Kate Nash's ass and who's in The Class of 2025?
A peachy punk protest and a new DiS and Music Venue Trust new music award.
In The News
🍑 Kate Nash says OF will earn more than tour
🏆 Drowned in Sound & Music Venue Trust launch The Class of 2025
💿 The Anchoress (who I manage) signs to Last Night From Glasgow
📝 Want to help grassroots artists? Sign the Featured Artist Coalition's Open Letter.
This week's newsletter could easily be a rant about the state of the live industry, re-writing some of the pieces I've written in recent weeks about the crisis in live music. I nearly wrote a live music economics breakdown, a bit like the way I used Lily Allen selling her feet pics as a way to explainer record deals and streaming.
However, I don't need to say much because the way Kate Nash is expressing herself is rattling all the right cages. She's forcing people to focus on the challenges in live music (read Kate's post on Instagram here).
These are the sorts of things she's been saying across the world's media from Lorraine to outside the offices of major corporations:
"I launched my O*lyFans for the money and to make a point about the music industry being completely broken... people want to see it, and I'm happy to sell it. I love my ass. I think it's great, and it's also really funny, and it's a punk protest!"
- KATE NASH on Butts for Tour Buses
And then Kate and her bum went on a little tour of London (photos on NME).
First stop, LiveNation:
“I’m outside LiveNation in London, who last year had an annual revenue of £22.749billion – which is a 36.38 per cent increase from last year. LiveNation are the main hold-up in the government’s recommendation to give £1 per arena and stadium ticket to the grassroots, who are in crisis. So what’s the holdup?”
Outside the Spotify building:
“Artists are paid 0.003 of a penny per stream whilst [Spotify] demonetised 80 per cent of music on the platform. The shareholders cashed out over £419 million between them.”
There's more on these stories in the digest below.
Kate Nash's comments echo facts and arguments that you've read in this newsletter, that often come from stats sourced from Music Venue Trust. They're one of the driving forces behind the government backed levy on stadium and arena tickets (Katy Perry is now taking part in that!) and its co-founder Mark Davyd answers a lot of the frequently asked questions about how the levy will work on this week's edition of Mark Sutherland's brilliant The Money Trench podcast - a definite must listen if you care about live music.
Which brings me to some big news...
Drowned in Sound and Music Venue Trust Partner to Launch the “Class of 2025” Poll
- More than 800 Grassroots Venues to name the Must-See Live Acts of 2025
- The long list of nominees will be revealed in December, with the final shortlist announced on drownedinsound.org in January 2025.
Drowned in Sound has joined forces with Music Venue Trust (MVT) to launch the Class of 2025, a new annual initiative that celebrates and recommends the most exciting new artists.
Unlike traditional tastemaker lists, this poll invites the more than 800 members of the Music Venues Alliance - the beating heart of the UK music scene - to nominate the new acts they believe every music fan should see live in 2025.
Over the years, venues across the UK have provided a crucial first step for artists who have gone on to sell out arenas and headline festivals, from Adele to Wolf Alice to Ezra Collective. These venue operators are not only passionate pied-pipers but also the key risk-takers, investing their time, money, and expertise to nurture talent and keep the UK’s music ecosystem thriving.
Reminder: UK Music revealed in November 2024 that the music industry contributed £7.6 Billion to the UK economy. Exports revenue hit a new high of £4.6 Billion in 2023.
With this new initiative, Drowned in Sound and MVT aim to create an annual guide for live music fans as they attempt to navigate the overwhelming waves of new music.
The Class of 2025 shortlist - coming January 2025 - will spotlight the must-see emerging artists chosen by the people who know live music best. In December, the long list will highlight the rich variety of talent performing on grassroots stages, compiling recommendations by the experts with their ears to the ground.
Sean Adams, founder of Drowned in Sound, explains: “As someone who started out working in my local venue in Weymouth, I was exposed to so much exciting music. When I started a fanzine, I managed to see Coldplay at The Joiners in Southampton and Muse at Exeter Cavern. These extraordinary grassroots gigs radicalised me, leading to a 25 year career in music.
