Latest / The Price of Music / Beyoncé sells $400m+ of tickets; How much money is Oasis making from merch?; Spotify wants a billion subscribers; Hayley Williams surprise-releases songs; and Cardi B’s "full-on cheese experience"...

Transcript

Beyoncé sells $400m+ of tickets; How much money is Oasis making from merch?; Spotify wants a billion subscribers; Hayley Williams surprise-releases songs; and Cardi B’s "full-on cheese experience"... · The Price of Music

• 0:07
  Hello and welcome to The Price of Music, brought to you by
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  Music Ally, the show that's fascinated by the fun and games
• 0:13
  and finances of the music world as explained each week by me,
• 0:17
  Steve Lemack and hint Stuart Dredge after our listeners
• 0:21
  Listener questions episode last week.
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  Some news to catch up on this week, although just before we
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  do, it turns out that both of us ended up going to see OA recess
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  at Wembley in the past week. Not together, I should straight,
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  not even on the same night. But Stuart, you've got a ticket
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  out of the blue and went last night.
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  We're recording this, by the way, slightly earlier in the
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  week than we usually do on a Monday.
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  So, so last night, top line What?
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  What did you make of it? I really enjoyed it.
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  You know, you know, I was before we talked about them and I said,
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  oh, I saw them and they were rotten.
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  A few, you know, the later before they were.
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  It was really good. They've obviously come back
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  fired up to make it good. And, you know, yeah.
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  So I really enjoyed it. How about you?
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  Did you enjoy it? Yeah, I mean, it would be
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  churlish, wouldn't it, to in any way attempt to pull apart a
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  night where nearly 90,000 people probably had their best time.
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  So I'll tell you what, it was really interesting.
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  They must have sold, I mean thousands, about millions of
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  pounds worth of merchandise for this tour though have made
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  through their deal with Adidas. I mean, we were, we were
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  chatting about this, me and some mates before going to see
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  Colchester United's opening match of the season.
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  Because it's the sort of the, once we've worked out who's in
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  the team, it's the sort of thing we talk about in the Biergarten
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  before a game. But by my, my mate, Tom's mate
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  Lee works for a High Street fashion brand.
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  I shall say which one, but we were trying to work out what
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  sort of deal Adidas have done with Oasis because I mean,
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  obviously, I mean, a lot of fashion brands, High Street
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  stores, like, I mean, quite often approach artists to buy
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  the license to use the group's logo or a specific shirt design.
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  But this, this feels much more like it's been a team effort.
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  It's much more of a collaboration, I think, because
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  I mean, there are, I had to look last night and there are other
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  brands who've produced Oasis clothing for the reunion gig.
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  I mean, they've got a whole range with the Oasis logo on.
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  But what they don't have is, is the tagline Live 25 or the
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  endorsements of the Gallagher brothers in various photos or
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  the official merch that at the gigs, which is obviously what
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  Adidas have, but I wonder what that cost them.
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  I mean, whatever they paid, whatever the percentages are, I
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  mean, it's just, it's a huge moment for Adidas.
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  And I mean, the range of clothes they've designed obviously
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  seemed to have really struck a nerve with the crowd.
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  Because honestly, I mean, what would you say 50% of the
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  audience were in official Adidas shirts?
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  Maybe more. I don't know.
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  What was it? Like so last night, the other
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  thing I noticed was on the way to the gig, a lot of fans
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  wearing the the live 25 merchandise.
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  So like when I was a kid and going to gigs, I would basically
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  buy AT shirt at the gig and I'd probably stuff it down in pocket
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  or put it on over whatever I was wearing.
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  Running to the toilets to change that was, yeah.
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  But now people buy it by much often before the concerts to go
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  to. I mean, it's a really, I mean,
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  we should do something like sometime if we can't get them
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  talk because they've got they've got the Adidas thing, they've
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  got Amazon Music are doing a bunch of like nostalgic merch
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  around big moments in the past and they've got these pop up
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  shops like the merch around this is this really well organized
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  complimentary interlocking campaign.
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  They must be making so much money.
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  And you know, it's you can tell. It's also perfect though, isn't
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  it? Because everyone who was an
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  Oasis fan, all their old merch has either been thrown away or
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  it's tatty or it doesn't fit anymore.
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  So you've got everyone starting from scratch and the people have
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  never seen them. Probably have one, one Oasis
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  logoed T-shirt, but not anything on the scale or the style of
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  this latest range. So yeah, I mean, we we might
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  come back to the subjects of Oasis and this week's lock in.
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  There's one or two other things probably to say about the gigs.
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  But as I say, a bit of news to catch on this week.
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  Catch up on Will we'll be touching on Hayley Williams and
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  her album. That isn't an album.
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  The festival that attracted 74 million people.
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  Take that, Glastonbury and the biggest country tour of all
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  time. But to start, here's Stuarts big
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  number for this week. Give us a big figure, a massive
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  stat from the past few days. What have you got?
