Inside the Music Business: The Grammys President on the Fight to Protect Artists (Panos A. Panay)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As president of The Recording Academy, which organises the Grammy Awards, Panos A. Panay is grappling with how artificial intelligence and streaming is transforming the music industry, often at the expense of artists.
A former agent who worked with the likes of Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone, Panos tells Amol about his love of music and how that led to him becoming one of the most influential figures in the industry.
And against the backdrop of record-breaking tours from Beyonce and Taylor Swift, he reflects on why the next generation of artists like Sabrina Carpenter are forging real connections with audiences through live performances.
(00:04:16) What is the Recording Academy?
(00:05:17) How did he want to change the Academy as president?
(00:07:10) Finding his love for music growing up in Cyprus
(00:10:39) Panos’ career in the music industry
(00:17:01) What does an agent look for in an artist in 2000 vs 2026?
(00:22:19) Are artists being unfairly paid by music streaming companies?
(00:25:55) How do you get a better deal for artists?
(00:27:45) The threat of AI to the music industry
(00:33:11) Panos’ RADICAL ideas
(00:37:32) The rise of live music
(00:39:20) The popularity of music in different languages
(00:45:51) Amol’s Reflections
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Dave O’Neill. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Okay, you know the drill by now. |
| 0:07.6 | After each radical interview, I put some of your questions to our guest for a bonus episode. |
| 0:13.4 | It pops up on a Monday. |
| 0:14.8 | Our main episodes on a Thursday. |
| 0:16.1 | The bonus episodes on a Monday. |
| 0:17.7 | And we call it your radical questions. |
| 0:20.5 | And we really want to invite you to connect |
| 0:23.8 | much, much more deeply with the incredible guests that we have. Why should I, as the presenter |
| 0:28.4 | of radical, why should I alone get the chance to put questions to them? You should as well. |
| 0:33.0 | And what we want to do is give you the chance to engage very directly with those brilliant people. |
| 0:37.2 | And the next person that I want your questions for is a young entrepreneur who is having a big, |
| 0:43.5 | big impact. |
| 0:44.8 | He is called Joe Seddon. |
| 0:46.8 | He set up a social enterprise called Zero Gravity, which connects very talented young people |
| 0:52.6 | from deprived areas, poor families, with mentors, |
| 0:56.0 | universities and employers. What he does is he tries to address social mobility through social |
| 1:03.5 | capital. That's me, that's the way I'm projecting it. Maybe Joe's got a different take on it, |
| 1:07.0 | but I'm someone who's thought very long and hard about these issues and about the role of geography in particular in holding people back in their lives. And Joe Seddon has a plan. |
| 1:17.8 | His enterprise, zero gravity, is trying very, very hard to fix what's going on with social |
| 1:22.0 | mobility in this country. And so if you care about social mobility, if you've thought hard about |
| 1:26.2 | the role of universities and mentors and employers in fixing social mobility, if you've thought hard about the role of universities and mentors |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.