, any money anymore?
14:56
Does it make stars out of people?
14:57
Does you know, do you become even even in the minor leagues?
15:03
Do you become a bit more successful, semi famous?
15:06
You know any? So I don't know anyone who took
15:08
part this year. What's the, what do we think the
15:10
best case scenario is? You know, compared to obviously
15:13
when I used to watch Eurovision 3040 odd years ago, you know,
15:17
when ABBA were in it and ABBA become obviously, you know,
15:21
quite a big success. It was a.
15:23
Launchpad. Well, do you know?
15:24
So I'm glad you asked that because I've been crunching
15:26
exactly that data. Oh, brilliant.
15:28
Good, good. This is what we're after.
15:30
It's a very. Specific data, it's Spotify
15:32
streams because that is the public data you have.
15:35
So there's one from the last 20 years, there's one standout
15:38
success story that if you want to emulate, and that's Monoskin,
15:42
the Italian band, right? Pass me by.
15:45
They they have, they have nearly 25,000,000 listens on Spotify
15:49
because they won Eurovision a few 20212121 they've won it.
15:53
But then they had a big hit in America and they've carried on.
15:56
So they've actually become a big band and Eurovision was just a
15:59
start. So that's the one.
16:00
But then it's quite a drop. There's a couple of artists who
16:02
are on like 87.7 million listeners, so Duncan Lawrence
16:06
and Lorene. Lorene is like a Eurovision
16:08
royalty. She won twice, but then a big
16:12
drop and then most of the winners the last 20 years I've
16:14
got less than 1,000,000 listeners and quite a few have
16:17
got like less than 300,000 listeners.
16:21
Interestingly. May Miller, who entered for the
16:24
UKA couple of years ago and she got, she did really badly on the
16:27
night. She's got 2.1 million listeners,
16:30
so she's got more listeners than a whole bunch of the recent
16:33
winners put together. So and.
16:36
Will this will the winning track this year, which by the way was
16:40
was a was pretty good anger. Anger.
16:42
Yeah, actually quite. It's fun, right?
16:45
Wasn't it? It was a very fun choreography.
16:47
As well though the chair choreography it was.
16:50
I've got to say I wasn't against it, but does that become a hit
16:55
all round Europe? Does it?
16:56
Does it, even if it's just a one hit wonder for them, will that
17:01
make them some some money? Or do we all just move?
17:06
I think it will make some money and there's two things.
17:07
There's the immediate hit. So this is a launchpad for it to
17:10
be to go, to get streamed around Europe to get money.
17:13
But there's also the follow on if, like if it's a class, if
17:15
it's a really, if it's considered by Eurovision fans to
17:17
be a classic, then every year it's going to get a bump because
17:20
people are listening to Eurovision playlists.
17:23
So it's one of those things it's like, it's a bit like writing a
17:26
it's not quite like you're writing a Christmas song, but
17:28
that idea of this is something where every year it can come
17:30
back. But the question is, can you
17:33
break out burn beyond that one song?
17:35
And in most cases they didn't and they haven't.
17:39
So but she's, I mean, the Bulgaria, wasn't it?
17:42
I think she seemed to, she seemed like a star, even even
17:47
talking nonsense in interviews with the interview trying to get
17:49
into it. She looked like she's already a
17:51
pop star. So she's got something about
17:53
that could break up. But that's the key I think is
17:56
use it as a launchpad. Otherwise you will become a
17:58
woman one hit wonder who kind of gets to do something every
18:01
Eurovision and get some appearance money from doing
18:03
events. But do you know, do you know who
18:05
the the biggest apart from Monoskin that the biggest artist
18:10
that's been appearing in Eurovision recently from the UK
18:12
is actually, and this calls back to previous stories we've talked
18:15
about Bonnie Tyler, who I forgot did Eurovision 2013 for the UK.
18:21
She came 19th out of 26. So I didn't think very well.
18:25
But she's got more than 15,000,000 listeners on Spotify,
18:28
so more than everyone who won in the last 20 years apart from
18:31
that one band. So maybe the key is to actually
18:35
have have some 80s power ballots, obviously.
18:39
OK Oh, this is this is good. Have you seen everybody?
18:45
Have you seen the line up, the full line up for the World Cup
18:48
final half time show which has been announced again?
