Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

All eyes, no ears: New MIDiA data shows why virality is not building fandom

16 Sep 2025

Over the past five years, social video has crept its way into nearly every aspect of music, from talent scouting to new release marketing. But the buzz around these platforms often obscures a more complicated reality.

min read

New MIDiA Research Data Shows Why Virality Is Not Building Fandom

Tsion Tadesse

16 Sep 2025

YouTube

TikTok

Streaming

“I hear it enough on social” is a common barrier to streaming music, particularly for 16-24 year-olds LONDON – 16 September, 2025 – MIDiA Research, the global authority in music, creator economy and cross-entertainment insights, today published “All eyes, No ears: Why virality is not build...

min read

Defining entertainment superfans
Characteristics, categories, and commercial impact

Cover image for Defining entertainment superfans

Olivia Jones and Laura Fisher

September 2025

France

Australia

Spotify

Superfans represent a highly valuable yet consistently underleveraged audience segment for the entertainment industry. What drives this disconnect is the fact that – despite frequent anecdotal use of the term – a standardised, empirical definition remains absent, preventing companies from systematically identifying, nurturing, and monetising th...

Beyond the anecdote: The need for a data-driven superfan definition

Laura Fisher

10 Sep 2025

Fandom

Entertainment

Engagement

Whether you work in the entertainment industry or not, you have almost certainly used the term superfan . It’s a ubiquitous label we apply to the most ardent audiences. It’s the fans who camp out for new releases, who own every variant of a vinyl, who drive viral moments, and whose identities ar...

min read

How KPop Demon Hunters cracked the fandom code

Olivia Jones

4 Sep 2025

Fandom

Netflix

Music

KPop Demon Hunters has taken the world by storm. With 266 million all-time views (at time of writing), it is currently Netflix's most-watched film ever . That’s not to mention the success of its soundtrack – four songs from the film are in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 , with breakout hit “Gold...

min read

Beyond the screen
How and why gaming merch and collectibles fuel fandom

Brandon Sutton

September 2025

Marketing

Digital

Fandom

The physical gaming merchandise and collectibles market is a multibillion-dollar industry that serves as both organic marketing and a way to strengthen community engagement. However, the space has grown increasingly complex due to a surge in fan-made merch, a crowded field of game properties, and economic pressures like the rising cost of living.

MIDiA’s 2025 independent label survey

Mark Mulligan

28 Aug 2025

Business Strategy

Fandom

survey

It’s that time of year again, MIDiA’s independent label and distributor survey is now live and waiting for your contributions! Click here to take the survey. The annual survey is an opportunity for the global independent community to have its voice heard – and this year is one of the most impo...

min read

Why WEBTOON’s short-form video drive is a lesson in format flexibility

Ben Woods

22 Aug 2025

Business Strategy

Fandom

WEBTOON

In June 2025, MIDiA made a call that WEBTOON , the vertical scrolling digital comic app, could pose a greater challenge to anime’s leading subscription streaming service, Crunchyroll. The conclusion was made based on the potential for WEBTOON to deliver a more compelling in-app offer around video.

min read

The unflattening of streaming

Mark Mulligan

21 Aug 2025

Business Strategy

Streaming

Fandom

This post builds on our January 2025 post ‘The unflattening of music’ which itself built on two previous pieces (you can find links to both in that post). Industries arrive at pivot points when an accumulation of fissures coalesce into one big crack.

min read

What traditional media can learn from sports fandom’s bifurcation moment

Ben Woods

15 Aug 2025

Fandom

Entertainment

Engagement

Too often, fans are categorised as one amorphous group. They can be lumped together regardless of their age, purchasing power, community engagement, or entertainment consumption behaviours. Fans are a diverse group and always have been.

min read

Social as the home of online scenes
Going beyond viral moments

Cover image for Social as the home of online scenes

Hanna Kahlert

August 2025

Creators

France

In a fragmented digital environment, scenes are becoming important tools for connecting with and mobilising fans. Social platforms can be useful for finding, understanding, and engaging with scenes. However, not all social moments are created equal. This report reveals how social is only part of the bigger picture, and dives deep to show that the c...

Fandom as a multi-layered experience

Laura Fisher

6 Aug 2025

Fandom

Engagement

Attention

In today’s hyper-connected digital landscape, fandom is often misunderstood as a static identity, a label adopted after buying a concert ticket or streaming an album. This passive view misses the essence of what makes fandom so compelling.

min read

Mainstream meets Fandom: How entertainment and creators can thrive together

Ben Woods

5 Aug 2025

Fandom

Creators

Creator economy

Fandom is evolving into a more powerful force within entertainment. The value gap between what entertainment IP holders produce and what fans can create is narrowing fast. This has implications for audience engagement.

min read

What is the value of a stream in 2025?

Olivia Jones

31 Jul 2025

Product Strategy

Streaming

Streaming Music

More parties than ever are becoming frustrated with streaming. For evenmany successful artists, streaming is a minority income stream, as fandom-related endeavours like live performances, merchandise, and brand deals prove to be more lucrative.

min read

More than hype: Why gamers cannot wait for GTA VI

Brandon Sutton

30 Jul 2025

Fandom

Entertainment

Gaming

Critically acclaimed, financially dominant, and still hyper-relevant more than a decade after its last release, the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series sits at the summit of the video game industry. Given this sustained success, it is no surprise that anticipation is high for the next instalment in the se...

min read

The future of creator apps
Fuelling engagement with fandom

Cover image for The future of creator apps

Ben Woods

July 2025

Creators

Spotify

Artists

The AI boom has unleashed a wave of creator tools, but some are struggling to make the transition from interesting and experimental to compulsive and essential. Fandom offers a solution by tying creation to a consumer’s personal passion, appetite for community engagement and a desire to have a stake in the entertainment they love.

Why legacy media should use creators as curators and content providers

Ben Woods

23 Jul 2025

Business Strategy

Fandom

Entertainment

Much of the traditional entertainment world is now working with creators. In fact, many of these companies have long-standing creator strategies when it comes to marketing. Whether it is a movie launch, a new TV series, video game, or album release, these businesses have a strong handle on which cre...

min read

Music consumer behaviour Q1 2025
Mixed signals

Cover image for Music consumer behaviour Q1 2025

Mark Mulligan

July 2025

Consumer behaviour

Streaming

France

This report presents MIDiA Research consumer data for music. Data covered includes weekly active users, streaming music behaviour, non-streaming behaviour, fandom activity, and audio consumption. All data is from MIDiA’s Q1 2025 survey, with data for US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Poland, Spain, Colombia, Japan, n = 9,023.

Building fandom is about the journey, not the destination

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jul 2025

Fandom

Entertainment

Media

“Superfans” remain the headline topic for the entertainment industries , in music and beyond. They are the biggest cheerleaders amongst their peers, the most engaged on social media and streaming, and the highest spenders across the board.

min read

Why podcasts triumph in real-life settings: a lesson in scene alignment

Laura Fisher

10 Jul 2025

Fandom

Podcasts

Audio

Podcasts are well and truly getting the in-real-life treatment. What began as a digitally native on-demand medium is now commanding physical spaces with remarkable success. This isn’t from the live recordings in and of themselves, but from mastering scene alignment .

min read