Phonk: the biggest genre you’ve (probably) not heard of; Only 20% of the 2025 UK Top 100 were performed by UK artists; What is ’radio plugging’?; and your ashes in an urn that’s also a speaker...

2026-03-04

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Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy a weekly Superfan Lock-in section!This week... Steve and Stu get Phonky with the biggest overlooked genre in the world: so what is Phonk anyway? Also on TPOM this week:How much music streaming is “passive” – where the platform chooses what you listen to? What impact does that have on our listening habits – and just who is controlling what we listen to?

Your easy weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠Superfan of the podcast for free – and enjoy a weekly Superfan Lock-in section!

This week... Steve and Stu get Phonky with the biggest overlooked genre in the world: so what is Phonk anyway? Also on TPOM this week:

How much music streaming is “passive” – where the platform chooses what you listen to?
What impact does that have on our listening habits – and just who is controlling what we listen to?
A listener question: what is “radio plugging” and how does it work – and how does it affect (or not) what Steve plays on the radio? (Email us your own question here!)
Only 20% of tracks in the 2025 UK top 100 were performed by UK artists: so is music by UK artists being listened to less in its home country? And if so, why?
Would you want your ashes stored in an urn that doubles as… a bluetooth speaker?
Why are Brazil and Mexico listening to so much UK music? (And how much of it is just Oasis?)
Legendary UK grassroots venue the Sheffield Leadmill is finding a new home – and how are they going to raise the money to do it?
Plus: cultural catnip for listeners of a certain age – not one but two mentions of Jim Bob from Carter USM rugby-tackling people on stage.

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our ⁠⁠Patreon Superfans⁠⁠, Steve and Stu prop themselves at the bar to discuss this week's bonus material:

Something light to consider: what are the songs that will be played at Steve and Stu’s funerals?
Some reflections on the BRIT awards, including wondering who thought interviewing Shaun and Bez from Happy Mondays live on TV was a good idea…
More on radio plugging (something Steve has a lot of thoughts on...)
AI music generation platform Suno now has 2m paying users… and does this mean that people are using it to flood the world with AI music?

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As ever, we welcome your feedback, emails and – in particular – any questions you might have about how the music biz works!

Email us: ⁠⁠thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

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