18:53
Is this a thing? I can't remember watching the
18:56
last World Cup. But in the old days you just
18:59
have a brass band marching around football crowds at half
19:02
time, wouldn't you? There's one for the teenagers.
19:06
But now obviously this. So the World Cup is basically
19:08
going Super Bowl is it? And they're going to have a big
19:11
half time show. They are.
19:13
So Chris Martin out of Coldplay is, is organising it.
19:16
I don't think he's performing or he might be turning up.
19:18
Hang on, he's. Chris Martin is organising it.
19:21
He's a. Curator Yes, of the.
19:23
Half time show at the World Cup final.
19:27
Chris Martin from Coldplay. Yes, which I assume means
19:32
they're going to be giving everyone some lights to wave as
19:35
well. But this is a partnership with
19:36
Global Citizen, the charitable initiative.
19:38
So he's been quite involved with.
19:40
So yeah, and they've got they announced the the first three.
19:42
Well, the the only three artists are playing and it's quite a lot
19:45
of Madonna, Shakira and BTS, which as a trigger and then and
19:51
then also. But this is what I'm excited
19:53
about. Also Muppets and Sesame Street
19:57
do any? Of those, I mean, as you know,
19:59
big stars as they as they are in the the pop music sphere.
20:04
Does does do they shriek football fan at you do Will or
20:08
is is it purely that we're going to in between the fellas kicking
20:14
a ball around where we're going to put on a a big glitzy pop
20:18
show for the telly? What I mean, I don't really
20:21
yeah. I mean if I'm seem like I'm
20:23
struggling with this concept. But it's just, I mean, the idea
20:27
of you could put Madonna on at half time at Colchester United,
20:30
they're still all out in the concourse buying cups of tea.
20:33
They're not they're not going to be that fast.
20:35
Most. You're not.
20:36
You're not. Telling me that the South stands
20:39
where all the noisy young fans are.
20:42
They're, they're, they're buying a beer and a pie, you know,
20:45
because it's Madonna. I mean, if it was, you could
20:48
put, you could put Skinner and Badale out there and get more
20:52
people. Wow.
20:54
But maybe anyway. I mean, yeah, I.
20:55
Mean so that, yeah, I mean, to some extent this is a big U.S.
20:59
star, big Latin American star, big Asian *.
21:04
I mean, the other, the thing I was wondering was that the BBC
21:07
said the show's going to be 11 minutes long because obviously I
21:10
think for American football, it's a stop and start game.
21:13
They weren't same way. But for football, you can't let
21:15
the players sit there for half an hour at half time.
21:17
Their legs will cool down and they'll come out and get
21:18
injured, you know? So it's 11 minutes long.
21:21
And I'm thinking, how do you, how do you say to Madonna,
21:23
Shakira, BTS, you've got 3 1/2 minutes each, No running over
21:27
and Miss Piggy is doing the finale.
21:29
So don't get in her way, you know, So it's going to be, I
21:31
don't know. I mean, I wonder if they're
21:32
going to do massive medleys or whether they're going to do, I
21:34
mean, like, are they going to do new, new material, which is the
21:38
dreaded, I mean, it's all for good cause.
21:42
So I think, I think it's going to an education fund.
21:44
And there's this amazing quote from Shakira in the press police
21:47
saying I've spent my life doing two things, making songs and
21:51
Building Schools, which I checked and she has.
21:55
She's got 30 years of philanthropy behind her.
21:57
It's like Building Schools in Colombia.
21:59
So there's there's goodness to this, but there's also a bit of
22:02
like, wow, how do you how did normally you would think you'd
22:05
give one big *11 minutes to do medleys, but this is going to be
22:08
real on and off or maybe collab, maybe all of them together.
22:11
I mean, what would Madonna, Shakira and BTS do as one song?
22:15
Vindaloo. Maybe that's your answer, or
22:17
three lines. That's about thinking about he's
22:21
Now I've I've got this note here which was forwarded to me for
22:25
the next item, which it simply says Stuart's latest merch
22:31
purchase is a set of Zara Larsson pyjamas, but he can't
22:37
wear them in the real world and not.
22:40
Your embarrassment? Well, this is about Roblox.
