live music blog by MIDiA Research

Blog: live music

How touring pits artists against their own fans

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

6 Dec 2022

The live music industry is now facing the reckoning we predicted last spring, as it is increasingly clear that touring is not financially sustainable for most artists, while superstars are facing backlash...

From 8-bit to fantasy: Proms’ focus on gaming underscores its cultural relevance

Blog post by Sam Griffin

10 Aug 2022

Proms

gaming

fandom

After the humble beginnings of the first melodic loops from NAMCO’s Rally X , the cultural symphony of music, video, and games has since matured toHildur Guðnadóttir and Sam Slater’s recent score...

How (and why) Billie Eilish won Glastonbury

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

6 Jul 2022

live music

fragmented fandom

BBC

Glastonbury returned to great fanfare after the pandemic-enforced break, which meant it was the first one since 2019. The music world has changed a lot since then, with streaming getting bigger than ever...

Music industry earnings 2021: Riding the wave

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

6 May 2022

streaming music

record labels

live music

Universal music’s Q1 2022 earnings showed continued growth but a noticeable slowdown in streaming growth, with streaming revenues up 12% year-on-year (YoY) in USD term compared to a growth of 35% one...

The pandemic catalysed a streaming business model reckoning. Is the live sector next?

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

27 Apr 2022

live music

live nation

touring

The news is everywhere: concerts are back. Coachella heralded the return of a roaring festival season, hundreds of acts are back on the road, and Live Nation says it is expecting a record year. But other...

Live streaming’s second growth phase

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

6 Oct 2021

live streaming

live streamed concerts

virtual concerts

Live streaming erupted in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic. As the year progressed, the market transformed rapidly from a bunch of bands playing guitar in their bedrooms to highly produced, ticketed shows...

Live streaming centre stage for 2021

Blog post by Keith Jopling

2 Nov 2020

live streaming

live music

Live music industry

The longer the pandemic continues, the harder it gets for the live music business (and other cultural sectors built around live performance) to sustain hope of a ‘return to normal’. I hate saying it,...

The Future of Live

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

20 May 2020

Fortnite

Games

live

The almost total cessation of live music has sent shockwaves throughout the wider music industry. Though live companies are clearly at the epicentre, labels and streaming services are the in the blast...

How Will Finance’s Interest in Music Impact the Industry Compared to Big Tech?

Blog post by Zach Fuller

16 Dec 2019

big tech

facebook

facebook music

With Hipgnosis continuing to acquire copyright, coupled with Warner Music Group and Providence Equity’s announcement of Tempo Music Investments, the finance industry’s interest in the recorded music...

The Future of Music: A Vision of Post-Format

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

18 Sep 2019

adele

artists

Edison

Formats have shaped and dictated the evolution of recorded music. The constraints that formats set have, in turn, become the creative frameworks within which music has operated. Now, in the internet era,...

Data Says: E-sports Events Are More About Live Entertainment than Gaming

Blog post by Karol Severin

8 Aug 2019

brand activation

e-sports

festivals

Imagine you’ve got three behaviourally defined consumer segments: PC Gamers Console Gamers Live concert goers Which group is most likely to attend an e-sports event? Intuitively, it has to be Gamers,...

Profiling the Live Consumer: Streaming and the Live Music Business

Blog post by Hanna Kahlert

17 Apr 2019

Experience economy

festival market

live music

This article is derived from MIDiA’s Profiling the Live Consumer report, available to subscribers here . For more information about this report, email stephen@midiaresearch.com . The power balance in...

Do Not Assume We Have Arrived At Our Destination

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

15 Jun 2017

artist income

artists

Drake

Forbes has released its annual Celebrity 100, its list of the top earning media stars. The healthy share of music artists hints at the continued ability to build highly successful music careers. The presence...

Amazon Prime Live Events, More Than Just Gigs For Olds

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

9 May 2017

Amazon

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime Live Events

Amazon today announced ‘Amazon Prime Live Events’, a series of smaller capacity gigs by largely heritage acts made available exclusively to Amazon Prime members in the UK. The first wave of artists...