Reports: creators

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.

Socioeconomics of podcast listening
Engaging a higher value audience

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Rutger Rosenborg

October 2024

creators

Subscriptions

Radio

Podcasts alone will struggle to monetise via subscriptions, leaving advertising as podcasts’ key source of revenue for the foreseeable future. However, podcasts do attract high-earning, high-spending...

Podcast videos
Format blurring expands podcasts’ future

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Annie Langston

February 2023

creators

Apple

Spotify

Podcasts are breaking out of traditional audio and entering the video space, as nearly a quarter of consumers now watch podcast videos monthly. Visual elements for podcasts are becoming a crucial tool...

Podcast market value chain
The next investment is the listeners

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Annie Langston

October 2022

creators

Apple

Spotify

Investments from major audience platforms in audio infrastructure, such as hosting platforms and advertising, kickstarted the growth of the podcast market. With the basic infrastructure now in place, it...

Podcast monetisation and remuneration
Balancing creator and platform needs

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Annie Langston

August 2022

creators

Apple

Spotify

Audio platforms traditionally monetise through advertising and, to a lesser degree, listener subscriptions. However, with the rise of the creator economy and more creators entering the podcast space, platforms...

The video attention reboot
How video is being impacted by the attention recession

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Tim Mulligan and Hanna Kahlert

July 2022

creators

Netflix

roku

With the attention recession in full swing following the lockdown boom, video isalready feeling the pinch as evidenced by Netflix’s declining subscriber count.The mainstreaming of subscription video...

Building a fan economy with Fan-Powered Royalties

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Kriss Thakrar, Tatiana Cirisano and Perry Gresham

July 2022

creators

artist income

Streaming economics

Music streaming has helped the music industry return to growth over the past decade, but many creators feel left behind. The streaming economy has reached a point where the creator remuneration gap can...

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...

Music consumer survey, Q3 2021
A new generation leans forward

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Tatiana Cirisano

February 2022

creators

Radio

radio audiences

As streaming subscriptions rise and music increasingly competes with other forms of media for consumers’ limited attention spans, lean-back listening activities are taking precedence over those which...

2022 MIDiA predictions
The year of the creator

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Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

December 2021

creators

Apple

Spotify

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, brands, marketing, games, and sports in 2022 and beyond....

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...

BE THE CHANGE - Women Making Music

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Hanna Kahlert and Srishti Das

March 2021

creators

independent artists

Strategy

The second iteration of this project is available to download here . Be The Change: Women Making Music Key insights Gendered expectations have skewed recognition and reward in the music industry: of 401...

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...

Insurgents and Incumbents
How the 2020s Will Remake the Music Business

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Mark Mulligan

January 2020

creators

iTunes

Spotify

As it enters the third decade of the millennium, the recorded music business is in rude health. Revenues are about to enter the second half of a decade of annual growth, streaming is booming, and investment...

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...