22:45
So we've talked about that over some of the gaming platform
22:47
that's hugely popular with kids, and Zara Larsson is basically
22:53
doing a performance in there, So it's called Zara Larsson's
22:57
Midnight Sun World. So if you're on Roblox, you can
23:00
go in there and you can kind of see her do a concert and you can
23:02
buy merch, and they've got this big merchant virtual merch store
23:07
which is selling pyjamas. You can buy Zara Larsson's hair
23:11
to put on your avatar. Yeah, of.
23:14
Course which and. This is, this sounds like a
23:16
novelty thing, but, but here's the thing.
23:18
So Zoa Larsson was on Roblox before in 2021, and she did like
23:22
a, she had like a, a rewards game and she earned more than $1
23:25
million from selling virtual merchandise there really.
23:29
But that was announced at the time because fans were like,
23:31
yes, I really want to have a Zoa Larsson cap or a bag or outfit
23:35
for my, for my advertising Roblox.
23:37
So she's like, she's a Roblox millionaire already.
23:41
And now she's back. So it is like a serious story in
23:43
that I went and looked around this.
23:44
It's like it looks quite fun. It's like a colourful world you
23:48
can wander around. You go to the merch store and
23:50
you pay in Roebucks, which is Roblox's on currency.
23:55
So yeah. And she's currently having this
23:57
big comeback where she's up in the with Pink Panther, It's up
23:59
in the charts. It's got a song in there.
24:01
And so I think what they said is right.
24:03
Well, if we did A1, if you can make more than $1,000,000 this
24:06
time, break out the pyjamas, the virtual pyamas.
24:11
So. Yeah, apparently the other thing
24:13
is she had a her concert on Roblox in 2021 attracted 1.6
24:17
million fans. So it's just a reminder of the
24:20
scale of these things. Yeah and yeah.
24:25
I mean, it's all part, I mean it's part of the pop star
24:27
portfolio I suppose now, isn't it?
24:29
I was thinking about this the other day that a bit a bit like
24:32
you're always advised to not put all your money in one place to,
24:37
to earn money as a major pop star.
24:40
Now there are lots of different avenues where you can reap in,
24:45
you know, rewards. Yeah.
24:47
And the. Cost as well, like think about,
24:49
think about for example, producing, I don't know, think
24:52
about making 100,000 sets of Czaro Las and pyjamas in the
24:56
real world and how much that costs, upfront costs to make
25:00
them. And then and then making a set
25:03
in Roblox, which is very quick. You know, there's still some
25:07
craft that goes into it making something that works.
25:10
The cost to just removed in terms of physical manufacturing.
25:14
I mean, it's kind of the it's, it's the ultimate merch business
25:17
in terms of simplicity. If you have it, can get it
25:20
right. And if the fans are happy to pay
25:21
for it. But yeah.
25:23
And finally this week and this actually, this is some some news
25:29
from us. Well, me as it goes, because and
25:34
it's quite hard saying this. And this has been something
25:39
which has been a very difficult decision to make.
25:42
But I am afraid that this is going to be my last week on this
25:46
podcast. I mean never say never, but for
25:49
now I'm going to have to love you and leave you.
25:51
And it's nothing personal. It's me, not you, as I say,
25:56
because it's I mean to me or to the.
25:58
Listeners to. All of you, you know, I would
26:02
think obviously myself and Stuart have talked about this
26:06
and producer Joe for a little bit and it is yeah, it's been
26:09
very, it's been very hard because one of the things since
26:12
we started this back in I think it was February 2024, you know,
26:17
this, this show has been, it's been a real, it's been a real
26:21
learning curve for me on many levels.
26:24
Not just how you, you know, presents a show like this and
26:28
the work that goes into it, but all the information about the
26:32
music industry that I've learnt from you, Stuart.
26:34
It's just, it's been fascinating every week.
26:36
So it's, it's hard to to to walk away, but it's just obviously
26:42
out there, you know, you know, the work I do in the world of
26:45
live music as chair of live and also having the, the day job
26:50
that pays the bills over at the BBC that those, those things
26:54
take up actually a surprising, A surprising amount of time.
26:58
Partly because just trying to keep abreast of all the new
27:02
music that's out there as meant it's I just haven't had very
27:07
much time for anything else over the past few months.
27:09
And also, I don't want to get to the stage where I'm doing a show
27:14
and go turning up to do this recording, not knowing what I'm
27:17
talking about and then walking away again and completely
27:19
forgetting about it till next week.
