Mark Mulligan | MIDiA Research

The music business in 2021: Joining the dots

Mark Mulligan

4 Mar 2021

It has been one of those weeks, with impactful music business announcements coming thick and fast. As is often the case, a succession of apparently unrelated events actually have a connecting thread. In...

min read

Smaller independents and artists direct grew fastest in 2020

Mark Mulligan

1 Mar 2021

Spotify

Streaming Music

independent labels

Last year we identified a small but crucial metric from Spotify’s annual report: the share of all streams accounted for by majors and independent licensing body Merlin. It was crucial because it enabled...

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Spotify Q4 2020 earnings
ARPU pays the price for growth

Cover image for Spotify Q4 2020 earnings

Mark Mulligan

February 2021

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

In 2020 Spotify accelerated the growth of its total user base, with emerging markets playing a key role. However, revenue increases became decoupled from user growth across all categories, resulting in...

Clubhouse session: Is attention killing culture?

Mark Mulligan

24 Feb 2021

Media and Marketing

Cultural Trends

Join myself, Hanna Kahlert and Karol Severin Thursday 25that 5pm GMT / noon EST / 9am PT on Clubhouse for discussion of the Attention Economy’s second order effects on culture and creativity. In this...

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The COVID bounce and the coming attention recession

Mark Mulligan

19 Feb 2021

media consumption

entertainment consumption

audiobooks

2020 was by any measure a unique year in modern times. While the societal impact of the pandemic was, and continues to be, horrific, for the entertainment industries it was a year of plenty. At the start...

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Last call for the global independent label survey

Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2021

Independent label survey

label survey

independent labels

With 2020 now comfortably behind us and public companies in their earnings cycle, a clear picture is starting to emerge of how the global recorded music market performed. MIDiA is midway through fielding...

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Three trends that will shape the rest of 2021, and beyond

Mark Mulligan

15 Feb 2021

the immersive web

entertainment internets

Insurgents

Late last year, MIDiA published its latest predictions report (clients can read the entire report here). The central theme was the Immersive Web, which we summarised as follows: “The immersive web is...

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Media consumption
Lockdown’s attention boom

Mark Mulligan

February 2021

Consumer Behaviour

Spotify

2020 was a year like no other. With large swathes of the population confined to their homes for portions of the year, audiences had more time on their hands and more money in their pockets. These conditions...

Sony just became (even more of) an independent powerhouse

Mark Mulligan

1 Feb 2021

AWAL

Kobalt

Sony Music

Sony Music has bought AWAL (and Kobalt Neighbouring Rights) from Kobalt for $430 million . By adding AWAL to its already-booming Orchard division (as well as other distribution companies), it now has leading...

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Equitable remuneration, artist income and unintended consequences

Mark Mulligan

29 Jan 2021

Streaming economy

streaming inquiry

equitable remuneration

The UK Parliament’s inquiry on the economics of streaming appears to be building a case for equitable remuneration (ER). There are many iterations of what ER can mean, but a simplified description of...

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Music Product Strategy Re-boot
Time to Monetise Fandom, Not Access

Cover image for Music Product Strategy Re-boot

Mark Mulligan

January 2021

Innovation

Spotify

As streaming reaches maturity in many of the largest music markets and middle-tier artists struggle to make ends meet with the live music hiatus, the time has come for a music product strategy re-boot...

Splash / Tones and I
Splash / Tones and I event showcases the future of artist-fan engagement

Mark Mulligan

January 2021

Music

Sony Music

lil nas x

Read the case study …

Music has developed an attention dependency

Mark Mulligan

15 Jan 2021

Music

The attention economy defines and shapes today’s digital world. However, we have long since reached peak in the attention economy with all available free time now addressed. What this means is that previously,...

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Virtual concerts: A new video format

Mark Mulligan

8 Jan 2021

The global pandemic thrust the live music sector into chaos, with global revenues falling by 75% in 2020 compared to one year previously. The music industry was rocked by first-order impacts (no concerts,...

min read

Virtual Concerts
A New Video Format

Mark Mulligan

December 2020

Video

YouTube

Amazon

The global pandemic thrust the live music sector into chaos, with global revenues falling by 75% in 2020 compared to one year previously. The music industry was rocked by first-order impacts (no concerts,...

Driift
Driift creates a new vertically integrated approach to live performances

Mark Mulligan

December 2020

live music

Music

Product Strategy

Read the case study …

2021 Predictions: The year of the immersive web

Mark Mulligan

18 Dec 2020

As we approach the end of 2020 it is time to look forward to what 2021 may bring. MIDiA has published the fifth edition of our Annual Predictions report which clients can read here . There are 27 predictions...

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Global independent label survey

Mark Mulligan

14 Dec 2020

Music

MIDiA Research is conducting a major study of independent label revenue in order to create a definitive review of the independent sector’s contribution to the global music market. MIDiA conducted this...

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Creator tools: The music industry’s new top of funnel

Mark Mulligan

30 Nov 2020

For most of 2020, MIDiA has been working on a major piece of work around the fast-growing creator tools space. The themes we had already started working on became rocket propelled with the onset of the...

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Spotify Q3 2020 Earnings
The Shift to Free

Cover image for Spotify Q3 2020 Earnings

Mark Mulligan

November 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

With three quarters of 2020 gone, Spotify has prospered during the most challenging of times, with consistent growth across most metrics. Q3 2020 saw a slight deviation from the script though, with ad-supported...