What a book advance really is, and why most authors keep their day jobs
An advance is a prepayment against royalties, paid in instalments over years, and the median figures explain why writing remains a…
Elena Marsh
369 reading now
Entertainment
Film, music, streaming, gaming and the culture conversation.
119 stories
Inside podcast advertising: why hosts read the ads themselves
Host-read sponsorships, dynamic insertion and attribution codes make podcast advertising unusually intimate and unusually measurable at the…
Elena Marsh
422 reading now
Why gig tickets sell out in seconds: bots, presales and dynamic pricing
Presales, holds and sponsor allocations strip out most tickets before general sale opens, so the queue is fighting over a rump while bots…
Rachel Stone
331 reading now
Live-service games: why your favourite title is never finished
The live-service model turned games from products into ongoing services funded by cosmetics and battle passes, with consequences for…
Liam Chen
437 reading now
How a TV show actually gets commissioned
Between a pitch and a broadcast series sits a funnel of development deals, scripts, pilots and financing that filters out the vast majority…
Elena Marsh
365 reading now
How books get to number one: inside the bestseller lists
UK bestseller charts are curated samples built on Nielsen BookScan tills data, and publishers engineer number ones through pre-order…
Rachel Stone
453 reading now
Panto: the strange economics of Britain's Christmas cash cow
Around six weeks of pantomime generates a third or more of many regional theatres' annual income, a cross-subsidy that drives the celebrity…
Rachel Stone
426 reading now
How video game age ratings work: PEGI explained
PEGI 12, 16 and 18 ratings carry criminal penalties for shops that sell to underage buyers, yet the law covers only boxed copies in a…
Rachel Stone
325 reading now
What a record deal actually signs away
A standard record deal treats the advance as a recoupable loan, assigns the master recordings to the label for decades, and, in its 360…
Rachel Stone
475 reading now