Over 50% of new songs uploaded are now AI-made(!); Lorde bashes Meta and Spotify; Why is Keith Richards in Roblox?; Is the Michael Jackson movie Bad or a Thriller?

39 min•22 juli 2026

Your weekly guide to the music biz and how it all works. This week, Stu and Joe are back from two weeks' holiday in Rhyl – and immediately hop into a golf cart along with Ronaldo and Ronaldinho to go through this week's music biz news:

→ More than 50%(!) of all new music being uploaded to streaming services is now AI-generated. How might the music industry respond to this? With... a system of labels (not the record kind…)

→ Stu's Big Number is 1.124 billion... but which mega-song does it relate to? (If you’re a parent, you’ll know it only too well…)

→ Someone's leaked the code of Suno, the biggest AI-music service, and they claim they know what it trained its models on...

→ The latest startup hoping to help artists make some money directly from their biggest fans is Lume, and it’s got Lorde’s backing

→ Lorde has also been giving a right Royals bashing to Meta and Spotify... but why?

→ Michael Jackson biopic ‘Michael’ got a mixed response from critics (OK, they thought it was rubbish). But at the box-office it’s a huge hit: to the tune of ONE BILLION dollars…

→ The Rolling Stones (collective age of their three founder members: 243) are now on Roblox, the platform famously used by children. But is this a surprisingly good fit?

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

→ Following the last episode featuring plastic bottles being turned into Ed Sheeran Records – could Ed Sheeran records be turned back into plastic bottles?

→ A recap on the World Cup half-time extravaganza: Madonna! Ronaldo/Ronaldinho! Muppets! Bieber! Vuvuzelas! BTS!

→ Stuart rhapsodises about seeing the Beta Band live, including some epic four-man bongo wigouts

→ Good overlooked deep-cut World Cup songs, including Chin Up by The Rhythm Method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KqmUtU1QEM)

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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!

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See you next week!

Stuart and Joe

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