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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at b.

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Speaker 2: That is Shanghai by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

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Speaker 2: That's the real version of the song and there is

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Speaker 2: a good reason we are playing that slightly peculiar sounding

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Speaker 2: music for you this morning. Chris Shultz, our music reviewer,

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Speaker 2: is here with the details. And King Gizzard and the

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Speaker 2: Lizard Wizard were subject to some craziness involving AI and

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Speaker 2: streaming services this year.

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Speaker 3: Chris, they really were. Yeah, this is an Australian kind

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Speaker 3: of psych rock band. They've they've made a lot of

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Speaker 3: albums and a lot of different genres.

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Speaker 2: And they are very they're very unusual but quite cool late.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and a really cool live experience too. They've they've

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Speaker 3: toured New Zealand and they toured the world. That that. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: They've made a lot of music. Though they're known for

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Speaker 3: releasing four or five albums a year, all of that

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Speaker 3: until recently was all on Spotify and then they joined

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Speaker 3: this kind of mas exodus if you like, you know

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Speaker 3: these artists who have pulled off their music because they're

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Speaker 3: unhappy with the way the streaming service is being run.

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Speaker 3: Massive attack have done it locally. The Bats and Tikitan

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Speaker 3: have done that too. And then what happened was is

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Speaker 3: that some some someone with a big idea went out

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Speaker 3: there and asked AI to recreate their music, uploaded that,

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Speaker 3: and that made it to some of the playlists, the bigger,

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Speaker 3: more popular playlist on Spotify. And so that's one of

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Speaker 3: the weird things that have happened or that we've had

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Speaker 3: to navigate as music fans this year. I think this

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Speaker 3: is the first year that we've had to sort of say,

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Speaker 3: you know, we've had to ask a question, is this

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Speaker 3: music made by humans or is it made by robots?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Sometimes, you know, that line's beginning to blur. We've seen

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Speaker 3: the Grammys struggling with it. They are trying to work

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Speaker 3: out the rules. Do we allow artists to admit they're

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Speaker 3: using AI to enter their songs and give them awards. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: It's a murky It's a murky world.

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Speaker 2: It really is. It really is. So, I mean, that's

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Speaker 2: a prime example of one of the worst things about

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Speaker 2: being a music fan in twenty twenty five, especially if

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Speaker 2: you're a King Gizzard fan. So you went on Spotify,

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Speaker 2: you were handed something else, but they came up with

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Speaker 2: a different name, right, like King Lizard and the Wizard

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Speaker 2: Gizzard or something. This is slightly, slightly it's a slight variation, right, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Slight variation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.

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Speaker 3: So look, this is leading to this trend right where

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Speaker 3: where Spotify is just just getting a bit weird. It

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Speaker 3: does feel like this year things are beginning to turn

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Speaker 3: a bit. You know. I've spoken to a lot of

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Speaker 3: my friends and family who have left the platform because

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Speaker 3: they're not okay with that. But they're also not okay

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Speaker 3: with things like iesads but hitting their streaming feeds. They're

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Speaker 3: not okay with the kind of constant price raises. And

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Speaker 3: of course, the co founder, Daniuek, was found to have

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Speaker 3: invested some of his proceeds of Spotify into Wartech, which

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Speaker 3: it seems to have been the big one that seems

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Speaker 3: to be why a lot of the artists are pulling

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Speaker 3: into Spotify. So I do wonder if we're heading next

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Speaker 3: year into a bit of a world where where things

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Speaker 3: sort of turn, where Spotify just gets to the point

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Speaker 3: where people don't kind of want to use it. If

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Speaker 3: your favorite music's not on there, then why would you

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Speaker 3: subscribe to it? If you're a massive attack fan and

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Speaker 3: you can't listen to it, Why would you pay for that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, right, Let's walk through the other little points

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Speaker 2: you've raised on the worst things about being a music

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Speaker 2: fan in twenty twenty five, and rising concert ticket prices

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Speaker 2: is right up there.

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Speaker 3: Well, when you couple that too with the fact that

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Speaker 3: a lot of our the biggest, the world's biggest acts

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Speaker 3: aren't coming to New Zealand anymore, that touring exclusively to Australia,

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Speaker 3: then yes, those those concert ticket prices are up there.

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Speaker 3: I've paid up to three hundred and fifty dollars for

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Speaker 3: a concert ticket this year new Pipes. When you add

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Speaker 3: in flights and accommodation and everything else that's traveling to

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Speaker 3: Australia entails, then those costs really do get up there.