27:21
You know, I would know this. One of the things that always
27:24
scares me is just not doing the thing that you're doing to the
27:27
best of your ability. So I wouldn't want to let you
27:30
all down by being badly prepped. So it's time to hand over the
27:36
reins. But thank you everybody, all of
27:39
you who subscribed or supported us and obviously to all the
27:44
Super fans as well who helped keep this show alive.
27:48
And also I must say to all our regular listeners, including
27:52
those that I bumped into at the Great Escape Festival in
27:55
Brighton over the weekend, who were very complimentary about
27:58
the program. Can I now apologize?
28:00
I'm sorry, I couldn't tell you personally that this was
28:03
happening because we, we didn't want to announce anything till
28:07
today. But a couple of chats
28:09
particularly said, Mike, carry on doing what you're doing.
28:11
We love it, you know, don't, don't pass this all.
28:15
Oh no, I can't tell you. But anyway, to all of you, thank
28:19
you very much for listening. I'm really proud of what we've
28:22
achieved so far. It might not be the biggest
28:25
music podcast in the country, but but we have, we've always
28:28
tried to fulfil the brief that we sort of had at the start
28:31
doing all this, which was, you know, to try and untangle the
28:34
music business for anyone who was interested.
28:36
And of course, never fear, I'm painting a very gloomy pitch.
28:39
But it all it's this is not the end.
28:42
The price of music does not end here, in fact it's very much
28:47
looking to the future now. It's just a minor change of
28:49
personnel because from next week you will have heard him Co
28:54
hosting the podcast with me the other week.
28:56
But it's the man who's got us on air for the past year.
29:00
Writer and lecturer Joe Sparrow will be joining you Stuart from
29:05
next week, taking on the mantle of taking the Mickey out of your
29:09
obsession with the Black Crows. He.
29:11
He will be. And you know, that means there's
29:13
going to be a few more jingles, I suspect, as if you listen to.
29:17
But I think, I mean, yeah, I'm obviously it's, it's, it's going
29:20
on. But from my point of view, it's
29:22
been a real pleasure and a real education for my side too,
29:24
because I mean, I've always been a writer, really not a talker.
29:27
And so working with someone who's not just a professional
29:30
talker, but also everything you understand about pace and
29:33
formats and shows, I've learnt so much, including when to shut
29:36
up sometimes. But, but I was thinking back to
29:40
when we started this and I think we had that, we had a Zoom
29:42
meeting, didn't we? To kind of like, you know,
29:44
should we do this? And I think we just talked about
29:47
music for the 1st 15 minutes. Well then produced a guy lipped
29:51
on going. I think this might work.
29:55
We inadvertently made a pilot without really meaning to.
29:58
Yeah, and that's a good sign. I'm generally sad you're not.
30:01
Going to have to think about Baby Shark or the Black Crows or
30:04
Dolly Parton on a regular basis. I'll.
30:06
E-mail you, I'll be. Out there listening.
30:08
Oh, I mean, I'll, I'll be turning, I'll be the subscriber
30:12
at the other end. But so, yeah, I won't miss out
30:17
on a regular dose of Baby Shark updates and weird merchandise
30:24
and whatever else you've got to throw at us.
30:27
So yeah. Yeah.
30:28
But it's been. It's been.
30:29
Great. And I'm generally, generally
30:30
sorry, but we've talked about your reasons and we understand
30:33
them completely. And yeah, I think like you said,
30:36
never say never. I don't think that the doors was
30:38
going to be open to kind of reappear guest appearances.
30:41
Come and tell us what we've been doing wrong in your absence.
30:45
Thank. Thank you.
30:46
It's honestly been a pleasure. And we're going to try and carry
30:49
on in the spirit that we have. And.
30:51
Yeah, well, in many. Ways Joe is much more informed
30:57
so I hope you all stick around everybody and as always, spread
31:02
the word, tell your friends or leave us a review somewhere
31:06
online. Leave us a review leave a review
31:09
of us online or of course, if you want to be part of the gang
31:13
who gets to say for the lock in the bonus part of the program.
31:16
Those details have had to become a super fan at patreon.com/the
31:20
Price of Music. Or if you'd just like to get
31:22
into in touch with the show, the e-mail address is
31:25
asalwaysthepriceofmusic@gmail.com. Thank you very much for
31:30
listening. See you soon, everybody.
31:32
Cheerio. Goodbye.