Radiohead's twenty-show limit; Spotify lets you tweak its algorithm; Steve's SXSW debrief; BTS' mega-livestream; and... Salt-n-Pepa!

30 min•25 mars 2026

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

This week... Steve's back from Austin, Texas and has plenty of stories to tell about SXSW. Plus Radiohead, BTS, and, erm, Salt 'n' Pepa – all in this week's TPOM:

→ Radiohead's Ed O’Brien has revealed the band will do ‘20 shows each year: no more, no less’.

→ Steve's fresh (kind of...) back from SXSW in Austin, Texas, and here's what he saw... (plus: his travel nightmare, in full!)

→ Annoyed that Spotify doesn’t really understand you? It’s testing a feature where you can give its algorithm a shove in the right direction…

→ Last week a huge Global Music Report revealed how much money the industry made from recorded music last year. (Spoiler: it was a lot)

→ Good news for artists: the UK government has u-turned on its plan for how AIs can be trained on music.

→ 300 million people (reportedly) watched K-Pop’s biggest stars BTS in their livestreamed comeback

→ Black Music has contributed £24.5bn out of the £30bn made by the UK music industry over the last 30 years.

→ Big Nostalgia Tour Bingo: Salt-n-Pepa, TLC AND En Vogue are hitting the road together…

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

→ We hear more about SXSW from Steve, including his band tips...

→ Are Kiss and Tina Turner about to receive the ABBA Voyage treatment?

→ And is the virtual avatar show experience the only way we'll see The Smiths back onstage (and how would they programme Morrissey's grumpy ad-libs?)

→ What did Steve 'n' Stu think of last week's (great!) Picture Parlour interview?

→ Could the 6Music Dads turn into a national community of local gig assistants?

→ Why is Belgium and the Nordics the hot new place for artists to break?

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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: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

See you next week!

Steve and Stuart

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