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Speaker 3: I just got back on Wednesday from going to see

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Speaker 3: Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga, and the plane was full

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Speaker 3: of New Zealanders who had been over. We were all

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Speaker 3: talking about it. Someone had been to Lady Gaga, someone

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Speaker 3: had been to the Spilt Milk Festival and was wearing

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Speaker 3: the hoodie. They sat next to me and we were

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Speaker 3: talking about that. We're having to eat that at the moment,

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Speaker 3: and there are changes on the way. The government's vent

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Speaker 3: and introduced this major events boost to try and entice

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Speaker 3: those artists back. That's going to take a bit of time,

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Speaker 3: so that is something we've just had to wear unfortunately.

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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I mean we've talked about this before. Hopefully

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Speaker 2: we're about to see a bit of progress on that front,

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Speaker 2: but it's certainly been a big punish for a lot

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Speaker 2: of New Zealand music fans have had to spend so

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Speaker 2: much money if they want to go and see some

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Speaker 2: of their favorite acts on these big world tours. What

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Speaker 2: is the worst view obstruction in your view, Chris, given

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Speaker 2: you've been given a hard time for being tall. Is

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Speaker 2: it tall people or is it a sea of smartphones?

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Speaker 3: Oh? No, it's the phones. It's definitely the phones for me,

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Speaker 3: because those you know, when you add your arms up there,

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Speaker 3: they're you're getting up above seven foot, so you know,

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Speaker 3: I'm six foot four. If someone's holding up a phone

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Speaker 3: and AD's sort of just under six foot, that's right

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Speaker 3: in my sight line Jack iRED percent. The phones drive

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Speaker 3: me crazy. So that's why I really loved a recent

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Speaker 3: show actually at Spark Arena, Tool played and they banned

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Speaker 3: all the phones. They threatened to throw people out, and

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Speaker 3: no one used them. Everyone stuck to these roles and

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Speaker 3: it created this really magic atmosphere which I hadn't experienced

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Speaker 3: probably since back in like twenty ten before everyone had

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Speaker 3: a smartphone in their pocket and we're filming all the shows.

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Speaker 2: Is that right? Yeah, they just said don't do it,

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Speaker 2: and people didn't do it.

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Speaker 3: They were pretty threatening about it. They did bring a

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Speaker 3: voice over the loudspeaker beforehand, and they did say explicitly

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Speaker 3: you will be instantly expelled. They didn't do that the

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Speaker 3: first night, and they didn't do it at the festival

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Speaker 3: that I saw them play in Australia either. It was

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Speaker 3: specifically that show interesting, and they did have this rule

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Speaker 3: where you could bring them out for the last song

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Speaker 3: and film and take photos. Then I'd love to see

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Speaker 3: more artists do that in twenty six I think that's great.

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Speaker 3: Like Plan, you're just straddling that line. You're giving people

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Speaker 3: the best of both wores.

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Speaker 2: So I've been to two things. I think I went

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Speaker 2: to a Childish Gambino show once, and I went to

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Speaker 2: a Dave Chappelle show at the Comedian in which they

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Speaker 2: when you came in you had to put your phone

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Speaker 2: in a little bag and they took it away basically,

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Speaker 2: and no, you were sealed up. You held onto it,

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Speaker 2: but you couldn't get it out until the end, you know.

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Speaker 2: And I loved it. I was all about it. Surely

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Speaker 2: the reason you go to live to experience live music

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Speaker 2: is to be present in the moment. And yet, and yet,

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Speaker 2: the moment the artist comes out, everyone pulls out the phone.

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Speaker 2: It's like, guys, that isn't the whole reason we're here,

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Speaker 2: like to get away from those Okay, hey, give us

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Speaker 2: your We're not going to play it because I think

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Speaker 2: it's got too many swear words according to Libby Libby

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Speaker 2: the Pro. But what's your what's your worst song of

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five? Just to round out your worst of list?

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Speaker 3: Go and if you have to go and listen to it,

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Speaker 3: go and listen to the Will Smith song Girls. That

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Speaker 3: is just the shambles of oh, I don't even know

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Speaker 3: what it is.

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Speaker 2: Terrible, It is terrible. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, go

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Speaker 2: and hate listen to that one. We're not going to

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Speaker 2: play that. We'll pick something that's maybe slightly less controversial

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Speaker 2: this morning. But thank you so much, Chris, Chris Schultz.

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Speaker 2: You can find him on his substack. Of course, it's

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Speaker 2: called boiler Room.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk z' B from nine am Saturday, or

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Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio