Mark is MIDiA’s founder and part of the music analyst team. He covers everything from market shares, to forecasts, to business models and product strategy across the music value chain.

Spotify AND Apple Lead Podcasts – It’s All Down to How You Measure It

Mark Mulligan

10 Jan 2020

Media

midia podcast data

midia podcast tracker

The podcast platform data from MIDiA’s Q4 tracker is in. These are the high-level findings (you can read more about our methodology here ): Apple still leads overall:  A recent report showed that...

min read

Read more …

The Meta Trends that Will Shape the 2020s

Mark Mulligan

10 Jan 2020

2020 predictions

abundance paradox

attention saturation

CES, the big annual consumer tech show, is underway in Las Vegas. Unlike in most previous years, there has been little in the way of big new announcements. This is in large part because we are reaching...

min read

Read more …

Independent Artist Survey
Aspirations That Will Reshape an Industry

Mark Mulligan

January 2020

artists

DIY

independent artists

This report presents the findings of MIDiA’s 2019 independent artist survey. Key Insights Independent artists will drive a different future: just 8% want a traditional label deal, 58% want a label services...

Read more …

Ellie Goulding and Billie Eilish Are Streaming’s New Normal

Mark Mulligan

3 Jan 2020

Alexa

billie eilish

Christmas number one

Less than a week into the new decade and we already have the first indications that the streaming rulebook continues to be rewritten faster than the ink can dry on its last entry. Three separate articles,...

min read

Read more …

Music Subscriber Market Shares 3.0
The Big Three Dominate

Mark Mulligan

December 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Music Subscriptions

This report presents key figures from MIDiA’s global music subscriber market shares model. The full dataset is published alongside this report with quarterly data from Q4 2015 to Q2 2019 for 23 streaming...

Read more …

How an Economic Downturn Could Reshape Digital Media

Mark Mulligan

13 Dec 2019

economic cycles

economic downturn

financial cycle

Ten years on from the credit crunch, the global economy could be poised to enter another recession. Many of the underlying causes of the credit crunch remain in place, due to governments lacking appetite...

min read

Read more …

The Paywall Paradox
Ring Fencing Advertising’s Most Valuable Consumers

Mark Mulligan

December 2019

Spotify

Marketing

Amazon

Music and video subscribers are the most influential technology and brand advocates amongst their peer groups and are therefore the most valuable users for advertisers and brands to reach. They are consuming...

Read more …

20/20 Vision
MIDiA Research Predictions 2020

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

December 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...

Read more …

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) December 9th 2019

Mark Mulligan

9 Dec 2019

a-pop

ad agencies

EPL

Go east:  Universal Music launched Red Records, an Asian repertoire joint venture label with AirAsia Group. With Western repertoire accounting for around only a third of all streams in Asian...

min read

Read more …

Music Subscriber Market Shares H1 2019

Mark Mulligan

5 Dec 2019

Amazon Music

Deezer

google

The global streaming market continues to grow at pace. At the end of June 2019 there were 304.9 million music subscribers globally. That was up 34 million on the end of 2018, while the June 2018 to June...

min read

Read more …

Streaming Pricing
Solid Outlook but Slowing Demand

Mark Mulligan

December 2019

willingness to pay

Apple

Netflix

Across a wide selection of Western countries, the streaming music and video subscription markets are reaching a high degree of maturity. As saturation for core products nears, further growth will depend...

Read more …

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) December 2nd 2019

Mark Mulligan

2 Dec 2019

bytedance

create music

first order music

Bytedance / TikTok split: Bytedance appears to be getting nervy about the impact of Chinese censorship regulation on TikTok, to the extent that it is reportedly mulling spinning off the app as a separate...

min read

Read more …

Spotify Podcast Strategy
Strong Start, Long Way to Go

Mark Mulligan

November 2019

Spotify

Spotify

Pandora

Spotify has bet big on podcasts, viewing them as a means to multiple strategic ends. After a number of major acquisitions, Spotify is beginning to deliver meaningful audience and revenue numbers. Though...

Read more …

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) November 25th 2019

Mark Mulligan

25 Nov 2019

Colin Kaepernick

Disney

Epic Games

Disney tidies its streaming stats:  Disney is tidying up its streaming subscriber numbers in preparation for reporting the performance so far of Disney+.  In the shake-up, ESPN falls from 3.4...

min read

Read more …

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) November 18th 2019

Mark Mulligan

18 Nov 2019

BT

bytedance

Disney

Bytedance subscription:  Bytedance, parent of TikTok, is reportedlyclose to launching a music subscription service, initially focused on emerging markets. The big question is whether Bytedance will...

min read

Read more …

Why the Music Industry Needs Bytedance to Disrupt It

Mark Mulligan

18 Nov 2019

Innovation

Music

Back in September 2018 I suggested that Spotify faced a Tencent risk, with the potential of Tencent launching a competitive offering in markets that Spotify is not yet in. This would effectively divide...

min read

Read more …

Spotify Earnings Q3 2019
Up on Most Counts

Mark Mulligan

November 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

Q3 2019 was a quarter of mixed fortunes for Spotify, with its subscriber base showing good, consistent growth, podcasts making a solid early showing, emerging markets demonstrating promise but ad revenue...

Read more …

The Attention Economy Has Peaked. Now What?

Mark Mulligan

12 Nov 2019

Regular followers of MIDiA will know that we’ve been writing about the attention economy for a number of years now. Throughout 2019 we have been building the concept that we have arrived at peak in the...

min read

Read more …

We’re Hiring: Business Development Manager

Mark Mulligan

11 Nov 2019

midia

midia is hiring

midia job vacancy

MIDiA is hiring for a new position: a  Business Development Manager focused on the TV/video space.  Over the last year we have been fast building our capabilities and profile in the TV and video...

min read

Read more …

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) November 11th 2019

Mark Mulligan

11 Nov 2019

airpods

Apple TV

BTS

BTS, fandom 3.0:  The management of BTS’s distributor was trying to work out who had green-lit an unauthorized billboard campaign for the South Korean boy band . When it turned out that the fans...

min read

Read more …