Reports

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.

Cover image for The superfans of music superstars

The superfans of music superstars
Identity and cut-through

Olivia Jones

17 Feb 2025

Labels US Artists

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 and hyper-fragmentation. What once worked for measuring and monetising fandom will not work the same in the future.

Cover image for Audio’s entertainment value

Audio’s entertainment value
Examining audio listeners’ cross-entertainment lives

Rutger Rosenborg

13 Feb 2025

music industry Music streaming Content

Typically, the marketing team for a games company or TV show would not be thinking of audiobooks and podcast listeners as a key consumer segment to address. Yet, podcast and audiobook listeners are digitally sophisticated and spend more time and money than the consumer average on most forms of entertainment – including games, music, and video.

Cover image for MIDiA Research global games forecasts 2025–2031

MIDiA Research global games forecasts 2025–2031
The market is mature, so double-digit growth is a fantasy

Perry Gresham, Mark Qi and Rhys Elliott

30 Jan 2025

US Global Gaming

Interested in ' MIDiA Research global games forecasts 2025–2031' ? Access the free version here . Recent years have been tough for the games market. Like many industries, gaming overextended itself following the black swan event that was the COVID-19 pandemic.

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...

Cover image for Creators and the creator economy

Creators and the creator economy
Defining the undefinable

Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert and Ben Woods

24 Jan 2025

Creators Cultural trends Creator economy

20 years since the launch of YouTube, the creator economy is not new – but it lacks a single clear definition. Different interest groups who interact with it all have their perspectives, but this lack of consistency can result in misunderstandings at best and strategic missteps at worst.

Cover image for Splice x MIDiA Sounds of 2025

Splice x MIDiA Sounds of 2025

Kriss Thakrar, Tatiana Cirisano, Samuel Griffin, Mark Qi and Olivia Jones

22 Jan 2025

Free Report

Splice Audience Insight

Splice is an engine powering producers across the world. With one ofthe largest, most sonically-diverse catalogues of sounds and samples, itprovides the music that makes the music for some of the most popularartists on the planet. Sabrina Carpenter’s hit “Espresso”, produced byJulian Bunetta, is a key recent example, with a sound pack by infl...

Cover image for State of the music creator economy

State of the music creator economy
AI’s growing reach

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

21 Jan 2025

Innovation Creators revenue

Still recovering from post-pandemic aftershocks, the music creator economy now faces unprecedented disruption from generative AI. More people are creating than ever before (both as creators and consumers) and sounds, services, and software revenue is growing well (the latter boosted by generative AI).

Cover image for Before and after podcasts

Before and after podcasts
Mapping the podcast listener journey

Rutger Rosenborg

17 Jan 2025

US UK France

The global importance of video for podcasting extends into the unique market dynamics of the US, UK, France, Mexico, and Japan. Not only does this justify Spotify’s strategic video push, but it also indicates a need for other platforms to follow suit.

Cover image for Creators versus creation

Creators versus creation
Tackling headwinds and bifurcation

Ben Woods

23 Dec 2024

Creators Music creators Business Strategy

Headwinds are threatening the creator economy’s potential. Audience growth, social platform monetisation, and content saturation are creating friction that is leaving creators frustrated. Now, the red lights are flashing on the dashboard: the average weekly time consumers spend creating and producing content has fallen for the first time since 20...

Cover image for What gamers really think about gen AI in games

What gamers really think about gen AI in games
Apathy, not outrage

Rhys Elliott

23 Dec 2024

Audience Insight

Game development budgets have spiralled out of control, leading game executives to cut costs and streamline their game development processes. It is no secret that generative AI (gen AI) is the tech industry’s current buzzword, but its potential is still disputed despite the hype.

Cover image for Social platform user behaviour

Social platform user behaviour
Q3 2024

Hanna Kahlert

19 Dec 2024

Marketing Strategy

Competition among social platforms is intensifying, with attention largely saturated and new regulations poised to upset the balance of power among incumbents. While growth is left in the overall market, it will largely be driven by YouTube and a cohort of smaller disruptor platforms – with fragmentation happening as these disruptors begin to eat...

