MIDiA Blog

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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.

Sony buying Elden Ring’s media conglomerate would be a match made in IP heaven

Cover image for Sony buying Elden Ring’s media conglomerate would be a match made in IP heaven

Rhys Elliott

22 Nov 2024

Japanese media conglomerate Kadokawa recently confirmed that Sony sent it a letter of intent to acquire Kadokawa (increasing its current 2% stake). Kadokawa owns FromSoftware, the developer of Elden Ring...

6 min read

Content creators are disrupting entertainment’s obsession with rights. What does it mean for music?

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Tatiana Cirisano

21 Nov 2024

Last week, Spotify announced a suite of new monetisation features for video creators. Yes, you read that right — Spotify has expanded not just beyond music, but also beyond audio itself. Although the...

5 min read

Is Spotify’s new monetisation model unlocking the power of video in podcasting?

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Rutger Rosenborg

21 Nov 2024

In October, MIDiA positioned Spotify’s video push as both a strategic move against YouTube and also as an evolution in the platform from music-first to audio-first to format agnostic. As we noted, the...

4 min read

Are consumers ready for TikTok’s AI acceleration?

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Ben Woods

21 Nov 2024

The AI revolution sweeping the entertainment industry will rage on in 2025. In recent weeks, TikTok owner ByteDance has provided a deeper look into how AI will impact social platforms . Through a series...

5 min read

Hold or twist? The music industry’s innovation dilemma

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Mark Mulligan

20 Nov 2024

streaming growth

As Clayton Christensen identified in The Innovator’s Dilemma, there are two types of innovation: sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. Sustaining innovation is what companies do to enhance...

6 min read

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

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

Hanna Kahlert

19 Nov 2024

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...

5 min read

A fifth of gamers love couch co-op, so where are all the games?

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Rhys Elliott

15 Nov 2024

Couch co-op gaming, when two or more players in the same room play together co-operatively, already has some proven success stories: It Takes Two , a co-op-only platformer from EA studio Hazelight, has...

4 min read

Are social platforms losing the next generation to Roblox and Fortnite?

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Ben Woods

15 Nov 2024

Unpacking social media strategy is now part and parcel of any election postmortem. From Elon Musk’s ownership of X to Donald Trump’s use of creators to target Gen Z men, understanding social’s role...

3 min read

Q3 streaming trends: Why Spotify’s growth in the Global South matters for the music industry

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Tatiana Cirisano

14 Nov 2024

For much of 2024, music industry discourse centred around Spotify’s content mix. The growing long-tail of artists and songs on the platform is what fueled Universal Music Group’s two-tiered royalty...

4 min read

What Acast's Q3 earnings signal about the global podcasting market

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Rutger Rosenborg

13 Nov 2024

As one of the key players in podcast industry trends and podcast monetisation, what happens at Acast matters. The company’s financials provide insight into the global podcasting market, signalling to...

3 min read

Info-tainment, Kamala’s campaign failure, and the distortive role of social media marketing

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Hanna Kahlert

12 Nov 2024

Marketing Strategy

trump presidency

The recent US election has capped off one of the biggest global election years in recent history, and the world around us is changing rapidly. Digital life, and specifically social media platforms, play...

5 min read

Cultural touchpoints: Nintendo’s music app underlines its cross-entertainment future

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Rhys Elliott

8 Nov 2024

Business Strategy

Nintendo is at the forefront of the cross-entertainment trend. Alongside console games and hardware, Nintendo’s strategy spans theme parks, Hollywood (including the billion-dollar-grossing Super Mario...

6 min read

How creator hardware companies can adapt to AI’s new creative lane

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Ben Woods

7 Nov 2024

Product Strategy

creator hardware

Companies building creator hardware are used to disruption. The last seismic shift came in the shape of the smartphone. Mass market point-and-shoot cameras were met with an existential crisis when lenses...

3 min read

Two years into the AI craze, where does it go next?

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Hanna Kahlert

6 Nov 2024

We are almost two years into the reality of large-language-model (LLM) artificial intelligence. Now, the future of AI is heralding the return of nuclear power: both Google and Microsoft have announced...

4 min read

Political podcast advertising: Will the ‘podcast election’ open the door for political ads in podcasts?

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Rutger Rosenborg

6 Nov 2024

Marketing Strategy

podcast advertising

US presidential campaign ads are ubiquitous on television. Leading up to the election, every commercial break is an alternating flurry of messaging from each side. This year, however, we saw the first...

4 min read

The Activision acquisition pushed Xbox to gaming growth in Q3 as Black Ops 6 makes a big splash

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Rhys Elliott

1 Nov 2024

Product Strategy

Microsoft’s Q3 2024 results (fiscal Q1 2025) continue to reflect Xbox’s shifting strategy: Xbox’s gaming revenue grew 43% year-on-year , but essentially all of this growth came from the Activision...

5 min read

Two future paths for the vinyl revival

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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...

5 min read

State of the independent music economy: Fragmentation AND consolidation

Mark Mulligan

31 Oct 2024

label market shares

independent labels

MIDiA is excited to announce our latest report “ State of the independent music economy: Fragmentation AND consolidation”. It represents the most extensive piece of research we have ever done. Through...

5 min read

When Bernie Sanders met Sykkuno: how VTubers are taking over social platforms

Cover image for When Bernie Sanders met Sykkuno: how VTubers are taking over social platforms

Ben Woods

31 Oct 2024

Creator Economy

It made for a curious sight: the US senator Bernie Sanders discussing the upcoming election with Sykkuno , a creator whose digital identity is an anime inspired demi human with cat ears. These two worlds...

5 min read

Ofcom, Elon Musk, and the future of the social platform marketplace

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Hanna Kahlert

30 Oct 2024

social platforms

Earlier this year, riots broke out across the UK, fuelled largely by misinformation and inflammatory discourse on social media. At the time, it was unclear who bore responsibility: did the brunt of the...

4 min read

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