Dance Cry Dance Break innovates subscriptions with artist storytelling
Dance Cry Dance Break innovates subscriptions with artist storytelling
Tatiana Cirisano
Tatiana is Vice President of Music Strategy at MIDiA. Prior to this, she served as a music business reporter for Billboard, where she wrote award-winning industry analysis as well as cover stories on artists like Tame Impala and Alicia Keys. Throughout her work she is dedicated to publishing fresh perspectives that drive the music industry forward, with an emphasis on fandom and consumer behaviour.
Up close and personal: when the algorithm goes too far
Today’s entertainment world is characterised by hyper-personalisation. Everyone has a unique TikTok feed tailored specifically to their own niches. DSP playlists have names like “For You” and “Made For [username]”.
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The state and future of music fandom
Unleashing fan creativity
Streaming is buckling under the weight of new music being released every day, listenership is fragmenting, and artificial intelligence is poised to intensify these challenges. The music industry’s next era of growth lies in monetising fandom, not consumption.
Grimes leans into fan creativity with Elf.Tech
Misaligned incentives make the music business a zero-sum game
“Pop Stars Aren’t Popping Like They Used To”, Billboard ’s Elias Leight writes in a recent article, in which record label executives stress over the struggle to break new artists. The article (or at least, the headline) stirred up a storm on Twitter — ahem, X — last week, where many user...
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Can Swift and Beyoncé save the economy? What the data says about music tourism
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have more accolades than most artists in history. Now they can add “saving the economy” to the list — well, sort of. Governing bodies in cities from Chicago to Philadelphia to Stockholm have credited the duo’s respective concerts for boosting local tourism (and temp...
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How live music will change in the next decade
The pandemic sent shock waves through the live music industry — a historic, catastrophic disruption to a decades-old business. But just because touring is back, does not mean that we are in the clear.
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Return to live
Post-pandemic music fans
Today’s live music audience skews 45+, with rock concerts and theatres / concert halls dominating sales. Fandom is by far the strongest factor in purchasing tickets, eclipsing price, and location. So, despite challenges like inflation and scalping, most concertgoers plan to attend more or the same number of concerts going forward.
Will ByteDance build the first cultural graph for music recommendations?
ByteDance’s long-awaited new subscription streaming app, TikTok Music, is here, with an initial launch in Indonesia and Brazil. The news overshadowed the US beta launch of ByteDance’s new music creation app, Ripple, which is likely to make waves.
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Right place, right time: Taylor Swift's track to the first $1 billion tour
Another day, another record for Taylor Swift. As Wall Street Journal broke down this week, the superstar is now on track to achieve the first $1 billion tour in music history. A billion factors and decisions led up to this moment, with Swift’s songwriting artistry and business savvy high among the...
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Who tomorrow's music business is being built for
The creator tools industry, meaning the market for music-making hardware and software, has historically served as the funnel to the recorded music industry. At the centre of that industry are big record labels, which trade on career artists.
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As Spotify's door closes on Soundtrap, another opens
Writing about a new era of music fluidity last month, we noted how streaming services might align more closely with creation, as Spotify has done by acquiring music creation platform Soundtrap. Well, that vision for Spotify is no longer.
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What ‘Barbie’, ‘The Idol’, and more say about the future of artists in film
2023 is already shaping up to be another big year for music artists in Hollywood. Late last month, Jack Harlow made his acting debut in a Hulu remake of 1992 basketball comedy White Men Can’t Jump . The Weeknd (who is now going by Abel Tesfaye) stars in Max’s controversial new series, The Idol ,...
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UMG, Endel, and the case for labels in the AI space
The flood of new music created using artificial intelligence (AI) will further erode major label market share, and some label executives’ recent comments about the value of human-made music seem to put those fears in plain sight.
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Livestreaming strategy in a social-video world
Work with UGC, not against it
Livestreamed concerts are establishing themselves as complementary experiences, rather than replacements for in-person gigs. A picture of the average livestreamer — older millennials who are entertainment super-consumers — is coming into focus. Now, as the rise of social video coincides with the return of in-person concerts and festivals, user-...
How Coachella put the power of UGC livestreaming on display
A new era of music fluidity is here
What do AI Drake, adaptive music, and TikTok open-verse challenges have in common? All reflect a major shift of music consumption from a passive, static, and uni-directional experience to an active, dynamic, multi-directional one.
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Why the creator tools and services market is bigger than you think (and it is not AI)
One of the biggest stories of the past few years is the rise of self-releasing artists, who number 6.4 million in 2022, a 16.8% growth from 2021. Everyone wants a piece of that growth, which is part of the reason why distributors like Stem and TuneCore increasingly offer much more than distribution,...
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Artists direct
Focus on passion, not professionalism
All eyes of the music business are on artists direct, the fastest-growing segment of the industry. But the 6.4 million artists in this segment are far from a unified group, and have varied aspirations, challenges, and needs. MIDiA’s 2023 creator survey reflects that the two largest sub-segments of artists direct are those who seek full-time music...
AI and the future of music
The future is already here
Unlike most new technology hype cycles, the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) has on the world is already surpassing expectations. Within the music industry, AI will largely be an enabler and accelerant of already-existing trends and market shifts: the growth of self-releasing artists, the consumerisation of music-making, and the resulting o...