# John Carney on pop stars, movie stars, and Power Ballad

An episode of [The Business](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/73330606), 26 Jun 2026, 30 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pds.cdnstream1.com/p/kcrw/the-business/john-carney-on-pop-stars-beb061/audio.mp3

Kim Masters talks to John Carney, who after his 2006 indie breakout film Once, has made a career of making movies about musicians making music. Generally, the ones who never got famous. His new film, Power Ballad, stars Paul Rudd as a wedding singer alongside Nick Jonas, who plays a flawed former pop star. Carney discusses his struggles to raise money for his films, and reveals what he says to - or maybe shouts at - buskers in Dublin who have their amps cranked up to 11. Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss why Amazon dropped out of distributing Artificial, a movie critical of Open AI. Although initial reactions to a cut of it have been lukewarm, there may be other reasons why Amazon pulled out.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.