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  All right, you're going to react badly to this initial start, but
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  I'll explain it. Yeah, well, the number is 12.8%,
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  which is 12.8% of the entire world's population.
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  Right. What does that equate to then?
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  What In in in a number? That is a 1 billion.
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  People, 1 billion is a better figure to start with.
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  So one billion, 12.8% of the entire world's population.
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  How does that tie into music? Well, this is Spotify target for
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  the number of people it wants to be paying for Spotify eventually
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  1 billion. So they, they had this, they did
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  their financial results last week and they had this call with
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  analysts and the CEO said the goal is 1 billion subscribers
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  and they currently have like 276,000,000.
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  So it's a way off. But then their chief business
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  officer, a guy called Alex Nordstrom, he said that over 3%
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  of the world's population subscribes to Spotify already.
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  And I checked that out and it's correct.
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  You know, it's more, a bit more than 3%.
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  And he said it's not implausible to imagine us reaching 10% or
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  even 15% of the world's population.
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  And 1 billion people is 12.8%. So it's in the middle of those.
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  So they have it. It's kind of like a big
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  statement of intent. Like we've grown this big, but
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  we want to get 4 times bigger with our subscribers and and
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  Rule the world, which obviously listens will have varying
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  varying views on and. Where does this mean then?
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  Targeting different territories? I mean because the growth will
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  be slower in markets like the UK and America which have had
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  Spotify for a while. Is this something to do with
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  music culture or just the way they market themselves as it
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  changes in local music scenes? How do they achieve this?
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  I think a lot of it is new parts of the world, so places like
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  India, places like Africa, Latin, there's a lot of growth
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  expected there. I think there's been these other
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  reports that have come out in the industry that say, you know,
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  in just a couple of years time, probably most of the new music
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  subscribers will come from. I think the phrase uses the
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  global S, which basically means everywhere outside America and
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  Europe. So so this is like a wider trend
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  of like this is where people see the growth coming.
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  And yeah, but I think also it's Spotify saying we still want to
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  get the people who are currently free listeners to upgrade to
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  strict subscribers. We still want to get more people
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  who aren't streaming already. And it is.
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  I think it's one of the things we often talk about is we always
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  talk about Spotify stats because its rivals don't really give out
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  numbers so much. Yeah, this is what I was going
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  to ask. How, how do how does this
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  contrast to the other streaming services?
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  How far? How far behind are Apple and
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  Amazon and Deezer and the like? Well, I mean, Apple and Amazon
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  don't give numbers out very often, so they're big, but
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  they're more in the 100 million range.
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  YouTube does actually give figures, so in March it's at 125
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  million premium subscribers. So that is big number, but
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  Spotify is more than double that.
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  So it is so I think when it talks about these figures and it
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  then looks ahead and goes 1 billion, it's, it's always, it's
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  also a way of cementing the fact that it's the biggest and making
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  everyone realize that. So it's, it's like an it's a
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  statement. Do you remember there was 10 is
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  it was the social network that film about Facebook when there's
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  a moment in that when they were talking about what's bigger than
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  1,000,000 users, 1 billion users.
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  And it's that that that distance to a number that really exerts A
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  fascination with people who run big tech companies get to a
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  billion. And was, was, was there, was
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  there anything else in these, in Spotify's latest financial
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  results? Does it, does it carry any other
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  information? And when they're laying out
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  their position, do they give anything else away about what
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  they're planning or what they what they believe they're doing
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  right or maybe wrong? I don't know.
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  Yeah, well, wrong actually. So we're not wrong, but
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  struggling. So one thing we learned was
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  Spotify struggling with its advertising business so that the
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  money it makes from ads for people who are listening for
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  free, those revenues actually went down by 1% year on year,
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  which is very unusual. They've been growing and
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  growing. And it talked about South in its
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  earnings call. They said, look, we're not happy
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  with this. It's not growing as we wanted it
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  to. It's not where we want it to be.
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  We're going to. And they said it's something, I
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  think it was the phrase was something like it's an execution
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  thing, not a strategic thing. So they still believe they can
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  do it, but they need to do better at selling ads and making
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  more money from the ads they sell.
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  So that's that's interesting because it ties in with, I don't
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  know if you remember, labels have been grumbling in the last
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  year about free streaming and AD support is streaming and saying
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  it's not doing well enough. It's not it's not growing
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  enough. And I think it was Sony Music.
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  I've said a couple of times, maybe the people like Spotify
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  should charge for their for their what's currently free.
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  So instead of getting for free, you might pay a small amount and
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  have ads in it. And so I think Spotify says, no,
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  we can do a better job of selling ads and we can return
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  this growth. But if that takes long, longer
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  than expected, you may see labels start to rumble again
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  about, well, we're not happy with how this is growing.
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  And a lot of people listen for free and you're not making
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  enough money. But that's not a Spotify thing,
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  only other people. But the other thing we learned,
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  well, we didn't learn anything really, but analysts.
