Blog: Warner Music

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.

Warner’s acquisition of DIVO showcases its focus on growing authentic local music cultures

Srishti Das

17 Feb 2023

RRR

Naatu naatu

goldern globes

A year ago, Warner Music Group (WMG) acquired a South African independent distribution company, Africori , which focused on distributing local scenes from Africa. Now, it has acquired a majority stake...

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DAZN’s belated UK launch: Can it avoid Eleven Sports’ 'mistake’?

Alistair Taylor

24 Jul 2020

Video

Sports

Media & Marketing

DAZN, the anointed ‘Netflix of Sport’, has announced plans to resume launching its services globally via a beta service covering boxing bouts In July and August, for users who have registered their...

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Just what is Tencent’s Endgame?

Mark Mulligan

16 Jun 2020

Tencent

Tencent Music

China

Tencent’s combined $200 million investment in WMG follows on the heels of its $3.6 billion joint investment in Universal Music. It is hardly Tencent’s first investments in music, having spent $6.2...

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What UMG’s IPO Means for the Business of Music

Mark Mulligan

14 Feb 2020

Access Industries

Bolloré Group

music as an asset class

Finishing 2019 on $6.4 billion, Universal Music is to go to IPO hot on the heels of Warner Music’s announcement to do the same. This of course also follows the Tencent-led agreement to acquire 10% of...

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2018 Global Label Market Share: Stream Engine

Mark Mulligan

13 Mar 2019

artists direct

DIY

DIY artists

Recorded music revenues grew in 2018 for the fourth consecutive year, reaching $18.8 billion, up $2.2 billion from 2017. Streaming was the engine room of growth, up 30% year on year to reach $9.6 billion....

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Why India Matters to Spotify, and Why it May Not Deliver

Mark Mulligan

28 Feb 2019

emerging markets

india

india streaming

Warner Music and Spotify have been involved in a rather unseemly and very public spat this week over Spotify’s India launch . I’ll leave for someone else, the discussions of the potential implications...

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Just Who Would Buy Universal Music?

Mark Mulligan

14 Jan 2019

Access Industries

artists direct

Bolloré Group

Vivendi continues to look for a buyer for a portion of Universal Music . Though the process has been running officially since May 2018 , the transaction (or transactions) may not close until 2020. In many...

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Could Spotify Buy Universal?

Mark Mulligan

11 May 2018

Alphabet

Amazon

AOL

Vivendi is reported to be proposing to its board a plan for spinning out Universal Music. It is certainly the right time for a spin off (always sell before the peak), but a full divestment would leave...

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Announcing MIDiA’s State Of The Streaming Nation 2 Report

Mark Mulligan

5 Jun 2017

7Digital

Alibaba

Amazon

2016 was the year that streaming turned the recorded music business into a good news story, with revenue growth so strong that it drove nearly a billion dollars of total growth. Leading streaming services...

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Who’s Leading The Streaming Music Pack?

Mark Mulligan

25 May 2017

Apple Music

Deezer

Google Play Music All Access

At MIDiA Research we are currently in the final stages of producing the update to our annual landmark report: The State Of The Streaming Nation, a report which compiles every streaming market data point...

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Welcome To The Post-DIY Era

Mark Mulligan

20 Mar 2017

ADA

Bandcamp

BandLab

I recently took part in the True Music Forum in Madrid, an event organized by Boiler Room. I was on a panel that explored whether DIY is now coming of age with a host of high profile artists, most of them...

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Global Recorded Market Music Market Shares 2016

Mark Mulligan

26 Feb 2017

Major labels

Sony Music

Sony/ATV

MIDiA and Music Business Worldwide have been tracking record label and publisher financial releases throughout 2016. In addition MIDIA has conducted market sizing work on the publishing sector and research...

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Watch Out Access, Liberty Media Is Building A Full Stack Music Company

Mark Mulligan

7 Sep 2016

Access Industries

BMG

Deezer

Access Industries’ full stack music company has, ahem, company: Liberty Media. With a combined market market cap of $37 billion, John Malone’s Liberty group of companies is by anyone’s standards...

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Full Stack Or Media-Tech Conglomerate? Just What Kind Of Empire Is Access Industries Building?

Mark Mulligan

21 Jan 2016

Access Industries

Bertelsmann

Crowdsurge

Deezer announced yesterday that it had closed a further €100 million investment round led by existing investors Access Industries and French telco Orange. There is no doubt Deezer needs the growth capital...

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