Blog: Music Industry

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.

Everyone wants to monetise fandom – but we must fix fan data first

Cover image for Everyone wants to monetise fandom – but we must fix fan data first

Olivia Jones

4 Apr 2025

In recent years, the music industry has turned its focus to engaging superfans, and it is no surprise – fandom has already proven lucrative. Expanded rights – which includes merchandise and other fandom...

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Is streaming music's final form? And if not, what's next?

Cover image for Is streaming music's final form? And if not, what's next?

Tatiana Cirisano

3 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

Back in October, there was a brief online debate in the entertainment business newsletter sphere over the state of culture. Amid hot takes on how culture is “ stuck ” or “ stagnating ”, the writer...

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Welcome to the brand new MIDiA

Mark Mulligan

2 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

Today we are proud to announce the next iteration of MIDiA Research. 2024 marked MIDiA’s tenth year, and in the preceding decade we broke brave new ground for entertainment business analysis. We introduced...

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Music is losing a generation of young men

Cover image for Music is losing a generation of young men

Kriss Thakrar

31 Mar 2025

Key insights from this blog: Netflix’s hit Adolescence has renewed conversation around the radicalisation of young men, particularly in online spaces MIDiA’s research highlights that all entertainment...

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Music subscriber market shares 2024: Slowdown? What slowdown?

Cover image for Music subscriber market shares 2024: Slowdown? What slowdown?

Mark Mulligan

27 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

Record label streaming revenue growth slowed to 6% in 2024 but there was no such slowdown in subscriber growth. In our just published ‘ Music subscriber market shares Q4 2024 ’ report, we reveal that...

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Songwriters, we want to hear from you! Raise your voice in MIDiA’s new survey

Cover image for Songwriters, we want to hear from you! Raise your voice in MIDiA’s new survey

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

Last year, MIDiA’s inaugural songwriter survey uncovered an alarming statistic: 67% of songwriters name “lack of meaningful streaming income” as their biggest challenge. More alarming yet is the...

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The music industry’s weakest link: Getting from A to B

Cover image for The music industry’s weakest link: Getting from A to B

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

Key insights from this blog: The music industry is missing a key step when it comes to supporting and growing artists As the landscape of the industry has changed, most notably a loss of a mainstream monoculture,...

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Live and direct: lessons for streamers from the appeal of online radio

Cover image for Live and direct: lessons for streamers from the appeal of online radio

Laura Fisher

20 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

Key insights from this blog: Online radio has a growing audience, with further opportunity to capitalise on what is missing from music streaming We explore why online radio is gaining popularity – covering...

min read

A model for a new music streaming industry

Cover image for A model for a new music streaming industry

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

The music industry is approaching a pivot point. On the one hand, things look positive: we have UMG’s Streaming 2.0 , artist centric licensing, the impending launch of supremium and expanded rights revenue...

min read

How the DNA of a hit changed in the last five years

Cover image for How the DNA of a hit changed in the last five years

Olivia Jones

14 Mar 2025

Cultural trends

Music streaming

Key insights from this blog: The second installment of MIDiA's "DNA of a hit" blog series looks at how the hits on Billboard's Top 10 chart have changed in the last five years Key MIDiA data highlights...

min read

Recorded music market 2024: $36.2 billion, up 6.5%

Cover image for Recorded music market 2024: $36.2 billion, up 6.5%

Mark Mulligan

13 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

MIDiA has just released its annual recorded music market shares report. Clients can access the full report and the accompanying massive (!) data set here . For the rest of you, here are some highlights...

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Meritocracy only works if the door is open in the first place: International Women’s Day in 2025

Cover image for Meritocracy only works if the door is open in the first place: International Women’s Day in 2025

Hanna Kahlert

11 Mar 2025

Cultural trends

Key insights from this blog: This International Women's Day, celebrations of women's accomplishments were overshadowed by industry developments and political decisions Women are consumers too – it is...

min read

Scenes 2.0 | MIDiA’s updated entertainment playbook

Cover image for Scenes 2.0 | MIDiA’s updated entertainment playbook

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Mar 2025

In 2022, MIDiA introduced scenes as a new playbook for music marketing . As entertainment consumption fragments, what was once a singular “mainstream” is being replaced by hundreds of thousands of...

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Mining fandom: Music’s Drive to Survive moment

Cover image for Mining fandom: Music’s Drive to Survive moment

Ben Woods

28 Feb 2025

Marketing Strategy

Netflix’s Drive to Survive did more than introduce a new entertainment layer for sports fans. The F1 docuseries provided a framework for re-igniting and nurturing fandom. Before then, sports documentaries...

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Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Cover image for Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Feb 2025

Audience Insight

In the battle of music streaming versus social, the major (at least Western) music streaming services have never fully committed to implementing social features. Spotify has come the closest: an early...

min read

What the Reuters AI copyright decision means for the music industry

Cover image for What the Reuters AI copyright decision means for the music industry

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Last week saw a major AI copyright case judgement in the US – and it fell in favour of human creators. The case stems all the way back to 2020, when Thomson Reuters sued the legal AI startup ROSS Intelligence,...

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Why Spotify only hit profitability now (but will do so again)

Cover image for Why Spotify only hit profitability now (but will do so again)

Mark Mulligan

13 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Spotify finally registered its first profitable year in 2024. It has hit net profit in individual quarters before – most recently in Q3 2023 – but this is the first year it was profitable throughout...

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Bootlegging is the scourge of many industries. Could it be music’s greatest strength?

Cover image for Bootlegging is the scourge of many industries. Could it be music’s greatest strength?

Tatiana Cirisano

7 Feb 2025

The word “bootleg” has long left a bad taste in brands’ mouths. Quite literally defined as “illicit goods,” these unauthorised versions or replications of clothes, handbags, concert tees, and...

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Background music is a short-term win for DSPs – but it could be a long-term problem

Cover image for Background music is a short-term win for DSPs – but it could be a long-term problem

Olivia Jones

23 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Note: Following the publication of this piece, Spotify released a statement regarding Pelly's article, which is reproduced in full at the bottom of this page. In this month’s issue of Harper’s Magazine...

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What got you here won’t get you there: how Spotify built a new business

Cover image for What got you here won’t get you there: how Spotify built a new business

Mark Mulligan

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Since its inception, Spotify has been, and continues to be, the streaming music market’s lightning rod. This is due to its continued ability to maintain leading market share and the fact it is the only...

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Showing 1 to 20 of 184 results.