Ed Sheeran pens open letter urging UK government to invest £250 million in music education “to repair decades of dismantling music”Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has penned an open letter to UK government officials, calling for both immediate and long-term funding into music education.
The letter, co-signed by music icons including Fred Again, Elton John, Coldplay, Central Cee, Harry Styles, Stormzy, and Robert Plant, urges British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to commit £250 million towards music education “to repair decades of dismantling music”.

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This follows the launch of the Ed Sheeran Foundation in January, a nationwide initiative aimed at providing inclusive, high quality music education.
“As an industry, we bring in £7.6bn into the UK economy, yet the next generation is not there to take the reins,” the letter states. “Last year was the first in over 20 years without a UK global top 10 single or album in the charts.”
“The time to act is now. State schools – which educate 93% of the country’s children – have seen a 21% decrease in music provision.”
“Artists and industry can’t deliver on the world stage for the UK without schools, youth clubs and stages at home,” it continues. “We collectively ask for a £250m UK music education package this Spring to repair decades of dismantling music. Music education is cross-departmental: Culture, Education, Foreign Office, Health & Social Care and Business & Trade.”
“We understand that there are many pressures,” the letter concludes. “As artists, civil society and industry, we want to be part of the solution.”
The call for action follows high-profile speeches at the BRIT Awards earlier this month, including from Rising Star winner Myles Smith, who has also endorsed the letter.
While accepting his award, Smith urged the government, venue conglomerates, and music executives to do more to support emerging artists.
“I was a kid raised by a single mum on free school meals in a state school that only had instruments because of government-backed schemes. And I’m somehow here, a four time BRIT nominee, a graduate from a Russell Group university and having the biggest hit single of 2024,” Smith said [via NME].
“But tonight, whilst I have the attention of the nation, and this award which gives me this really cool speaking power, I want to ask three questions. My first is to the government – if British music is one of the most powerful cultural exports we have, why have we treated it like an afterthought for so many years?”
“How many more venues need to close, how many music programs need to be cut before we realise that we can’t just celebrate success, we have to protect the foundations that make it.”

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There are a few things you should know. First, you need the correct USB drivers for your RTL-SDR. Second, your browser must support WebUSB, of course. Practically, that means you need a Chromium-type browser. You may have to configure your system to allow raw access to the USB port, too.
Watching the video, you can see that it works quite well. According to the comments, it will work with a phone, too, which is an interesting idea. The actual Web application is available as open source. It isn’t going to compete with a full-fledged SDR program, but it looked surprisingly complete.
These devices have grown from a curiosity to a major part of radio hacking over the years. Firefox users can’t use WebUSB — well, not directly, anyway.

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Card Radios RememberedWe know how [Techmoan] feels. In the 1980s we had a bewildering array of oddball gadgets and exciting new tech. But as kids we didn’t have money to buy a lot of what we saw. But he had a £5 note burning a hole in his pocket from Christmas and found a Casio RD-10 “card radio” on sale and grabbed it. He’s long-ago lost that one, but he was able to find a new old stock one and shows us the little gadget in the video below.
The card-thin (1.9 mm) FM radio had many odd features, especially for the 1980s. For one thing, it took a coin cell, which was exotic in those days. The headphones had a special flat connector that reminded us of an automotive fuse. Even the idea of an earbud was odd at that time.

It was a good idea not to lose the earbud, as it had that strange connector. The earbud worked as the antenna and power switch, too. Oddly enough, you could get a slightly fatter AM radio version, and they even made one that was AM and FM. Unsurprisingly, Casio even made a version with a calculator built-in. It had a solar cell, but that only powers the calculator. You still needed the coin cell for the radio.
The sound? Meh. But what did you expect? There was a stereo version, too. However, that one had a rechargeable battery, which was not in good health after a few decades. He also shows a Sony card radio that is a bit different. We were hoping for a teardown, especially of the rechargeable since it was toast, anyway, but for now, we’ll have to imagine what’s inside.
We love nostalgic radios, although usually they are a little older. We miss the days when a kid might think it was cool to see an ad touting: “Oh boy! We’re radio engineers!”

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