Fandom Reports from MIDiA Research

The superfans of music superstars
Identity and cut-through

Cover image for The superfans of music superstars

Olivia Jones

February 2025

Labels

US

Fandom is becoming the music industry’s golden goose, with labels focusing on building and monetising superfan bases for their top artists. However, superfan behaviours are changing in response to oversaturation...

Songwriters take the stage
A new playbook for a new era

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Tatiana Cirisano and Fernanda Balzaretti

July 2024

Streaming

Spotify

music industry

The streaming era upended the already-fraught business of being a songwriter, pushing songwriters to secure new revenue streams and better deal terms. While the recorded music industry has responded to...

The state and future of music fandom
Unleashing fan creativity

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Tatiana Cirisano

August 2023

Spotify

YouTube

SoundCloud

Streaming is buckling under the weight of new music being released every day, listenership is fragmenting, and artificial intelligence is poised to intensify these challenges. The music industry’s next...

AI and the future of music
The future is already here

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Mark Mulligan, Hanna Kahlert and Tatiana Cirisano

May 2023

Spotify

SoundCloud

Netflix

Unlike most new technology hype cycles, the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) has on the world is already surpassing expectations. Within the music industry, AI will largely be an enabler and accelerant...

Podcasts and radio
How radio can play by its own rules

Annie Langston

March 2023

Spotify

live

Radio

Radio set the stage for music streaming and podcasts, only to watch them take portions of its audience. However, there is a clear opportunity for radio companies to assert themselves in the podcast market,...

Kill the campaign
Music marketing needs branding, not direct response

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

February 2023

Streaming

Spotify

Marketing

The debate over a new streaming royalties regime is capturing attention, but economics will not fix the underlying paradigm shifts that are the true cause for streaming’s problems: there is not enough...

The future of music
The rise of a counterculture industry

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

June 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...

Fandom drivers
From fan psychology to NFT demand

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Srishti Das and Tatiana Cirisano

January 2022

superfan

Spotify

merchandise

Fandom is entertainment’s growth currency, yet it remains both under-valued and poorly understood. While other entertainment currencies can be accurately measured (number of streams, number of sales,...

The four key cultural trends transforming digital entertainment in 2021 and beyond

Hanna Kahlert

August 2021

Marketing

live

Amazon

The effect of streaming on entertainment is not new, but as we move into the era of mainstream vaccinations, the shifts in streaming-driven consumer behaviour over the last year and a half will drive fundamental...

Sports fan consumer snapshot, Q2 2021
US, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea, Brazil

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Tim Mulligan

August 2021

Streaming

Video

Fandom

This slide deck presents sports fan consumer demand, covering video services, live TV sports viewing, sports highlight viewing, free live digital sports viewing, device viewing, sports betting, fantasy...

Entertainment fandom
Monetise fandom, not attention

Mark Mulligan

March 2021

music fans

Fandom

Twitch

In the attention economy, entertainment consumption is intertwined and competition straddles formats and genres. The same applies to fandom. Entertainment fans are fans of not just multiple subgenres within...

2020 in review
Lockdown legacy impacts on entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

February 2021

Streaming

Netflix

Digital connections have filled the void left by real-world activities, globalising culture and experience. Yet this comes at the cost of deepening divides in trust and perspective. Changing economic circumstances...

OTT Distribution and Partnerships
StreamTV Growth Summit 2021

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Tim Mulligan

February 2021

Free Report

Streaming

Fandom

Audience Insight

OTT Distribution and Partnerships A MIDiA Research Presentation for StreamTV Growth Summit 2021

Music Product Strategy Re-boot
Time to Monetise Fandom, Not Access

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Mark Mulligan

January 2021

Innovation

Spotify

As streaming reaches maturity in many of the largest music markets and middle-tier artists struggle to make ends meet with the live music hiatus, the time has come for a music product strategy re-boot...

Killing Eve – A Case Study in Analysing Show Fandom

Tim Mulligan

September 2020

Video

BBC

Fandom

Killing Eve season three was released in April 2020, the third instalment of a critically acclaimed genre-hopping comedy/drama spy thriller about a female intelligence operative obsessively hunting a female...

Consumer Engagement
Building Sustainable Brands in 2020 and Beyond

Hanna Kahlert

April 2020

Video

Marketing

YouTube

Brands have an ongoing engagement problem. No matter how much data they use or how targeted they go, competition is fierce, consumer attention is saturated, and all usage comes at the expense of time spent...

TV Network Brand Fandom and Awareness

Tim Mulligan

March 2020

Fandom

tv networks

data

General Notes This data report presents consumer brand awareness and fandom for TV networks across the US, UK, Canada and Australia. The data is taken from MIDiA’s Quarterly Video Brand Tracker with...

TV Show Fandom
Streaming Redefines TV Show Success

Amanda Stears

August 2019

Streaming

Streaming video

Apple TV

The scripted drama boom and the rise of streaming have dramatically reshaped TV consumption and viewing habits. The act of watching a TV show is no longer confined within the four walls of the living room,...

MIDiA Spotlight: Brand Fans
Streaming Companies Top Brand Rankings

Georgia Meyer

October 2018

Music streaming

Fandom

Video streaming

This is part of MIDiA’s data snapshot series in which we spotlight curated consumer datasets. Figure 1: Streaming Giants Have the Biggest Brand Fan Audiences Brand Fan Penetration for Leading Technology...

Reports: Fandom