Cover image for Q3 2024 music metrics

Q3 2024 music metrics
Maturation effect

Mark Mulligan

18 Dec 2024

Business Strategy

This report presents MIDiA consumer data for key music consumer behaviours and company financials for Q3 2024.Consumer data covered includes, streaming app usage, music behaviour and streaming activities. Company financials covers record labels, music publishers, DSPs, and live music companies.

Cover image for MIDiA's 2025 predictions webinar slides

MIDiA's 2025 predictions webinar slides
It's social's stage now

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Tatiana Cirisano, Ben Woods, Rutger Rosenborg, Rhys Elliott and Olivia Jones

6 Dec 2024

Free Report

Spotify YouTube Twitch

MIDiA's expert analysts dive into our 2025 predictions for the music, social, video, audio, and games industries – and explain why we believe "it's social's stage now".

Cover image for MIDiA’s 2025 predictions

MIDiA’s 2025 predictions
It’s social’s stage now

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Tatiana Cirisano, Ben Woods, Rutger Rosenborg, Rhys Elliott and Olivia Jones

5 Dec 2024

Apple Spotify YouTube

The creator economy reshaped entertainment in the first half of the 2020s and social wasthe big winner, now positioned at the centre of the entertainment economy. In 2025 wewill see the second-order effects begin to play out, set against the backdrop of attentionsaturation, content commodification, and increased focus on profit.

Cover image for The future of creator software

The future of creator software
Maximising AI’s engagement opportunity

Ben Woods

29 Nov 2024

Product Strategy

Artificial intelligence is revolutionising creator software to make it easier for those with little or no skill to produce high-quality content. These innovations are proving highly disruptive to existing workflows meaning traditional creator tools will struggle unless they adapt and evolve.

Cover image for The case for in-game video platforms

The case for in-game video platforms
Closing the direct-to-consumer gap

Karol Severin

29 Nov 2024

Product Strategy

Game publishers have long used third-party video platforms like Twitch and YouTube as a springboard to promote their games. Meanwhile, Twitch and YouTube get advertising and creator-driven revenues in return. The relationship has largely been reciprocal and beneficial for both parties.

Cover image for Global South rising

Global South rising
Streaming audiences in China, Turkey, and South Africa

Tatiana Cirisano

28 Nov 2024

Spotify YouTube Deezer

It is increasingly clear that the future of the global music streaming business relies heavily on the Global South markets, which include Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of World. Most subscription growth is coming from these regions, which will collectively dominate the global music subscriber base by 2031, according to MIDiA’s global ...

Cover image for Visionary audio

Visionary audio
Unlocking the power of video in podcasting

Rutger Rosenborg

21 Nov 2024

brand partnerships spotify podcasts podcast creators

YouTube may be the only viable platform for long-form video podcasts, but that does not mean audio-first podcast platforms should abandon video. Instead, podcast platforms should leverage video both as a podcast format and as a marketing driver to increase podcast discovery and consumption.

Cover image for MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global social forecasts

MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global social forecasts
New frontiers and strong growth ahead

Hanna Kahlert and Mark Qi

14 Nov 2024

YouTube Facebook Instagram

More than ever, social platforms are the de facto way that consumers interact not only with entertainment but with the internet itself. As internet access expands in emerging markets and social platforms continue to eat up digital entertainment consumption in developed ones, further growth is inevitable because the market has: The ability to grow u...

Cover image for State of the independent music economy

State of the independent music economy
Fragmentation and consolidation

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

31 Oct 2024

Business Strategy independent label market shares Independent label market shares by region

This report presents the results of MIDiA’s annual independent label and distributor survey, as well as the most comprehensive market sizing of the non-major label sector ever conducted. Built on revenue data for 5,500 companies, we present the definitive view of the independent music economy, with market sizing, regional trends, the companies to...

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