Like most music enthusiasts, I love a list and I miss the excitement of a fresh crop of acts to discover every January. As music fans, polls have always been great for a bit of expert-led guidance… as well as something to argue about on the internet. Far too often the modern new music listicles focus on either a bewildering abundance of names or on the massive artists who drive clicks, many of whom have already made it to playing arenas and prime time TV slots at Glasto. The Class of 2025 aims to become an annual fixture, guiding fans toward the next generation of live music stars by amplifying the recommendations of grassroots venues - the tastemakers and true champions of the future of live music.”
Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust, added: “Grassroots Music Venues are where the magic begins. The Class of 2025 is about celebrating incredible new artists and recognising the vital role that the passionate people who run these essential community spaces play in shaping the future of live music. There’s no one better placed to predict the next wave of great British talent than the people right at the cutting edge of live music.”
The long list of nominees will be revealed in December, with the final shortlist announced on drownedinsound.org in January 2025.
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They're not billionaire oligarchs, they're music enthusiasts like you and I. Some have read DiS since early 2000s, others are new followers.
This Week's Must Listen
Rather than focus on album of the year lists, I'm currently researching and speaking to Lebanese artists to find out how they have reacted to this tumultuous year.
This album by Julia Sabra & Fadi Tabbal on the amazing Beacon Sound label has sublingual drones, discordant choral pools of vocals, and noise bath moments. It is truly special.
Snakeskin was recommended by DiSser shrewbie in this brilliant forum thread: the one album everyone needs to hear before finalising their albums of the year list.
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Further Exploration
This Post Kicked Off An Informed Debated On My Linked In
New Sync Solution For Independent Labels
Full disclosure, I'm providing some consultancy to this company but it's an absolute joy as music supervisor Frederic Schindler is one of the smartest people in the music biz, with a big mission, and an amazing passion for music - and a huge love for music journalism.
To begin to introduce Catalog, he wrote a piece for Music Week explaining the state of the music synchronisation, which had these two great graphics in it:
Consider this: in 2023 alone, over 10,000 new TV series, nearly 20,000 feature films, and almost 15,000 video games were produced, not to mention the countless digital and social media video ads. This translates to millions of sync opportunities annually. Yet, eight out of ten tracks we hear in visual media today are stock or commissioned works.
MusicWeek Staff
Key Spotify executives have cashed out more than $1 billion in stock this year… including $283 million for Daniel Ek.
No comment necessary?
Daniel Tencer
Spotify Unwrapped
This piece I wrote last year feels like it's evergreen.
Sean Adams
BBC reveal Sound Of 2025 longlist – featuring Chappell Roan after change to rules
Two Mercury Prize winners (one of whom just headlined Wembley Arena), an act who just had an Amazon documentary made about them, and one of the biggest artists in the last 5 years?!
Andrew Trendell
The Crisis in Festivals Continues
John Rostron from Association of Independent Festivals posted on LinkedIn:
72 Festivals have now cancelled, postponed or called time in 2024. That's DOUBLE the number from 2023 where 36 fell, and 204 in total since the pandemic began. The primary reason for this is the financial pressure of running an event in this new climate, with the high increase in costs combined with huge cashflow expectations sitting on independent festivals. These festivals - vibrant, creative, local, and brilliant at R&D - do not have the deep pockets of the trans-nationals who, in turn, contribute to the pressures by locking out artists; distorting prices, and in some cases trying to pull talent and suppliers from underneath independent events. Together we will support independents and fight for independents. We're taking action. We need the Govt to take action to help our events and help us too.
The Anchoress signs new album deal
I've been managing Catherine for many years and we're thrilled to find a new home at Last Night From Glasgow. A label that really aligns with our values and a sign of how the music industry of the future could be like.
Andre Paine
The Joys of Starting A Record Label
A lovely story from The Guardian's F1 columnist who started a DIY label but also notable how two big issues have risen their head already:
