creator tools Reports from MIDiA Research

Cover image for The audio creator opportunity

The audio creator opportunity
Audio creator behaviours and monetisation potential

Rutger Rosenborg

14 Mar 2025

Historically, YouTubers and TikTok influencers have received the lion’s share of mainstream attention as a creator class – but audio creators are increasingly active on the same digital platforms and operating within the same formats. As a result, the audio creator has become a jack of all trades, moving between copyediting, audio editing, and ...

Cover image for MIDiA Research 2025–2031 music creator tools forecasts

MIDiA Research 2025–2031 music creator tools forecasts
AI comes to town

Mark Mulligan

28 Jan 2025

subscribers AI Business Strategy

This music creator tools forecasts report acts as a companion piece to MIDiA’s report “State of music creator economy: AI’s growing reach ” . This report provides analysis, market sizing, and forecasts for users and revenues for music creator tools revenues across the following categories: Software and services DAWs Music software (plug-ins...

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Music’s Instagram moment
The social music creation revolution

Tatiana Cirisano

1 Mar 2023

Consumer behaviour Apple Spotify

Social media has steadily integrated music, and music creation tools have steadily become more social. These trends are converging, accelerated by shifts in consumer behaviour and artificial intelligence (AI). The result could be a new set of music creation and re-creation tools, integrated within social platforms and geared towards casual consumer...

The future of music
The rise of a counterculture industry

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

30 Jun 2022

Consumer behaviour Spotify Music creators

Music streaming and the attention recession have turned music into a background activity. Artists en masse are struggling to cut through the noise, realising that streaming is neither a place to build deeper relationships with fans nor to generate meaningful income.

Consumers as creators
The artist / audience line is blurring

Hanna Kahlert

30 Apr 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: creativity as a product. Enabled by intuitive creative tools, platforms to share on, and direct, easy ways to engage with creators, the barrier betwe...

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Games companies’ video opportunity
From marketing to monetisation

Karol Severin

16 Mar 2022

Free Report

Streaming Gaming Games

MIDiAs head games analyst, Karol Severin, discusses a key games video opportunity for games companies and games video creators alike, alongside two panellists - CEO of Wormhole Labs and a Twitch content creator. Find the full webinar here Let us know your thoughts on this groundbreaking opportunity via email: info@midiaresearch.

Cover image for Music creator tools forecast

Music creator tools forecast
Moving towards a hybrid future

Mark Mulligan

24 Sep 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 future, but the real momentum lies with software, sounds, services and the hardware that supports them.

Creator hubs
Creator tools’ next growth driver

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

7 Sep 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 by substantial institutional investment and strong market growth, the second order effect is the further fragmentation of an already congested and...

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Addressable creator markets
An opportunity with many layers

Mark Mulligan

29 Jul 2021

Apple Apple Artists

The music creator tools space is undergoing a change that is simultaneously renaissance and transformation. The creator culture boom has driven an unprecedented degree of investment and investor interest. However, because the music creator tools space is a collection of diverse products and services, an underlying challenge has been how to identify...

In-game spending
Cross-entertainment product strategy

Karol Severin

30 Apr 2021

YouTube multitasking Twitch

Games revenue growth is about to slow, with in-game spending the sector set to retain most momentum. Simultaneously, other entertainment sectors will actively seek to monetise digital fandom. Future games revenue will need to tap opportunities beyond games-related spending alone, and the wider entertainment demands of consumers.

Creator culture
The song becomes the feed

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

26 Apr 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 means of production and distribution fully democratised.

Social media reboot
The rise of social 2.0 and the emancipation of the digital native

Hanna Kahlert

19 Apr 2021

Innovation YouTube YouTube

Social media is entering a new phase of innovation. Facebook’s trio of applications, alongside Snapchat, Twitter and other incumbents, still have market dominance. However, the rapid growth of TikTok, Discord and Clubhouse since the coronavirus-prompted lockdowns, alongside a migration to digital-first life, are early indicators of demand for –...

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Digital consumption habits
How tomorrow’s audiences will reshape entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

24 Mar 2021

Streaming Discovery Discovery

Digital-first access has shaped mainstream consumption, but for digital natives, it has also shaped their core behaviours. Music consumption is now fragmented across artists, becoming a personalised, anytime anywhere activity – making the value exchange more niche and personal.

Creator Tools
The Music Industry’s New Top of Funnel

Mark Mulligan

13 Nov 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 shift towards affordable production tools and the rise of a new generation of online platforms that are reimagining music production as SAA...

Reports: creator tools