Blog: Instagram

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Forget catalogue; creators are the new valuable IP

Hanna Kahlert

16 Oct 2025

Business Strategy YouTube Netflix

The value of entertainment catalogue and content has shifted over the last decade. Licensing usage and distribution used to underpin the system, but challenges arose as digital consumption became the default.

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Instagram Maps: Feature or future?

Hanna Kahlert

14 Aug 2025

Instagram Snapchat Social media

Meta’s Instagram has begun rolling out a new ‘Maps’ feature, similar to Snapchat’s (but with added privacy concerns). It has also rolled out a new ‘friends’ tab on the Reels page, allowing users to see videos already liked by others they follow, seemingly weighted by the friends they int...

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IMS Business Report 2025

Mark Mulligan

23 Apr 2025

Spotify YouTube Facebook

Today I presented the 11th edition of the IMS Business Report at the ever-brilliant annual electronic music industry conference in Ibiza. And who doesn’t like a conference in Ibiza?! The full report is available via the IMS website.

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Fandom reciprocity: Why sustaining a community requires give and take

Laura Fisher

9 Apr 2025

Fandom Instagram Music

Key takeaways from this blog: Fandoms are becoming two-way relationships, with artists like AJ Tracey and Maverick Sabre involving fans through grassroots gigs, remix contests, and fan-led tour decisions Fans want real engagement, not just content – prompting artists and labels to hire community m...

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If the internet dies, where does all the attention go?

Hanna Kahlert

2 Apr 2025

Cultural trends TikTok Instagram

Key takeaways from this blog: Social platforms dominate culture, but a vibe shift toward offline experiences is emerging as users crave more intentional, less addictive engagement (as explored in MIDiA's' Analogue revival ' report) TikTok’s recent disruption signals a loss of cultural centrality, ...

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Why ads in DMs are not the solution Instagram wants them to be

Hanna Kahlert

18 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Instagram advertising

Key insights from this blog: Instagram's direct messaging features have become a core component of the platform; MIDiA data highlights that the majority of social media users log in to the platform to keep up to date with friends As Instagram's Feeds – and subsequently its Stories feature – have...

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Can the smart TV become a canvas for content creation?

Ben Woods

21 Feb 2025

Audience Insight YouTube Netflix

YouTube’s growing strength on smart TVs is a head scratching moment for the video industry. The social video platform recently revealed that US consumers watched 1 billion hours of YouTube content daily on their smart TVs in December 2024.

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Instagram Edits: the CapCut clone targeting TikTok’s turmoil

Ben Woods

22 Jan 2025

Product Strategy Instagram TikTok

As TikTok grappled with its blackout on Sunday, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri took the opportunity to up the ante with one of his biggest rivals. Targeting TikTok’s 170 million US users, Mosseri revealed Edits: a new creator tools app is designed to support not only Instagram creators but those cre...

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Meta pushes for “free speech” as TikTok falls short: a dramatic cultural shift for social

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Facebook TikTok

The news cycle leaves no room to draw breath as strategic pivots and Supreme Court hearings come thick and fast. Changes are afoot – and they paint a very different picture of the digital landscape of the future.

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Australia bans social media for under-16s: the first domino towards a new digital world?

Hanna Kahlert

3 Dec 2024

regulation age restriction australia social media ban

Australia has just approved groundbreaking social media regulation that bans users under 16 from accessing platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and X. This under-16 social media ban is the first of its kind that does not allow exceptions for existing users or those with parental permission.

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The BlueSky migration: How cultural shifts can disrupt even the most established social media platforms

Hanna Kahlert

19 Nov 2024

Bluesky mastodon Twitter

Twitter clones have proliferated since Elon Musk first bought and renamed the platform to X in 2022. Despite a lot of buzz around platforms like Mastodon and BlueSky, none have seemed to capture a significant audience, with X’s weekly active usage remaining consistent.

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TikTok’s creator subscriptions point to the future of social platforms

Hanna Kahlert

1 Oct 2024

TikTok Subscriptions Creators

It’s been a big week for TikTok. On the heels of shutting down its music streaming service , the platform has announced an expansion of its creator subscription program. In addition to existing LIVE Subscriptions, the paid subscription offering for livestreams, TikTok has announced that creators c...

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From ubiquitous bird app to banned in Brazil: what happened to X (and will it happen to others)?

Hanna Kahlert

4 Sep 2024

X TikTok Twitter

Early in August, Elon Musk was vaguely threatened with extradition to the UK for his role in spreading misinformation that resulted in riots. Three weeks later, X was banned in Brazil, following unpaid fines and allegations that the app was being used to spread politically threatening misinformation.

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Who wins the social spiral? Consumers’ relationship with social platforms is changing

Hanna Kahlert

28 Aug 2024

Social media telegram X

There is no shortage of takes on the role of social platforms in our daily lives, from former influencers lamenting the end of Twitter’s golden era to researchers studying social media’s impact on teens’ mental health .

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Is this the post-social era? The state of the social platform user in 2024

Hanna Kahlert

16 Jul 2024

Social TikTok Daily Active users

The social marketplace is mature, with available consumer time having peaked and new growth for platforms coming at others’ expense. New platforms are emerging but remain small, while the biggest platforms, like Facebook, are seeing losses to their overall share of daily active user penetration co...

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Forget TikTok trends; the scene is TikTok itself

Hanna Kahlert

4 Apr 2024

TikTok Social Marketing

Much of marketing today focuses on chasing the latest TikTok trend. Catching the ‘next big thing’ just as it is taking off, then watching the cultural clout dissolve as the trend disappears as quickly as it appeared, is an exhausting enterprise.

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Instagram is becoming Facebook. So where do all the people go?

Hanna Kahlert

18 Jan 2024

Social Instagram Facebook

Facebook is the most used social media platform in Western markets (not including YouTube, which may host user-generated content but is not typically considered in the same category). Yet, the broad consensus, from competitors to Gen Z, is that the platform is ‘dead’.

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Has superstar creator pay peaked now that Twitch has cooled competition with YouTube?

Ben Woods

26 Oct 2023

Twitch YouTube Kick

Twitch’s annual showcase in Las Vegas was the moment new chief executive Dan Clancy put his stamp on the business. What surprised many – and delighted creators – was his decision to significantly cool competition with YouTube and other livestreaming platforms by giving his blessing to simulcas...

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What music could gain from social platform subscriptions

Tatiana Cirisano

17 Oct 2023

TikTok Twitter Instagram

Last week, Epic Games’ comments about “low margins” in the creator economy prompted a burning question : What happens when consumer creations become more popular than the core content they draw from? Consumers increasingly express their fandom through creation, and we believe this will be one ...

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The X rebrand is Twitter’s Meta moment… but there’s already a Meta

Hanna Kahlert

26 Jul 2023

Twitter Threads libra

Meta’s launch of Threads has been the biggest challenger to Twitter’s social standing to date, with record-breaking uptake in its first weekend. However, Twitter still had an edge: an online culture that would be hard to regrow or replicate; existing creators and content ‘style’, and a brand...

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