Hanna Kahlert

Hanna is one of our expert analysts, helping drive MIDiA’s research into the future of digital entertainment. Her key areas of interest are cross-entertainment audience behaviour, the creator economy, and social platforms.

Why social media regulation could be a boost for the creator economy

Hanna Kahlert

26 Nov 2024

TikTok Social media platforms

TikTok’s future hangs in the balance, with its January deadline to find a new owner fast approaching beneath the oversight of a new, and unpredictable, US administration. President Trump originally tried to ban the app himself in 2020 by executive order, which failed.

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The BlueSky migration: How cultural shifts can disrupt even the most established social media platforms

Hanna Kahlert

19 Nov 2024

Bluesky mastodon Twitter

Twitter clones have proliferated since Elon Musk first bought and renamed the platform to X in 2022. Despite a lot of buzz around platforms like Mastodon and BlueSky, none have seemed to capture a significant audience, with X’s weekly active usage remaining consistent.

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Cover image for MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global social forecasts

MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global social forecasts
New frontiers and strong growth ahead

Hanna Kahlert and Mark Qi

14 Nov 2024

YouTube Facebook Instagram

More than ever, social platforms are the de facto way that consumers interact not only with entertainment but with the internet itself. As internet access expands in emerging markets and social platforms continue to eat up digital entertainment consumption in developed ones, further growth is inevitable because the market has: The ability to grow u...

Info-tainment, Kamala’s campaign failure, and the distortive role of social media marketing

Hanna Kahlert

12 Nov 2024

Marketing Strategy Social media trump presidency

The recent US election has capped off one of the biggest global election years in recent history, and the world around us is changing rapidly. Digital life, and specifically social media platforms, play a huge role in both how we have got to where we are and where we are going next.

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Two years into the AI craze, where does it go next?

Hanna Kahlert

6 Nov 2024

AI market investment startup

We are almost two years into the reality of large-language-model (LLM) artificial intelligence. Now, the future of AI is heralding the return of nuclear power: both Google and Microsoft have announced that they are investing in the revival of power plants to satiate the depthless energy needs of the...

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Ofcom, Elon Musk, and the future of the social platform marketplace

Hanna Kahlert

30 Oct 2024

regulation Social platforms TikTok

Earlier this year, riots broke out across the UK, fuelled largely by misinformation and inflammatory discourse on social media. At the time, it was unclear who bore responsibility: did the brunt of the blame fall on certain accounts and creators, or do social platforms need to take a firmer approach...

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Social platforms are eating passive entertainment. Are games eating social?

Hanna Kahlert

22 Oct 2024

Social Social media Gaming

At Sony Music’s Interactive Tech Day in London on 22nd October, gaming was, ironically, the highlight. From artist takeovers of Roblox destinations to concert-type experiences in Fortnite Islands, the company’s music strategy is increasingly crossing over with the gaming world – a goal mirrore...

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Social is eating entertainment
The future of memes, music, social platforms, and beyond

Hanna Kahlert

15 Oct 2024

Product Strategy

Entertainment is now a key reason consumers engage with social platforms, opening new opportunities for social and raising new challenges for traditional entertainment. Social platforms offer not only a place to consume original content IP, but to create content around it, engage with the content discussing and unpacking it, and interact with other...

The next era of entertainment: AI and social are lowering barriers, but new ones must emerge

Hanna Kahlert

15 Oct 2024

Social art Creators

There is an inherent tension between tech-enabled accessibility to creation (good), and the ability for that entertainment to become successful (challenging). Music and other entertainment industries typically have one half of this conversation at a time.

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AI, dead internet theory, and why analogue is a future-proof business strategy

Hanna Kahlert

8 Oct 2024

dead internet analogue revival analogue

The internet is abuzz over Google NotebookLM’s eerily realistic-sounding podcasts. Last week, MIDiA wrote about how it will disrupt primarily information-driven podcasting, rather than entertainment podcasts with human flair (for now).

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TikTok’s creator subscriptions point to the future of social platforms

Hanna Kahlert

1 Oct 2024

TikTok Subscriptions Creators

It’s been a big week for TikTok. On the heels of shutting down its music streaming service , the platform has announced an expansion of its creator subscription program. In addition to existing LIVE Subscriptions, the paid subscription offering for livestreams, TikTok has announced that creators c...

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TikTok may be shutting down its music service, but it will still compete with streaming

Hanna Kahlert

24 Sep 2024

Social Streaming TikTok

TikTok has announced that it plans to shut down its music streaming service, TikTok Music, at the end of November (per Bloomberg ). The company has cautioned users that they should migrate all their playlists to other streaming platforms.

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The digital generation wants to go offline: the roots of an analogue revival

Hanna Kahlert

17 Sep 2024

analogue Vinyl Social

In March of 2020, the world went largely virtual. With no way to go out and live normal day-to-day lives in the physical sense, the digital world took over – from Zoom calls with family members to social storms around Netflix shows, replacing the workplace ‘watercooler moment’.

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Analogue revival
A cultural pendulum swing

Hanna Kahlert

16 Sep 2024

Cultural trends

From the dumb phone trend to a vinyl revival, analogue has been back on the rise in the cultural zeitgeist. This could shake up the digital ecosystem and unlock potential opportunities for entertainment –– but the 'why’ behind the trend needs to be better understood to action the opportunity to its full potential.

BlueSky benefits from X’s Brazil ban: a fragmenting social ecosystem is shaky ground for incumbents

Hanna Kahlert

10 Sep 2024

market Brazil Bluesky

X has long been the social platform of ‘on the pulse’ news updates and cultural happenings. Its users over-index for using social platforms to keep up with news and culture (as outlined in our social platform user behaviour report ), and its high-profile posts often make it into the broader news...

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From ubiquitous bird app to banned in Brazil: what happened to X (and will it happen to others)?

Hanna Kahlert

4 Sep 2024

X TikTok Twitter

Early in August, Elon Musk was vaguely threatened with extradition to the UK for his role in spreading misinformation that resulted in riots. Three weeks later, X was banned in Brazil, following unpaid fines and allegations that the app was being used to spread politically threatening misinformation.

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Who wins the social spiral? Consumers’ relationship with social platforms is changing

Hanna Kahlert

28 Aug 2024

Social media telegram X

There is no shortage of takes on the role of social platforms in our daily lives, from former influencers lamenting the end of Twitter’s golden era to researchers studying social media’s impact on teens’ mental health .

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Instagram and the download-delete cycle: a cultural shift for social platforms

Hanna Kahlert

13 Aug 2024

Social analogue revival ecommerce

Forget the tech-centric sci-fi future promised by the early 2000’s; the new aspiration is going offline. Analogue is the new ‘cool’, and it is not just about nostalgia. Audiences are searching for authenticity, connection, novelty, experience, and tangible ownership of the things they love, al...

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Algorithms, AI, truth, and trust: why social platforms should be worried about the riots

Hanna Kahlert

6 Aug 2024

Social Cultural trends

Social platforms have had a rocky history with misinformation, from US election cycles to social unrest . Over time, platforms have alleged new restrictions and guidelines intended to help reduce the risks.

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Social is the new entertainment; enter MIDiA’s new social vertical

Hanna Kahlert

24 Jul 2024

Social Audience behaviour AI

Social platforms are now inextricable from the digital world and every aspect of entertainment. Fans and A&Rs alike discover new music on social platforms. Marketing strategies for artists and concerts are dependent on ads side-by-side with user stories.

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