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  So the analysts are the guys who kind of, you know, talk to Wall
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  Street about how Spotify is doing.
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  And they were asking about its plans for a super fan, more
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  expensive to premium tier. So you know more.
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  And that's been talked about for a while.
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  It's been leaked details of what's in it.
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  We've talked about those, haven't we?
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  And they are some basics. What if I deflected that
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  question and said, yet still coming, still very excited about
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  it, but still no firm dates. And as things happen, the very
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  next day, Universal Music had its earnings call with analysts.
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  It had its financial results and they were asking Universal about
• 10:14
  this and saying, is there anything going on here?
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  Because Spotify is saying it's not quite ready yet.
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  Are you happy with this? Sort of, you know, like those
• 10:20
  kind of questions that are probing pretensions.
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  And Universal Musics bosses actually said, no, we agree,
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  better not to rush this. Better to get it right.
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  And we're on board with this taking little time.
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  It needs to. So that's the other thing going
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  on that Spotify is about to launch this thing that'll be
• 10:35
  more expensive, could bring more money in, but it's taking it's
• 10:39
  time to get it right and labels so far are happy with that.
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  OK, 1 billion then. That's your big figure for this
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  week. Here's top three news stories,
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  two of which actually I think in a white hint that potential
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  shifts in in music culture in the future.
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  Firstly, more than 74 million people watched dance festival
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  Tomorrowland via its live streams on TikTok.
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  I mean, that's another big figure.
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  Tell us, tell us more about Tomorrowland and how how they
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  worked out this, this, this figure, how do, how do they pull
• 11:16
  this audience? Yeah, so it's a really funny and
• 11:19
  so a phoenix and a flame from literally from the flame story,
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  because just before the festival this year, the mainstage burnt
• 11:25
  down Tomorrowland and they had to rebuild a completely
• 11:28
  mainstage thing for which if you're TikTok and you've done
• 11:30
  this big deal to live stream it, you must be thinking, oh God,
• 11:33
  what's happening here? Is there going to be a festival?
• 11:36
  But yeah, so Tomorrowland is a very well established dance
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  festival and it's done live streams with TikTok before.
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  So I think a couple of years ago, 16 million people watched
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  live streams on TikTok. And that was, at the time, a big
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  figure. I was like, wow, 16 million
• 11:49
  people watching festival. But yeah, I mean, it's a crazy
• 11:53
  audience, isn't it? If you think about it.
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  I mean, the sets were live streaming on TikTok and there
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  was lots of promotion of it. And I think if you're open
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  TikTok and you had any interest that TikTok knew about
• 12:01
  electronic music, you probably would have been sort of shown
• 12:04
  this was happening. So it did a big hope.
• 12:07
  And we don't know how much of it they watched, you know, you may
• 12:09
  have just tuted for one set or a few minutes, But it's just, it
• 12:13
  just seems to be part of a really fascinating trend where
• 12:16
  these big festivals are saying, right, we can, we can sell out
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  or we can broadly sell out, but there's this huge global
• 12:22
  audience we can reach. And so you have YouTube does the
• 12:25
  Coachella festival and they do live stream that's been going
• 12:27
  for a while, Amazon Music to the Stagecoach festival, which is a
• 12:30
  big thing in the US. Obviously the BBC does
• 12:33
  Glastonbury here, which is well established.
• 12:35
  And I kind of tell me what you think about.
• 12:39
  It's like, I was thinking, I wonder what this means.
• 12:41
  If you're a big festival and you know that you're going to have
• 12:43
  this huge audience watching on a vertically sort of aligned
• 12:48
  smartphone, Does that change the way you design the stages?
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  Does it change who you book? Do you do you try and book more
• 12:55
  people who kind of get peeled with Tic tac audience?
• 12:57
  You're like, what does it mean for the how those festivals are
• 13:01
  that they know they have this huge online audience?
• 13:03
  I'm I'm kind of fascinated by that.
• 13:04
  Well, just just TikTok does does TikTok pay for the rights of
• 13:12
  being able to broadcast from the festival?
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  Because what what it will come down to is how much, how much do
• 13:19
  we need the financial investment?
• 13:22
  And then how much are we prepared to compromise to the
• 13:25
  people who are going to be screening it?
• 13:27
  I think because in the, I mean, I mean, it'll be wouldn't be
• 13:32
  entirely dignified, I don't think for major established
• 13:35
  festivals to then start, you know, modifying their sites or
• 13:39
  their stages. I don't think just to take the
• 13:41
  dollar. I think there'll be some
• 13:42
  kickback against that. But what the other thing I'm
• 13:47
  thinking is, and I, I know when this first started and it might
• 13:51
  have been around Coachella, but obviously there's a difficulty
• 13:55
  now in if you are basically selling these broadcasting
• 13:59
  rights to a company, how does that affect the artist contract?
• 14:04
  Because the artist has to give. Well, that's the thing.
