Keith Jopling

Keith was MIDiA’s consulting director and music insights contributor. With 15+ years of experience in media and technology space, his coverage mainly deals with broader music trends and solving context business problems.

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Radio is Switched On Again
Strategies for 2020 and Beyond

Keith Jopling and Mark Mulligan

15 May 2020

Spotify YouTube BBC

Just what is radio? Radio is branded and produced show content known best in the form of live (or pre-recorded) broadcast. However, the definition of ‘radio’ is shifting away from the broadcast format and towards the content produced – programmes or shows – made available on-demand anywhere, via radio apps, smart speakers and podcasts.

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Recovery Economics
Music, Games, Live Streams and the Future of Concerts

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Keith Jopling

11 May 2020

live music live Artists

In April 2020 Travis Scott’s Fortnite event pulled in 27 million players. While this was happening, the global artist community was scrambling to plug the income and engagement gap caused by COVID-19’s cessation of live music, by turning to live streaming.

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COVID-19
Impact on Entertainment Demand and Behaviours

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Alistair Taylor, Keith Jopling and Hanna Kahlert

24 Apr 2020

Free Report

Spotify Amazon Netflix

COVID-19 is having a clear and direct impact on the entertainment and media industries, driven by investor uncertainty – resulting in plummeting share prices – and restrictions on movement of people leading to quickly-transforming consumer behaviour patterns.

Radio Is Switched On Again

Keith Jopling

9 Apr 2020

Covid-19 Music

Radio is suddenly more vital - and by that I mean music radio. The human factor in radio programming and presentation has been clearly demonstrated in the weeks and months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the national ‘lockdown’ periods imposed by country authorities.

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Beyond Hustle – What Are the New Ideas and Approaches in Music Marketing?

Keith Jopling

2 Mar 2020

Music

As part of a recent project, MIDiA spoke with a wide range of direct artists and start-up labels about how they get their releases through the vast amounts of content that clutter up the music discovery landscape these days.

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Why the song economy is just getting started

Keith Jopling

16 Jan 2020

Marketing Strategy Music

When Journey’s song Don’t Stop Believin’ was originally released as the second single from the album Escape in 1981, it was a modest US chart hit (Billboard Hot 100 no. 9). Fast forward 28 years, in 2009 the track had two very prominent syncs: The Sopranos finale and Glee (the song featured in...

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Demand Creation
What’s the Next Big Growth Curve for Music?

Keith Jopling

14 Jan 2020

Labels Spotify Marketing

Over the past 40 years the music industry has seen highs and lows, mirroring the careers of many of the legacy artists the industry plays host to. The most spectacular successes in the music business, from the Sony Walkman to MTV, to iTunes and Spotify – have all generated demand for music in entirely new ways.

Demand creation: What’s the next big growth curve for music?

Keith Jopling

11 Dec 2019

Music Business Strategy

At Spotify’s last quarterly reporting session, CEO Daniel Ek talked about the company’s creator strategy, as part of the wider development of becoming a “2-sided marketplace”: “The strategy has been about going from a one-size fits all model to a model that better fits the various types of...

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20/20 Vision
MIDiA Research Predictions 2020

Alistair Taylor, Amanda Stears, Karol Severin, Keith Jopling, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

10 Dec 2019

Apple Spotify Discovery

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, media, brands, marketing, games and sports in 2020 and the coming decade. Companies and brands mentioned in...

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Playlist Strategies 2020

Keith Jopling

12 Nov 2019

Spotify YouTube SoundCloud

Playlists have become a core music consumption habit and, in turn, one of the most valuable marketing commodities in music. A prominent playlist placement remains a key objective of most new release strategies and is a higher priority than radio play for many artists.

Three supply-side indicators that signal the new music industry has arrived

Keith Jopling

7 Nov 2019

Media Strategy Music

The CD brought unprecedented growth in music-as-product. Then Napster came along as the first real digital disruptor and burst that bubble very effectively. iTunes then disrupted Napster (partly alongside industry anti-piracy efforts) by legally unbundling and re-aggregating music in digital librari...

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Recession Impact
How an Economic Downturn Could Reshape Digital Media

Alistair Taylor, Amanda Stears, Karol Severin, Keith Jopling, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

29 Oct 2019

Apple Spotify Amazon

Ten years on from the credit crunch, the global economy could be poised to enter another economic recession. Many of the underlying causes of the credit crunch remain in place, due to governments lacking the appetite for the structural reform required to right the faults in the global financial system that catalysed the slowdown.

What should label playlist strategies be in 2020?

Keith Jopling

15 Oct 2019

Marketing Strategy Product Strategy

MIDiA’s ‘Playlist Revolution’ report recently highlighted that, although playlists have become valuable commercial music real estate in their current form, there is plenty of scope for further development of the format.

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Five trends changing music marketing

Keith Jopling

2 Oct 2019

Marketing Strategy Music

Marketing music has never been straightforward. That’s why back in the day, label executives would use the single as the shortcut to finding an audience on which to propel the artist, and even more importantly, their latest album.

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Leaving Legacy Behind
Music Marketing Responds to Streaming

Keith Jopling

1 Oct 2019

Free Report

music marketing

Music marketing has changed for good Marketing music has never been straightforward. That’s why, back in the day, label executives would use the single as the shortcut to finding an audience on which to foster the artist, and even more importantly, their latest album.

How Fender riffed on trends to drive its future forward

Keith Jopling

23 Sep 2019

Music Fender Business Strategy

By now everyone connected with business, music or both, knows the cautionary tale of Gibson Guitars. Rescued from insolvency in 2018, Gibson had been taken to the brink by a series of calamitous decisions, from transforming into a music lifestyle business loosely modelled on ‘what Nike is to sport...

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Independent Artists
The Age of Empowerment

Keith Jopling and Mark Mulligan

15 Jun 2019

Free Report

Audience Insight

Key takeaways A sector with real scale. Artists without record labels generated $643.1 million in 2018, up 35% from 2017. These independent artists represent the fastest-growing segment of the global recorded music business, a segment of global scale with real impact and influence.

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The Classical Music Market
Streaming's Next Genre?

Keith Jopling, Mark Mulligan and Zach Fuller

12 Jun 2019

Free Report

About this research This study was put together by MIDiA research from an online consumer survey of 8,000 adult music consumers across eight markets: the USA, UK, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico and South Korea. Additionally, MIDiA's 2018 market models were used to calculate market values and trends for the classical genre.

Preparing for the Post-Album Music Industry

Keith Jopling

14 Mar 2019

Strategy Games

This is a follow-up piece to What’s Next In Playlist Innovation ... Every week I’m excited to check out the latest album releases. They are the gift that keeps on giving. But that gift feels different these days, more like receiving flowers or chocolate and less like anything you might receive a...

What’s Next For Playlist Innovation?

Keith Jopling

4 Mar 2019

playlisting playlists product innovation

In this era of access to all music and everything about it, I do enjoy reading artist interviews, and pay attention to artists’ views on the modern music industry. What caught me recently were Mark Ronson’s remarks on songwriting in the age of the playlist in The Guardian: “Everything has to b...

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