<p><strong>Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. </strong><em>Become a </em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/12218634/join">⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠<em>⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠</em><em><strong>Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy the exclusive weekly Lock-in bonus section!</strong></em><em>⁠</em>⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠</a></p><p><strong>This week... Stu&#39;s back from his travels and joins Steve to discuss beer, AI music, and Los Campesinos!:</strong></p><p>→ $5bn is how much controversial AI-music firm Suno <a href="https://musically.com/2026/05/05/suno-reportedly-looking-to-raise-1-4-billion-in-latest-funding-round/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>could be valued at</u> –</a> and it might raising $250... so what is it going to do with that money?</p><p>→ The phrase of the week is ‘Blue Dot Fever’, and it’s all about <a href="https://musically.com/2026/05/07/ticketmaster-live-nation-and-the-quietly-cancelled-tours-catching-blue-dot-fever/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>big tours being cancelled or delayed due to reportedly-poor ticket sales</u></a>…</p><p>→ While we’re on live music, indie band Los Campesinos! have explained exactly just <a href="https://musically.com/2026/05/07/indie-band-los-campesinos-reveals-how-much-it-costs-to-tour-north-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>how much it costs to tour North America</u></a>…</p><p>→ Sony Music Publishing is spending $4 billion for a company that owns a lot of songs: Recognition Music Group. And some very famous musicians’ rights are changing hands as part of the deal…</p><p><strong>→ </strong>British charity Youth Music has <a href="https://www.youthmusic.org.uk/news/weve-raised-ps1-million-grassroots-music-its-not-enough" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>warned that 37% of grassroots music projects in the UK are in danger of shutting down</u></a>. But what can <u>you</u> do about that?</p><p>→ We’ve talked about how sales of alcohol can be crucial to the grassroots circuit. Now there’s <a href="https://guitar.com/news/music-news/orange-amplification-has-launched-its-own-ipa-with-special-brew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>a specific beer that’s been made to support artists on tour</u></a>…</p><p>→ We talked last week about the possible delay to the UK’s ticket-touting ban. Now an update: <a href="https://musically.com/2026/05/07/artists-and-music-businesses-ask-uk-prime-minister-to-re-prioritise-ticket-touting-ban/#:~:text=There%20is%20wide%20support%20for,Fender%2C%20Iron%20Maiden%20and%20more." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>industry bodies have been weighing in with their disappointment</u></a>…</p><p>→ Clankers With Attitude are an entirely AI group, releasing entirely AI-generated music on a label that is entirely run by, yes, AIs. And if you want to listen to their new album, <a href="https://musically.com/2026/05/06/ai-label-staffed-entirely-by-ai-releases-fully-ai-generated-album-for-audience-of-ai-bots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>you have to be an AI too</u></a>…</p><p><strong>And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our </strong><a href="https://www.patreon.com/12218634/join" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">⁠⁠<strong>Patreon Superfans</strong>⁠⁠</a><strong>, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar – and Steve&#39;s getting the first round in – as they discuss this week&#39;s bonus material:</strong></p><p>→ More on the &quot;Blue Dot&quot; tickets story – why are some artists selling a <em>lot</em> of tickets, and others... not so much? And: is Suno <em>really</em> worth $5bn?</p><p><strong>→ </strong>With the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ recordings catalogue being sold for $300m, does this blow Stuart’s ‘the worst band in the world’ theory out of the water? And what happens to the value of a band or artist&#39;s songs if they go out of fashion?</p><p>→ Metal band Zao have been flagged as releasing AI-generated music. The only problem? It wasn’t, and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/metal-band-accused-of-using-generative-ai-calls-out-music-service-it-did-its-job-poorly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><u>they aren’t happy about the mistake</u></a>…<br>→ Stu has heard the first release by Little Grandad at last!</p><p>===================================</p><p><strong>As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular</strong> – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!</p><p>Email us: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">⁠⁠</a><a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><strong>[email protected]</strong></a><a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">⁠⁠</a></p><p>See you next week!</p><p>Steve and Stuart</p><p>======</p><p>TPOM online: <a href="http://tpom.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">http://tpom.uk/</a></p><p>Support The Price of Music on Patreon:</p><p><a href="https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">⁠⁠</a><a href="https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.patreon.com/ThePriceofMusic⁠⁠</a></p><p>Follow Steve on X - @steve_lamacq</p><p>Follow Stuart on X - @stuartdredge</p><p>Follow The Price of Music on X - @PriceofMusicpod</p><p>For sponsorship opportunities, please email - <a href="mailto:%E2%81%A0%E2%81%[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">⁠⁠[email protected]</a></p>