Blog: Superfans

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the digital entertainment world. Check out the latest from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage - games, video, music, audio, social, or critical developments.

Mining fandom: Music’s Drive to Survive moment

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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...

min read

How to build a strong fanbase using identity resonance

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Olivia Jones

27 Feb 2025

As entertainment consumption fragments, superstars dominate less, with fans gravitating towards ever-multiplying niches. This trend, alongside the maturation of streaming subscription growth, is driving...

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Craft versus character: the equation the music industry needs to fix

Cover image for Craft versus character: the equation the music industry needs to fix

Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2025

I recently wrote about the unflattening of music :how creativity, craft, and fandom can – if done right – counter the growing commodification of music. Not surprisingly, I focused on the music side...

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How PlayStation broke its hardware and active user records in Q4

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Rhys Elliott

13 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Sony released its financial results for calendar Q4 2024. Here are the high-level results: Sony generated revenues of $27.9 billion As always, its Game & Network Services (G&NS) Segment – PlayStation...

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Bringing fandom to life: the rise of IRL superfan experiences

Cover image for Bringing fandom to life: the rise of IRL superfan experiences

Olivia Jones

12 Feb 2025

Much of the recent discussion around music superfan monetisation has focused on online superfans, especially as more superstars join fan platforms like Weverse. These monetisation strategies capitalise...

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What HYBE and UMG’s Q3 earnings tell us about superfans

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Olivia Jones

3 Dec 2024

Universal Music Group

“Superfan” has been this year’s buzzword in the music industry. From Universal Music Group (UMG) setting its superfan agenda at the start of the year to Warner Music Group announcing its plans for...

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Two future paths for the vinyl revival

Cover image for Two future paths for the vinyl revival

Tatiana Cirisano

31 Oct 2024

monetising fandom

The vinyl resurgence is among the top music industry narratives of the past few years, especially given the recent focus on monetising fandom. The elephant in the room is the question of how long this...

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How big can music merch get? MIDiA’s latest report charts the course to $16B by 2030

Cover image for How big can music merch get? MIDiA’s latest report charts the course to $16B by 2030

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Oct 2024

music merchandise

monetising fandom

Over the weekend, Billie Eilish launched a pop-up merchandise shop in SoHo, New York, where fans could choose from items like a $20 pair of shoelaces, $30 belt, $30 necktie, and $60 necklace. Partnered...

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Streaming’s growth plan in the connection economy

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Kriss Thakrar

18 Sep 2024

Music streaming

Streaming clubs

During Universal’s Capital Markets Day, Universal Music Group (UMG) chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge cited some “fundamental facts” of the music business (per Music Business Worldwide ). These include...

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HYBE 2.0 diverges from the major-label blueprint in 4 key ways — will it work?

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Tatiana Cirisano

8 Aug 2024

HYBE kicked off the month with new leadership and a new plan to bring the Korean entertainment company into its next era of growth. In a letter to shareholders , outgoing CEO Jiwon Park and new chief Jason...

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The make-or-break of live in 2024

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Hanna Kahlert

9 Jul 2024

The music industry has a culture problem. An overabundance of data –– from streaming services and social platforms alike ––has fostered a dependence on digital performance that does not reliably...

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The state of the attention economy: why don’t fan-first platforms work?

Cover image for The state of the attention economy: why don’t fan-first platforms work?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Jun 2024

The music industry is increasingly looking to fan-first solutions to drive its next era of growth (and solve artists’ financial woes), with all eyes towards the Taylor Swift model of fan frenzy. At the...

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Billie Eilish delivered a superfan masterclass

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Kriss Thakrar

4 Jun 2024

While the industry standard for new releases has long been about scale and velocity, Billie Eilish, her brother Finneas, and Darkroom/Interscope, the labels behind their latest album Hit Me Hard and Soft...

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Music fandom’s future (and its existential crisis)

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Hanna Kahlert

1 May 2024

The launch of Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department”, broke records last week (small surprise there). Swift’s reputation for playing to her fanbase has once again proven to...

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Taylor Swift, The Black Dog, and the fan frenzy flywheel

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Kriss Thakrar

25 Apr 2024

A new Taylor Swift album is almost guaranteed to start a fan frenzy - the question is, what form will it take? Breaking Spotify records is a given, but digital consumption is not enough to satiate super...

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The cultural pendulum swing is coming back around

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Tatiana Cirisano

11 Apr 2024

Music streaming

Across culture, there is an eerie sense of things coming full circle. After spending the past decade building an industry around ad-free streaming TV, Netflix has ads and feels increasingly like cable...

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Fan economy: expanded rights are worth $3.5 billion, now what?

Cover image for Fan economy: expanded rights are worth $3.5 billion, now what?

Mark Mulligan

3 Apr 2024

expanded rights

MIDiA recently, and exclusively, revealed that expanded rights now represent 10% of the recorded music market with revenues of $3.5 billion. These revenues, derived principally from monetising the brand...

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Artist subscriptions and the myth of a silver bullet

Cover image for Artist subscriptions and the myth of a silver bullet

Tatiana Cirisano

28 Mar 2024

artist subscriptions

monetizing fandom

Artist subscriptions are back in the music industry discourse and the takes are piping hot. James Blake lit up X with his announcement of subscription platform Vault, Warner Music Group is building its...

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Global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023

Cover image for Global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2024

recorded music 2023

recorded music revenues

Growth is back! After a slower 2022, global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023 to reach $35.1 billion, compared to 7.1% in 2022, which means that the market is now more than double (124.5%) the...

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Streaming is missing cultural moments, and superstars know it

Cover image for Streaming is missing cultural moments, and superstars know it

Kriss Thakrar

11 Oct 2023

In the modern music industry, a near constant supply of music is expected to succeed on streaming platforms . Drake is one of the best examples of this: since 2015 he has released an album every year,...

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