Beyoncé's $900 record box (records not included); Macklemore, Ed Sheeran and politics on-stage; The giant streaming platform you've never heard of; The UK 'homegrown' artist chart; and more!

<p><strong>This week, Stu and Joe tread verrrrrry carefully around a bunch of hot-button topics: on-stage politics, billionaires billionaire-ing, and whether AI music is getting to the believable stage. In this week&#39;s show:</strong></p><p>You&#39;ve probably already heard about the <a href="https://musically.com/2026/09/15/macklemore-removed-from-ed-sheeran-tour-over-free-palestine-comments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Macklemore and Ed Sheeran kerfuffle</a> over the former&#39;s statements on Palestine. Now <a href="https://musically.com/2026/09/10/superstruct-entertainment-launches-artistic-code-for-festivals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">one big festivals promoter has launched an ‘artistic code’</a> explaining its policies when artists make statements on-stage...</p><p>The UK now has <a href="https://musically.com/2026/09/14/uks-official-charts-company-debuts-homegrown-albums-chart/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">a ‘homegrown’ albums chart to showcase British artists</a>. What’s it for, and will it work? </p><p>167 million people are using a streaming platform called <a href="https://musically.com/2026/09/10/is-free-music-making-a-bytedance-assisted-comeback-in-china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Soda Music</a>... and most of us have probably only just heard of it. So what – and where – is it?</p><p>Suno has released a &quot;wild&quot; <a href="https://musically.com/2026/09/09/suno-launches-its-v6-ai-music-models-heres-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">version of its AI-music model</a>, that gives you less-predictable results. Is it any good – or is AI music just like a covers band: you can be impressed by how convincing they they are, but you don&#39;t want to listen to their music?</p><p><a href="https://musically.com/2026/09/08/rayes-new-single-is-playing-across-london-from-lime-bikes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Some unusual sounds are coming out of Lime Bikes in London this month</a>. But no, it’s not because teenagers hacking them to ride without paying…</p><p>The music industry has launched its latest war on streaming fraud <a href="https://musically.com/2026/09/14/ifpi-launches-an-anti-fraud-streaming-integrity-initiative/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">with a ‘Streaming Integrity Initiative’</a>. Which sounds very dry, but how could it help beat the fraudsters?</p><p