A new year, a new approach. We're going to send music recommendations like track of the week in a second email this week, partly as there was so much news to share...
In this week's newsletter
- New podcast with Kelly Lee Owens
- An essay about the wonky nostalgia for 2016
- Another grassroots venue needs your help
- Music reacts to ICE
- EU to join UK in tackling 'predatory' ticket touts?
- Elon Musk vs music copyright
- Good news! A massive fundraiser raised a lorra money!
Kelly Lee Owens is on the podcast
Community, the class ceiling, and clever ways to save grassroots music, those were just three of the topics that one of our favourite electronic/ambient/techno artists of the last 25 years discusses on this week's podcast. And yes, of course Sean asked Kelly Lee Owens about touring stadiums with Depeche Mode and meeting Bjork back when she worked in a record shop. But no, he didn't get any goss on Charli xcx as there was so much more to discuss.
It's a really hopeful and illuminating chat about local scenes and the global shift we've seen in the decade since Kelly's debut EP.
Listen on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts
Tom Venvell
Watch on YouTube
New Essay
2016 and All That
There's a sudden rush of nostalgia for 2016... but why? It was the year of Brexit and the death of Bowie, Prince and Carrie Fisher. It was also when Trump first got elected. But it was also the year of Frank Ocean's Blond and some incredible records. Let's get into it...
Emma Wilkes
Community prompt
Help save Margate's Where Else?
Margate venue Where Else? is facing an urgent fight for its survival, raising money to stay open through a crowdfunder. If they don't raise £40,000 by the end of the month, they risk indefinite closure.
They will use the money raised to clear £15,000 of legacy debt, pay overdue supplier invoices, settle a critical VAT bill, recover lost income from the licence disruption, repay personal credit used to support the venue, and stabilise cashflow through the quieter months. As it stands, they're about halfway to their target and you can help them get there at this link.
Music stands against ICE
Joe Keery calls out Donald Trump over his response to an ICE agent fatally shooting a woman.
— Stranger Things Memes (@SThingsMeme) January 9, 2026
“Zero human decency stop this man.” pic.twitter.com/y7wX0d5ZhK
The murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis at the hand of an ICE agent has provoked a wave of grief, uproar and protest against an organisation carrying out Donald Trump's bid for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Across the music world, artists have been standing up, with Billie Eilish sharing graphics naming the 32 people who died in ICE's custody last year and encouraging fans to ring their representatives and call for ICE to be defunded.
Meanwhile, Neil Young has encouraged Americans to "rise up" against ICE and Zara Larsson also condemned the organisation, while Djo called out Trump for having "zero human decency" after he described Good as a "professional agitator" on Truth Social.
Fact check: Spotify recently faced a huge backlash for running ICE recruitment ads alongside your favourite songs. They said the ads did not breach their policies. Some outlets are now reporting the ads are no longer running (seems from the way their statement was worded like the ad campaign come to a natural end). Drowned in Sound has reached out to Spotify to clarify if they would run these ads again if the campaign was renewed. So far we have had no reply from their press team.
The EU faces reckoning on 'predatory' ticket resale tactics
It's the EU's turn to bring in similar changes to ticketing resale prices as the US and the UK, according to an open letter signed by artists - among them Radiohead, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran and Oasis - management and live firms and industry bodies. They're asking EU justice commissioner Michael McGrath to expand the EU’s Digital Fairness Act to tackle ticket scalping. We told you predatory ticket prices were in!
Emma Wilkes
As part of our partnership with Qobuz - the service for music enthusiasts featuring high quality sound so that we can rediscover music - we create a companion playlist for each episode of our podcast. This week, you can hear a feast of electronic music from this week's guest Kelly Lee Owens plus tunes from LCD Soundsystem, The Knife, and lots more.
Start your 30-day free trial of Qobuz:l,,,,,
Elon Musk is... Elon Musking
It's a new year but some things never change - and Elon Musk being downright strange is one of them. Ofcom's investigating X following outcry over the use of its AI feature Grok to generate sexualised images of women and girls, to which he responded by restricting it to paid subscribers. Then, X filed an antitrust lawsuit against music publishers in the US, accusing them of colluding in order to make X take out licenses to host music, which it says it's being prevented from doing.
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) isn't feeling threatened. According to NMPA chief David Israelite, who is named multiple times in X’s suit, – the filing is “meritless”, and a “bad faith effort to distract from publishers’ and songwriters’ legitimate right to enforce against X’s illegal use of their songs”.
Hopeful story of the week
Artists for Aid concert rakes in millions
The third Artists For Aid concert took place over the weekend with a stacked cast of artists including Shawn Mendes, Omar Apollo, Geese Raphael Saadiq, Clairo and more, with Chappell Roan appearing as a special guest during a performance by Lucy Dacus. Produced by Canadian-Sudanese artist Mustafa, the four-hour benefit show at The Shrine in Los Angeles raised $5.5 million for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the Sudanese American Physicians Association.
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