• 14:07
  If you can only play, I mean, it's doesn't happen at
• 14:11
  Glastonbury, I think, but there are festivals around the world
• 14:13
  where you can only play if you basically sign up or sign away
• 14:17
  your rights, your TV rights. And so you don't you don't want
• 14:22
  to lose, you know, the basically the rights to a live performance
• 14:26
  because you might be wanting to do something with that yourself.
• 14:29
  I mean, in snippets on TikTok, it's possibly less of a problem.
• 14:34
  But you know, if whole live sets may, you know, end up living
• 14:37
  online, then are you compensated for that in your fee from the
• 14:43
  festival? I wonder if that's, I wonder if
• 14:46
  that's where live streams kind of can help you wiggle out of
• 14:49
  that because with TikTok, it was live stream, but I don't think
• 14:51
  they're archiving. There'll be clips, clips only
• 14:54
  now. But it's a but it is
• 14:55
  interesting. Like you say, I think, because I
• 14:57
  think there are still festival live streams where a big act
• 14:59
  won't be streamed live because they said they don't want it to
• 15:02
  be because Neil Young nearly did that from Glastonbury didn't and
• 15:05
  then he then he relented. I think I said no, you can
• 15:07
  stream it. But it is, I think it's, it's,
• 15:10
  it's the other thing I've been thinking about.
• 15:12
  And this is very much, I've got no evidence of this happening
• 15:14
  yet, but these are all the big festivals doing this.
• 15:16
  Obviously, you know, Tomorrowland, Glastonbury,
• 15:18
  Coachella, huge brands anyway. But I do wonder if there are
• 15:22
  people who are who are happy to watch festival sets on their
• 15:26
  phone if they can't go. Is there something here that
• 15:30
  could be done with the smaller events that have been
• 15:32
  struggling? Obviously there's a trade off
• 15:33
  there. They might want worry about
• 15:34
  ticket sales. But I wonder if there's there
• 15:38
  are partnerships to be done between people like TikTok on
• 15:40
  YouTube and the smaller festivals that can help those
• 15:43
  festivals build their brands, reach people and make some more
• 15:46
  money in a different way. But that will be quite positive,
• 15:48
  I think. I hope it's not just the biggest
• 15:50
  biggest events streamed. Be be interesting if anyone
• 15:54
  listening is involved in a in a festival.
• 15:57
  Drop us a line and let us know what you think whether this is a
• 16:00
  good trend or a bad trend. Story 2 this week and when how
• 16:05
  we've seen, I mean we've seen various artists adapting to how
• 16:09
  they how they make or release their music in the streaming
• 16:12
  era. This is another interesting one
• 16:14
  tells us a lot about the times we live in.
• 16:16
  Last week, Hayley Williams paramours Hayley Williams
• 16:20
  surprise released 17 new songs. But there's two notable things
• 16:25
  about this One, the streaming services didn't get them.
• 16:29
  First, the first people to hear these tracks, which she she made
• 16:34
  the tracks available to fans who had bought her branded hair dye.
• 16:40
  They got 24 hours of free listening to these tracks on her
• 16:44
  website ahead of the songs going on the streaming services.
• 16:47
  And secondly, the 17 tracks didn't come as one pack.
• 16:51
  It didn't come as an album, they were all released individually
• 16:55
  as 17 separate singles. Let's get the hair dye out of
• 17:00
  the way first. What were the terms?
• 17:03
  Do we know how much it cost? No, actually.
• 17:06
  It's the hair dye and you could. Have you tested it?
• 17:10
  I just bought it without looking at the price, sadly.
• 17:11
  So Well, do you know, actually it's one of those things where
• 17:15
  you think this is this seems very apartment like, you know,
• 17:19
  she she her image is famously she.
• 17:23
  And I think this is this is one of those ways you go, OK, who
• 17:27
  are my super fans? Well, they're the ones who
• 17:28
  bought my own hair dye. So I kind of get that that
• 17:31
  strategy. Yeah.
• 17:33
  And yeah. And it's, it's, I guess it's
• 17:34
  2025, isn't it? Like artists have their own
• 17:37
  stuff? Like in a way, Oasis didn't do
• 17:39
  any of this because I think Liam's fashion brand has he
• 17:42
  still got it. I'm not sure.
• 17:44
  Yeah, I don't. I'm sure he's involved with it
• 17:47
  anymore. No, because I could have done a
• 17:48
  thing about buy the bucket hat, get the get into the ticket
• 17:50
  queue, which they they Merced. But yeah, I think it's I mean
• 17:54
  it's interesting. The thing I was thinking and I
• 17:55
  think I'm right is Paramore have recently got independent,
• 17:58
  haven't they? I think last.
• 17:59
  Year, yeah, they've left. Where were they?
• 18:01
  Atlantic Record, I think it was. And then the day all finished.
• 18:04
  So now they can do whatever they want.
• 18:06
  And I guess this is her and she may, but but when you're
• 18:08
  independent, you can do this. You can be like, you know what,
• 18:10
  I've got this new stuff. I don't have to do it on
• 18:13
  streaming 1st and I think it's a little push back against the
• 18:17
  years. I think everything right,
• 18:18
  streaming is every it's got to be on streaming.
• 18:20
  Why would you not have it on streaming from day one?
• 18:23
  And when you're independent, you can go, actually, if I do it
• 18:26
  here first, there's another benefit for me.
• 18:29
  And it can go on streaming a few days later, I mean.
• 18:31
  This is this is freedom. This is exactly as you said.
• 18:34
  This is a super for this. This fits the the model of the
• 18:37
  superfan in a way that it would be hard for Spotify or anyone
• 18:43
  else to harness in a way. And it it shows you how much
• 18:47
  power the artist actually has in having direct communication with
• 18:51
  their fans. You don't need a middle man, do
• 18:53
  you? When you can do something like
• 18:56
  this, which is because this is what fans are after, isn't it?
• 18:59
  Where everyone said, well, how do we get the Super fans?
• 19:01
  Well, something like early access to some music is what the
• 19:05
  Super fans actually want. Yeah.
• 19:08
  And there's some research I've seen that says that, you know,
• 19:09
  they, they want, they want to hear things first and they want
• 19:12
  to be rewarded, you know, and I think the the things complement
• 19:16
  each other because I think if you're Hayley Williams, you
• 19:18
  still want to reach people who don't, who aren't your super
• 19:21
  fans. And that's where streaming kicks
• 19:22
  in. And everyone, you know, that's
• 19:24
  what. So it's not even a case of one
• 19:26
  or the other. She's used them really smartly
• 19:28
  to go right first here, then there.
• 19:30
  And I kind of like this idea of just songs being released in
• 19:34
  basically in a folder on your website.
• 19:36
  But this seems to be, I think it's come back a little bit
• 19:38
  like, I mean, I remember last August.
• 19:41
  So Drake did this thing. Last talk was where we just
• 19:43
  basically stuffed 100 gigabytes of music and videos into a
• 19:46
  folder on a website and then ping the link out to fans and
• 19:49
  and then left them to go through it all and find the like.
• 19:52
  There were three new tracks in there, but also a lot of video
• 19:54
  footage of him playing football and stuff like, but it's that
• 19:58
  thing. And I think there was a who was
• 19:59
  it Run the jewels? I remember when they first were
• 20:02
  building them their their career.
• 20:04
  It was all free music on their website.
• 20:07
  Go and download it. But they got e-mail addresses.
• 20:10
  And that was how they built their mailing list.
• 20:11
  And so there's a lot you can do with this in a weird way, like
• 20:16
  when you see the music industry figures about what's making
• 20:19
  money, downloads just been going down and down.
• 20:21
  No one's buying downloads anymore, really, but free
• 20:25
  downloads for super fans is is a little trend that's coming back,
• 20:30
  and that's kind of fun too. I I, I like this idea, though,
• 20:33
  that, that they, that all the songs, they were all in, they're
• 20:36
  all completely separate files. And then they all appeared
• 20:39
  completely separately on, you know, as different entries on
• 20:42
  the streaming services. So you, so there's no out.
• 20:45
  It's an album's worth of songs, but there is no album.
• 20:47
  So, but you can make you can make your own album from the new
• 20:51
  tracks if you put them all in together in a playlist.
• 20:54
  But then it's up to you which order you put the tracks in.
• 20:57
  You can track list your own Hayley Williams album, which I
• 21:02
  like build your build your own version of the album.
• 21:04
  I think I quite like that. Well, also, and, and I'm not
• 21:08
  Hayley Williams or her team, but if I was them, I'd be going
• 21:12
  right. How can I get the data on what
• 21:14
  fans are doing? What is the, what is the kind of
• 21:16
  the, the most popular order for these things?
• 21:19
  And then later in the year, maybe for Christmas, I released
• 21:22
  a physical version, deluxe physical version of the album
• 21:25
  with the fan, the fan Crowdsource track listing, which
• 21:30
  may or may not be right, but you can, when you let fans do that,
• 21:34
  you can then do something with that for the official release.
• 21:36
  And, and again, it all works together.
• 21:37
  It's very clever, I think. Story 3 Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter
• 21:42
  tour is the top grossing country tour of all time, thanks to more
• 21:47
  than $400 million worth of ticket sales.
• 21:52
  Not to be sniffed at. Who, who Who was the previous
• 21:56
  holder? I've got 2 questions.
