Business Daily

Country music is in the midst of a grand renaissance. The genre - whose popularity was previously confined to the American South - is now climbing the charts, grabbing the attention of Gen Z audiences, and changing the perception of what it means to be a country listener.

Streaming of the genre in the US rose by nearly 110% in the five years to 2024. And it’s taking over markets all around the world. In the UK, the genre more than doubled its share of the singles market in two years. And Australia is now the third largest country music market globally.

From ‘music city’ - Nashville, Tennessee - we speak to artists and industry leaders to better understand where the country music boom came from, and where it’s headed this year. How did country become so cool?
To get in touch with the team, our email address is [email protected]
Presented and produced by Ellie House
(Picture: Neon lights spelling 'Music City Tonight' at Robert's Honky Tonk, Nashville. Credit: BBC)

One of the world’s largest airline groups has told Business Daily that airspace closures, due to war zones, are now forcing substantial rerouting of flights.
Lufthansa says the ban on using Russian and Ukrainian airspace is having a measurable cost impact on its long haul network, with typical detours of one to two hours.
A recent Conflict Intensity index report shows that areas affected by armed fighting have grown by 89% over the past five years, that is one and a half times the size of the European Union.
We examine the cost to consumers, and the environmental impacts of these changes.
If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is [email protected]
Producer/presenter: Rick Kelsey
(Photo: Planes landing and taking off against a coloured sky. Credit: Getty Images)

When Lew Frankfort joined Coach, it was a family run, wholesale handbag business worth six million dollars.
He spent 35 years at the company, from opening the company's first shop to growing the business now valued at over five billion dollars.
We find out what led Lew to an unlikely career in fashion and how a chance meeting with a US president sparked his social consciousness.
If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, our email address is [email protected]
Presenter: Ed Butler
Producers: Hannah Bewley and Hannah Mullane
(Photo: Lew Frankfort, chairman emeritus and former CEO of Coach)

Forty years ago Japan made more than half of the world's semiconductors. Today, it produces just over 10%. But the country has big ambitions to turn that around.
We hear from the CEO of a company at the centre of the government's high-stakes gamble to revive its semiconductor industry, and more broadly, its tech power.
And we'll learn how the island of Hokkaido is now the site of billions in investment to turn what has long been an agricultural powerhouse into a global chip manufacturing hub.
If you'd like to contact the programme, our email address is [email protected]
Presenter: Suranjana Tewari
Producer: Jaltson Akkanath Chummar
(Picture: A lavender field and colourful flower garden in Hokkaido, Japan. Credit: Getty Images)

When Slovakia was part of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the cars it made were noisy, thirsty and slow by western standards at the time. But when Volkswagen bought the car-maker Skoda, that was the beginning of a major change.
Now, Slovakia makes almost a million cars a year and with Volvo opening a factory here in 2027, it’ll be a quarter of a million more. Extraordinary for a country of five million people.
We visit a factory and find out why this small nation is attracting so much car industry investment.
If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, our email address is [email protected]
Presented and produced by John Laurenson
(Picture: Workers on a production line in a car factory, Slovakia. Credit: BBC/John Laurenson)