Reports: Creator Economy

Browse all of our reports, featuring our analysts' expert insights and analysis of audience segmentation, emerging trends and technologies, value chains, market shares, predictions and more – backed by our proprietary survey data and bespoke models & forecasts. Become a subscriber to get new ones every month, or just pick one to get started.

State of the music creator economy
Post-lockdown growth

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Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

September 2022

Apple

Spotify

live

The Covid pandemic created a unique catalyst for the music creator economy. More time on hands and more cash in pockets gave novices and veterans alike the opportunity to spend both more time and money...

Re-creating the creator economy

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Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston and Richard Broadhurst

August 2022

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Streaming first democratised the means of consumption, then distribution, and now production. Though the promise of the long tail may not have materialised quite as expected, long-tail and mid-tail creators...

Music creator survey, Q4 2021
Redefining success

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Tatiana Cirisano

May 2022

Creators

Spotify

artist income

As the barriers to music creation continue to lower, more creators enter the field, yet it is becoming harder than ever to earn a living through music, with a finite amount of revenue being split ever...

Consumers as creators
The artist / audience line is blurring

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Hanna Kahlert

April 2022

Consumer behaviour

Apple

Netflix

The growing independent artists sector, the rise of user-generated content (UGC), and the proliferation of basic creator tools on social platforms are all interlinked parts of the same cultural trend:...

Music creators
Slicing the funnel

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Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

February 2022

YouTube

SoundCloud

TuneCore

Streaming enabled the rise of the independent artist and then the rise of the music creator. The promise of the long tail finally appeared to be realised. But the pandemic’s disruption of live music...

Growth from transparency
Reframing the value of music through creator rights

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Mark Mulligan, Keith Jopling, Srishti Das and Kriss Thakrar

November 2021

Creators

Streaming

Business Strategy

The music industry has been through an unprecedented period of change over the past five years.Innovations in live streaming, games, user-generated content (UGC), digital art, and trading of rights represent...

Music creator tools forecast
Moving towards a hybrid future

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Mark Mulligan

September 2021

Creators

Apple

Spotify

Once upon a time, music software and hardware were distinct market segments, but now they are increasingly fusing into a network of hybrid creator tools ecosystems. Standalone hardware still has a vibrant...

Creator hubs
Creator tools’ next growth driver

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Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

September 2021

Creators

Spotify

Artists

The emerging competitive dynamic between insurgents and incumbents is the catalyst for an unprecedented period of innovation in the music creator tools space. However, because this dynamic is underpinned...

Creator culture
The song becomes the feed

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Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

April 2021

Creators

Spotify

Spotify

The creator tools marketplace is creating a revolution in the culture and business of music. The third decade of the millennium represents the opening of a new chapter for the music business, with the...

Creator Tools
The Music Industry’s New Top of Funnel

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Mark Mulligan

November 2020

Creators

Apple

Apple

Music production has traditionally been, at best, an adjacent industry to the recording business, and at worst simply a cost centre. That is now all changing. COVID-19’s disruption catalysed the already-rapid...

Independent Artists
Pathfinding Through a Pandemic

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Mark Mulligan and Keith Jopling

September 2020

artist income

independent artists

Music streaming

2019 was yet another stand-out year for independent artists, with revenues, streams and market shares all growing strongly. Then, along came COVID-19 and the world turned upside down. However, in lockdown...

MIDiA Research Artist Survey Q2 2020

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Mark Mulligan and Keith Jopling

September 2020

independent artists

charts

music artists

This deck presents findings from MIDiA's Q2 2020 survey of music artists, assessing the impact on their careers in the wake of the coronavirus. It consists of 13 charts / graphs / table slides. The full...

Independent Artist Survey
Aspirations That Will Reshape an Industry

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Mark Mulligan

January 2020

Artists

DIY

independent artists

This report presents the findings of MIDiA’s 2019 independent artist survey. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: AWAL, BMG Music Rights, CD Baby, Kobalt, Tunecore, Amuse...

YouTube Music Curators
Media Assets or Next-Gen Labels?

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Zach Fuller

December 2019

Spotify

music publishing

YouTube

The rise of the YouTube channel curator was one of the defining stories in music throughout the 2010s, and yet in the era of global success stories such as Kondzilla and T-Series, their place in the music...

Independent Artists
The Music Industry Rewritten

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Mark Mulligan

July 2019

Creators

Labels

rhapsody

The rise of independent artists is one of the most important changes to happen to the modern recorded music business. While traditional label models still dominate, ever more artists are pursuing non-traditional...

Independent Artists
The Age of Empowerment

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Keith Jopling and Mark Mulligan

June 2019

Audience Insight

Key takeaways A sector with real scale. Artists without record labels generated $643.1 million in 2018, up 35% from 2017. These independent artists represent the fastest-growing segment of the global recorded...

The Platform-Agnostic Artist
Building Audiences In A Decentralized Media Landscape

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Zach Fuller

May 2017

post platform

platform agnostic

decentralised audience

It used to be much simpler. Fixed programming formats in Television, Print and Radio meant you knew where an audience was and how long they would be there for, yet creators now find themselves in an echo...

YouTubers Go Mainstream
How YouTubers Are Spreading Their Social Wings

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Tim Mulligan

March 2016

YouTube

YouTube Channels

short form video

Views of the top 100 YouTube channels doubled from 184 billion in February 2015 to 372 billion in October 2015. At the same time, the number of subscribers to the top 100 channels doubled to 1.4 billion....

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