• 21:58
  Who's the previous holder? And just out of interest, I
• 22:01
  mean, a country. Country music seems to, since
• 22:05
  we've been making something of a comeback over the past decade,
• 22:09
  and so does it have? In general, does country music
• 22:12
  have quite a big live fan base anyway and has that contributed
• 22:17
  to this? OK, yeah, well, there's lots to
• 22:21
  say here. I mean, so in terms of who she
• 22:22
  beat, so poll star reported this figure and they said she'd be
• 22:25
  Kenny Chesney, Luke Coombs and and this is a very specific
• 22:28
  thing pre pop Taylor Swift. So Taylor Swift when she was a
• 22:32
  country, because now, if you counted our last tourist
• 22:34
  country, it made more than $2 billion.
• 22:36
  Yeah, I think it's not. It's a big pop tour.
• 22:40
  So yeah. But I mean, country's
• 22:41
  fascinating. I mean, I, I, we did a big
• 22:43
  report on it a few years ago and I really kind of spent weeks
• 22:46
  immersed in in country stats and music.
• 22:50
  And I think in the US historically, live and radio
• 22:54
  were, were countries bread and butter, Like radio was how
• 22:57
  people listen to it and live was how you went and saw bands.
• 22:59
  And so it's always been huge live.
• 23:01
  But what's changing, I think now is country tours can be global.
• 23:05
  And obviously Beyoncé's a bit of a weird case, isn't she?
• 23:07
  Because she's Beyoncé. Like she's not, she's not an
• 23:11
  American country artist who's not well known elsewhere who's
• 23:13
  suddenly going to. She's Beyoncé.
• 23:15
  You know, it's a bit, it's the biggest Beyoncé tour ever.
• 23:17
  It's not just country in that sense.
• 23:20
  So, but yeah, I mean, I was reading a report this morning
• 23:24
  and I'm from Australia about the country.
• 23:25
  Seen there is worth a billion Australian dollars a year now
• 23:29
  because there's a big audience and so the big US acts come to
• 23:31
  Australia and play. So yeah, I think if you're now a
• 23:34
  country artist and you're planning a tour, you can you can
• 23:37
  go global and you can then both make more money.
• 23:41
  And so this one, I think $400 million ticket sales was 32
• 23:45
  concerts around the world. So it's like 12 and a half,
• 23:47
  $1,000,000 per show. I know people who went and they
• 23:50
  came away very satisfied. Like she worked, she worked hard
• 23:53
  for that money. And she reunited Destiny's Child
• 23:56
  for the last gig, which has as ways to drop the mic on your
• 23:58
  tour go. Like it's hard to think.
• 24:00
  I mean, obviously only only three people can reunite
• 24:03
  Destiny's Child for a last gig of their tour.
• 24:05
  It's not a scalable strategy for all artists, is it?
• 24:09
  But I mean, so yeah. So I think it's, it's it's
• 24:11
  country music is having this moment, which is there are
• 24:13
  audiences, well, when you want to go and see concerts.
• 24:16
  But the other thing I was, I was, I was going down this stats
• 24:19
  rabbit hole. So the big thing about this for
• 24:22
  Beyoncé's, she's now had two tours that have grossed more
• 24:24
  than $400 million. And that turns out that's quite
• 24:29
  a rarefied club of artists. So only four have ever done that
• 24:32
  had more than two tours that had more than 400.
• 24:35
  And Taylor Swift isn't one of them.
• 24:36
  She's had 1/2, she had one $2,000,000 and her next biggest
• 24:40
  was like 300 and something million.
• 24:41
  So it was just a bit less so. It's hard to sell because we've
• 24:46
  got we've got to think about it in the modern era, which does
• 24:50
  that take you 2 out of the equation, you 2?
• 24:53
  Yeah, there's three artists have done it besides Beyoncé, and
• 24:56
  they're all British, to give you a clue.
• 24:58
  Rolling Stones. Yep.
• 25:00
  Rolling Stones is 1. I mean, that was my best bet
• 25:04
  after Rolling Stones. We've got nothing.
• 25:08
  Rolling Stone. No.
• 25:09
  Go on, you better tell us. Otherwise we're going to be here
• 25:11
  for a very long time with people shouting at their whatever
• 25:15
  device you're listening to this on.
• 25:17
  Don't shout at it just because it's probably very obvious, but
• 25:20
  it's early on Monday morning. No, it's it's Coldplay and Ed
• 25:25
  Sheeran. Of course, Coldplay.
• 25:28
  Because The thing is, Coldplay have done quite a few tours in a
• 25:32
  relatively short period of years.
• 25:33
  Like every album has its own tour, you know.
• 25:35
  And I would just say Ed Sheeran is probably the most profitable
• 25:38
  of the lot, though, isn't he? Because he's his costs.
• 25:40
  Obviously there is the hiring of venues at the stage, but one
• 25:43
  person on stage. So he's probably the one who's
• 25:45
  taken the most. But yeah, so it's a it's a big
• 25:48
  moment, I think for obviously. And the other thing about this
• 25:51
  that I like is it will get probably some of the right
• 25:53
  people very cross, but people who are still across about
• 25:56
  Beyoncé not being a proper country artists.
