Coldplay's never-ending world tour keeps selling tickets; K-Pop Demon Hunters!; What on earth is "speculative ticketing"?; Bandcamp's $3.5m Friday; and has Steve actually “gone deaf for a living?”

The Price of Music

If you want an easy guide to the music biz and how it all works – here we are! In this week's The Price of Music:

• Stuart’s Big Number involves Coldplay, a lot of sold-out Wembley stadium gigs, and the band raising money for grass roots venues

• Has Steve actually “gone deaf for a living?”

• Chinese streaming platforms have a “Super VIP” subscription that costs 5x as much (and 15m people are paying for it…)

• Ticketing re-selling platform StubHub: how does it work, how many tickets are being sold by users, and what on earth is “speculative ticketing”?

• Bandcamp processes $3.5m of sales on the most recent Bandcamp Friday, where all money goes to artists

• The soundtrack from animated pop group Netflix film K-Pop Demon Hunters has now had billions (and billions… and billions) of streams in just a few months

• (Also: 25% of US kids say that K-Pop is their favourite music genre)

• More badly-tracklisted albums!

• Due to high demand: more of Stu’s thoughts on Taylor Swift (her approach to buying back her recordings, not her music, honest)

And in the special post-show lock-in section just for our Patreon Superfans, Steve and Stuart loosen their ties, lean against the bar a bit more, and chat about:

• Why Liam Gallagher has been banned from throwing his tambourine into the crowd

• Which 80s pop-soul singer did Steve write the tour programme for?

• Olivia Rodrigo's $38 tour book – how much would you pay for your favourite artist’s book?

• How much will fans pay for unreleased demos and live tracks?

• And how much stuff like that does Radiohead have in their (allegedly giant) bunker of songs?

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

Email us: [email protected]

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

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