This week we round up the most important music news stories from the last couple of weeks. Plus:
- Mercury Prize list announced + Neptune to follow later
- This week's Track Of The Week has Jack White's seal of approval
- Find out about an online event fighting the UK's far right
Mercury Prize 2025 Announced
Here's this year's shortlist...
CMAT - EURO-COUNTRY
Emma-Jean Thackray - Weirdo
FKA twigs - EUSEXUA
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Jacob Alon - In Limerence
Joe Webb - Hamstrings & Hurricanes
Martin Carthy - Transform Me Then Into A Fish
Pa Salieu - Afrikan Alien
PinkPantheress - Fancy That
Pulp - More
Sam Fender - People Watching
Wolf Alice - The Clearing
Our first reaction: Great to see FKA twigs and Wolf Alice on here, but where are The Cure?! If only our alternative to the Mercury Prize, the Neptune music prize was about to announced... stay tuned for an announcement later today.
And now... the rest of the news
- You can’t tell me rock is dead, because not only would that make you boring, it would also make you very incorrect. Deftones have secured their highest UK chart placing ever with private music, Nova Twins earned their second Top 40 album with the brilliant Parasites and Butterflies, and Wolf Alice have topped the charts again with The Clearing.
- Live Nation’s gargantuan market power in the live music field might be cut down to size ahead of a possible trial in March. The Department of Justice is suing them alleging that they are undermining competition and illegally pushing venues into exclusive ticketing contracts. There's the potential that Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s monopoly could be broken up. On these shores, the Association of Independent Festivals have also called for this to happen.
- The Darkness' Justin Hawkins defended fellow music YouTuber Rick Beato, whose channel is at risk thanks to over-zealous copyright claims levelled by UMG, just for small samples of songs which should ordinarily be protected under Fair Use. “It’s a massive audience for labels,” he says of Beato’s 5 million-strong subscriber base. “They’re going to lose it because they’re quibbling and scrabbling over a few tiny snippets of music and it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
- In contrast to this, AI is still using music without consent. However, in one positive development, the AI firm Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action lawsuit filed by authors accusing them of stealing their work for AI training. Will it be songwriters and recording artists next...?
- The government’s fan-led review of live music is picking up steam. There's still time to participate and have your say:
- On the BDS list – Puma, Sodastream, and now, Radiohead. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians has called for a boycott of their tour later this year thanks to their “complicit silence”, particularly with Jonny Greenwood’s “crossing of our peaceful picket line during Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
- Billboard has published a list of the music industry’s highest paid professionals. Top of the list is UMG CEO Lucian Grainge, who takes home a tidy $39.6 million each year, followed by SiriusXM CEO’s Jennifer Witz and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino. It's galling to think about in a time where we only have two-thirds of the independent festivals we had before the pandemic, the ones that still exist have been kicked repeatedly by rising costs and a quarter of venues have needed emergency support to stay open.
- Glamour teamed up with Cheer Up Luv to publish this brilliant piece on misogyny in music, speaking to Nova Twins, Lambrini Girls, Black Honey’s Izzy Bee Philips and more about everything from harassment and assault to industry plant accusations.
Sean's in Huck Magazine
Our founder wrote about Drowned In Sound’s 25th anniversary in the newest print edition of Huck, which is entirely centered around music. I'm going to have to hunt for a copy myself...
Community Prompt
Join the women fighting the far-right
This week, I'm encouraging you not to say something, but if you have the time, to join in with something.
Like me, I'm sure you're sick of far-righters weaponising women's safety to perpetrate a certain, undoubtedly racist image of migrants... It's rank hypocrisy from men who have likely never spoken up for women's rights at any other point, to the point I sometimes want to ask them, "Have you ever had a conversation about the tampon tax? Where were you when Sarah Everard was murdered? And would you call out your mates for catcalling a lone woman in public?"
This is why the new Women Against The Far Right campaign is so vital. Last week, a group of politicians and artists signed an open letter rejecting the far right's rhetoric, and now they're going further. Their official launch will take place online on Thursday 11th September at 6pm, with speakers including Nova Twins, MP Diane Abbott, Stand Up To Racism's Samira Ali and author and economist Grace Blakeley.
Related Read
Ben Quinn
Track Of The Week
'Punishers' by Die Spitz
Die Spitz have been one of my favourite new finds of late. The Austin quartet have provided a refreshingly heavy addition to Jack White’s label Third Man Records, but new single ‘Punishers’ is a smoother but still smouldering take on their sound. Outside of this, they’ve created a stunning alloy of grunge with a slightly doomy atmosphere – a couple of songs have reminded me a little of Witch Fever, who are also well worth your time if you’re not familiar (while also being courageous political mouthpieces). If you’re enticed, their debut album Something To Consume is out later this week.
Check out and subscribe to our 2025 Favourites playlist on YouTube for more recent tracks of the week.
Hopeful Story of the Week
The fans have been fighting the fash this week after the brilliant organization Hope Not Hate sounded the alarm over plans for a neo-Nazi music festival at a secret location in Great Yarmouth. Over 34,000 people emailed the Home Office to protest the event, which was later called off by Norfolk Police. Music should be a place of love and unity – not weaponized into a gathering of the most hateful kind of people around.