• 25:58
  It's a little bit of a repost to them saying actually this was
• 26:01
  this was a country to it was heavily focused around the album
• 26:04
  and it's done a load of ticket sales.
• 26:07
  Right. There's our big three stories.
• 26:10
  Any other base? Actually, if we're if we're
• 26:12
  going to, we'll fit in a couple of bits of any other business.
• 26:15
  Can I mention things? We're talking about live music
• 26:18
  that's Own Our Venues campaign, which some of you will already
• 26:22
  be aware of, but if you're not come across it before.
• 26:24
  It's an offshoot from the Music Venue Trust, which campaigns on
• 26:28
  behalf of and supports grassroots venues in the UK.
• 26:31
  But in an attempt to future proof the grassroots circuit,
• 26:35
  they launched this campaign a while back called Own Our Venues
• 26:39
  where they crowdfunded a sum of money.
• 26:42
  Well, they're, they're basically issuing shares so we can buy,
• 26:46
  buy a share in this venture where they, they get the money
• 26:52
  in and then they use it to buy a series of venues around the
• 26:56
  country. So they've already, I think
• 26:58
  bought 5 or 6 venues, which then go into the ownership of a
• 27:03
  charitable community benefit society.
• 27:06
  And I mean, you might be so well, why is, how does this
• 27:09
  help? Why is this important?
• 27:10
  With the, the key thing to remember is obviously amongst
• 27:13
  all the many challenges that grassroots venues are facing at
• 27:16
  the moment, live venues, most, the majority of live venues are
• 27:22
  on a monthly basis paying rent to a landlord.
• 27:26
  So not only does a chunk of their money go out in rent every
• 27:30
  month, but also it's incredibly hard for them to plan for the
• 27:35
  future. If, if your, if your lease is
• 27:37
  coming up and it might not be, you know, renewed.
• 27:41
  And so it's, it leaves for a very uncertainty or the owner
• 27:44
  just decides to sell the building you're in.
• 27:46
  So there's a lot of uncertainty when you're, when you're
• 27:50
  indebted to, to your landlord for being able to put gigs on in
• 27:54
  their building. Hence this attempt to protect
• 27:57
  the venue's existence by by buying them up and putting them
• 28:00
  in the, in the hands of people who run them.
• 28:03
  So after the initial campaign where they've raised I think
• 28:06
  nearly £3,000,000, they, they launched a second round of
• 28:10
  funding back in May and by the deadline last Friday, they'd
• 28:15
  raised another £1,000,000 in an attempt to purchase a further 7
• 28:20
  venues including Asquires in Bedford, Stoke, Sugar Mill and
• 28:24
  the Joiners in Southampton. And so they get, they got to the
• 28:28
  end. Friday was the deadline, the
• 28:30
  initial deadline for this fundraising, but they've now
• 28:32
  extended it into October, saying the past few weeks have shown a
• 28:37
  remarkable surge in interest from both music fans and
• 28:40
  industry allies. In fact, in the last 48 hours
• 28:43
  alone we brought in, there was a wave of support with over 200
• 28:46
  investments and major contributions totalling just
• 28:49
  under £200,000. So we're extending the deadline
• 28:54
  into October. If you'd like to know more about
• 28:58
  this about own our venues or as say how you can buy shares in
• 29:02
  this venture, you'll find all the info you need on their
• 29:06
  Crowdfunder page. One more you had a story from
• 29:10
  India I think you wanted to mention.
• 29:12
  I did, yeah. So this is our India
• 29:14
  correspondent Amit reported on this is a is a new Bollywood
• 29:17
  film called Sayara, which came out a few weeks ago and the
• 29:21
  soundtrack as big as they as they tend to be for Bollywood
• 29:23
  films. But this has become this big
• 29:25
  moment where the title track of this film, it's become the first
• 29:29
  Indian song to reach the top ten of Spotify's global Top Songs
• 29:33
  chart. It's actually number six right
• 29:35
  now with 30 million streams a week.
• 29:37
  And it's topped. They've got this thing called
• 29:38
  the global Viral Songs, which is the ones that are catching on
• 29:41
  and growing fastest. And it actually topped that.
• 29:43
  Again, the 1st Indian song to do that globally.
• 29:46
  And there's a bit of context here in that.
• 29:48
  I think 90, I'm a fan of that. 90% of the streams have been
• 29:51
  coming from India. So of those streams that are
• 29:54
  putting it in the global charts, the master is still from India.
• 29:58
  But now wherever you are in the world, if you go to this chart
• 30:01
  and these, these are still some of the most popular bits of, of
• 30:04
  streaming services, the kind of global charts, you're now seeing
• 30:07
  this alongside the biggest pop tracks right now and the biggest
• 30:09
  K pop tracks. So I think there's a lot of
• 30:12
  excitement, like I've been writing for a while about this.
• 30:14
  There's a lot of excitement in the industry about what could
• 30:16
  happen with India and can Indian artists break worldwide?
• 30:20
  And that hasn't been as much about Bollywood and the film
• 30:23
  industry there. Because I think there's already
• 30:25
  a big audience of like the Indian diaspora who who are
• 30:28
  interested in that music and it reaches them already.
• 30:31
  But people are excited as well about these new independent
• 30:33
  artists from India. So hip hop artists and folk
• 30:37
  singers. And so this this is a film
• 30:40
  soundtrack, but it kind of shows just the scale of listening.
• 30:43
  As more people in India start streaming on services that are
• 30:47
  available around the world, suddenly these artists are being
• 30:50
  put in front of people who have never seen a Bollywood film
• 30:53
  perhaps. Or so it's a it's a really
• 30:55
  interesting moment for that point of view.
• 30:58
  And you know, it's AI don't know.
• 31:00
  It's one of these. I like, like I sort of I grew up
• 31:02
  on the UK charts. And so, you know, they were full
• 31:04
  of UK artists and the big American artists, but broadly
• 31:08
  English music wasn't it. But now if you get, if you're on
• 31:11
  Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, you go to look at
• 31:14
  what's popular on the chart, you're going to see stuff from
• 31:17
  India, from Korea, from from Latin America.
• 31:21
  Like it really is a fascinating time for though that music not
• 31:24
  being restricted by anything to reach someone's ears in, in in
• 31:27
  London or Paris or wherever they are.
• 31:29
  So, yeah. So watch this.
• 31:30
  So, yeah, Sahara is the film. And I think there'll be more
• 31:33
  where this comes from just because of how many people are
• 31:36
  streaming in India. And finally this week, I'm
• 31:41
  sorry, dreading this. I am going to.
• 31:44
  Thanks. Thanks Thanks to Joe Producer
• 31:49
  and T Stuart for handing me this line to read Simply.
• 31:53
  Why is Cardi B having a full on cheese experience right now?
• 31:59
  Off you go. Full on cheese experience.
• 32:02
  I saw full on cheese experience at the the Southampton join is
• 32:05
  accepted. No.
• 32:07
  So, yeah. So there's this this brand
• 32:09
  called Velveeta. I'd never heard of it.
• 32:11
  I think it's one of those things as drippy cheese to go on your
• 32:14
  nachos. That's that's possibly not their
• 32:16
  slogan, but it's quite a good one.
• 32:19
  It's quite a good one. And they've they've launched
• 32:21
  their big new campaign that's called, there's so much fun in
• 32:25
  it. The campaign is called Respect
• 32:27
  the Gold Standard of Drip. And it's soundtrack by Cardi B
• 32:33
  with a new song that is called Drip, which is and I'm quoting
• 32:37
  from the Drum, which the big marketing industry website
• 32:40
  paired with a high gloss spot, an advertising spot that turns
• 32:43
  Mac and cheese into high art. Cardi isn't just a voice here,
• 32:47
  according to Arvita, she's the inspiration with her confidence
• 32:50
  and cultural presence as a creative DNA.
• 32:53
  And a lot of this is kind of what drippy cheese kind of.
• 32:56
  But it it it just to come back to Oasis and Adidas, actually,
• 33:01
  you know, the first time anyone saw the Gallagas together
• 33:04
  recently was in the Adidas AB, wasn't it?
• 33:06
  That was the first time they were seen together.
• 33:08
  Cardi B has new music coming soon, new album on the way.
• 33:11
  And she's got a brand partnership to kick it off.
• 33:14
  And that is the way of things at that level.
• 33:16
  Now. It's kind of funny that it's
• 33:18
  drippy cheese, but but I was, yeah, I was kind of, I don't
• 33:23
  know. I think this is we're going to
• 33:24
  see that like very few artists at that level will not have some
• 33:26
  kind of brand partnership, cheesy or otherwise, from now
• 33:29
  on. And that's where we have to
• 33:32
  leave it for this week. Thank you very much for
• 33:35
  listening. Hope we haven't put you off your
• 33:37
  lunch. If you are enjoying what we're
• 33:40
  trying to do here, please do spread the word.
• 33:42
  Tell your friends, post, post us a message, leave a review online
• 33:47
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• 33:50
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• 33:53
  us via Patreon. In fact, if you sign up to be a
• 33:56
  super fan, you get an extra 15 minutes or so of us.
• 34:00
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• 34:03
  So if you'd like to join us and support what we're doing, you
• 34:06
  can sign up to become a superfan of the show at patreon.com/the
• 34:11
  Price of Music. That's patreon.com/the Price of
• 34:15
  Music, but you can also communicate with us via our
• 34:20
  socials or drop us a line, including, of course, any
• 34:23
  questions you have for us, which we could answer in the coming
• 34:26
  weeks. Anything you don't understand
• 34:28
  about how the industry works that you think will we might be
• 34:31
  able to make sense of, drop usalinethepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com.
• 34:37
  Till next time, take care of yourselves.
• 34:39
  Bye for now.