Mark Mulligan

Music Discovery
Streaming’s Growing Role

Report by Mark Mulligan

24 Aug 2020

The 20,000 Foot View: Radio has long led music discovery and continues to do so today. However, streaming – both audio and video – are making up ground fast, especially among more engaged and younger…

Music Marketing
The Velocity Game

Report by Mark Mulligan

24 Aug 2020

The 20,000 Foot View: Music streaming has become so central to the functioning of the record label business model that labels are becoming beholden to streaming service optimisation. A shift towards…

Spotify Q2 2020 Earnings
In the Shadow of COVID

Cover image for Spotify Q2 2020 Earnings

Report by Mark Mulligan

18 Aug 2020

The 20,000 Foot View: Spotify’s share price grew strongly in June 2020, with the markets responding positively to its podcast investments. However, while that increase was sustained throughout July,…

What AWAL’s $100k artists mean for the streaming economy

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

14 Aug 2020

Kobalt’s AWAL division announced that ‘hundreds of its artists have reached [the] annual streaming revenue threshold [of $100,000]’ . Make no mistake, this is major milestone for a record label…

Apple to launch subscription bundle – we called it!

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

13 Aug 2020

In MIDiA’s 2020 Predictions report published in December 2019 we predicted that tech majors would start creating subscription bundles, with Apple leading the fray. Lo and behold, news has just come…

Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

12 Aug 2020

The #brokenrecord debate continues to build momentum and new models such as user-centric are getting increased attention, including at governmental level in the UK. But as Mat Dryhurst correctly observes…

The MIDiA Research Podcast: Episode 1 – What Next for Tencent?

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

7 Aug 2020

We are excited to announce the first episode of the MIDiA Research podcast: What Next for Tencent? President Trump's executive orders concerning Bytedance and Tencent set the cat among the pigeons. In…

Newsflash: UMG, WMG and Spotify may have a problem with Tencent

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

7 Aug 2020

UPDATE: A White House official confirmed to the LA Times that the announcement, at this stage, will not affect Tencent shareholdings of companies and clarified that the order only refers to transactions…

COVID-19 hit major labels much harder than it did Spotify

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

5 Aug 2020

COVID-19 was always going to have a significant impact on the music business, and with the Q2 results for all of the major music companies now in we can start to look at just how big that impact has been…

We are at a turning point for social music

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

4 Aug 2020

In recent days we have seen three major developments that, collectively, are a potential pivot point for social music: 1. TikTok close to a US-entity buyout by Microsoft to avoid potential…

Attention Economy
Media Consumption Q2 2020

Report by Mark Mulligan

31 Jul 2020

The 20,000 Foot View: This report presents MIDiA’s Q2 2020 media consumption data, exploring time and money spent by consumers during the quarter. As such, it presents a snapshot of consumer behaviour…

MIDiA Research 2020-2027 Global Music Forecasts
Volume Trumps Value as Emerging Markets Dominate Growth

Cover image for MIDiA Research 2020-2027 Global Music Forecasts

Report by Mark Mulligan

21 Jul 2020

This report presents the key figures, trends and drivers of MIDiA’s music forecast model. The figures presented in this report are retail values and in billions of US dollars unless otherwise stated.…

Why Spotify needs Russia

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

16 Jul 2020

Spotify’s delayed Russia launch finally happened this week . While it did not drive a stock price growth like the Josh Rogan deal did (the stock closed just 1 cent higher than the previous day’s close)…

How the DNA of a hit has changed over 20 years

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

13 Jul 2020

Recorded music has always evolved to fit the dominant format of the era, from three-minute songs to fit on 7-inch vinyl, through eight-song albums to fit on LPs, through to 16+ song albums to fill CDs.…

Time to stop playing the velocity game

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

3 Jul 2020

We all know that streaming has transformed consumption and business models alike, but this is not a ‘now-completed’ process. Instead it is one that continues to evolve at pace, and the dynamic of pace…

Recession Impact
Music Industry 2020 Growth Scenarios

Report by Mark Mulligan

29 Jun 2020

As part of MIDiA’s research stream focused on how COVID-19 is impacting the entertainment industries, this report explores how the combination of lockdown measures and the coming recession will impact…

Music Subscriber Market Shares Q1 2020

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

23 Jun 2020

WWDC would have been a perfect opportunity for Apple to announce another streaming milestone for Apple Music. It didn’t but the good news is that MIDiA already have a figure for Apple Music, as part…

Recovery Economics
Outlook for Music, Games, Video & Sports

Report by Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin and Alistair Taylor

19 Jun 2020

MIDiA analysts present in this webinar report how the entertainment industries can plan not to simply bounce back, but to rebuild their value propositions and supply chains to adjust to the realities of…

Just what is Tencent’s Endgame?

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

16 Jun 2020

Tencent’s combined $200 million investment in WMG follows on the heels of its $3.6 billion joint investment in Universal Music. It is hardly Tencent’s first investments in music, having spent $6.2…

Music Streaming Needs a New Future

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

12 Jun 2020

While doing some research on the Chinese streaming market I came across this fantastic UX tear down of Xiami Music . I recommend you read it in full. The day before I found this – also must-read –article…