Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

New research: What do gamers really think about generative AI in games?

Rhys Elliott

9 Jan 2025

New year, new research! We capped off 2024 by asking a representative sample of gamers [n=6,300] how they feel about developers using generative AI to make games (and how it affects purchasing decisions)....

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RIIZE: When listening to superfans goes too far

Olivia Jones

19 Dec 2024

Music

Fandom

SM Entertainment

Many record labels have spent 2024 trying to capitalise on the power of superfans , inspired by the global success of Korean entertainment companies. However, the recent scandal involving Seunghan, a member...

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What happens to music when fan-made content eclipses the original IP?

Tatiana Cirisano

5 Dec 2024

Music

Fandom

music fandom

Last week, MIDiA’s Ben Woods delivered a message to the entertainment industry: nurture fandom or risk losing control of your IP . For years, the way in which consumers engage with their favourite artists,...

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What HYBE and UMG’s Q3 earnings tell us about superfans

Olivia Jones

3 Dec 2024

music fandom

hybe

Universal Music Group

“Superfan” has been this year’s buzzword in the music industry. From Universal Music Group (UMG) setting its superfan agenda at the start of the year to Warner Music Group announcing its plans for...

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A message to the entertainment industry: nurture fandom or risk losing control of your IP

Ben Woods

29 Nov 2024

Creator Economy

Games

Video

What makes a fan in 2024? Is it how much they spend? How often they watch, listen or play? Is it how much they broadcast their fandom across social apps? Of course, the answer is all the above – and...

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Two future paths for the vinyl revival

Tatiana Cirisano

31 Oct 2024

music fandom

Superfans

monetising fandom

The vinyl resurgence is among the top music industry narratives of the past few years, especially given the recent focus on monetising fandom. The elephant in the room is the question of how long this...

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When Bernie Sanders met Sykkuno: how VTubers are taking over social platforms

Ben Woods

31 Oct 2024

creators

Creator Economy

Video

It made for a curious sight: the US senator Bernie Sanders discussing the upcoming election with Sykkuno , a creator whose digital identity is an anime inspired demi human with cat ears. These two worlds...

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AI, dead internet theory, and why analogue is a future-proof business strategy

Hanna Kahlert

8 Oct 2024

dead internet

analogue revival

analogue

The internet is abuzz over Google NotebookLM’s eerily realistic-sounding podcasts. Last week, MIDiA wrote about how it will disrupt primarily information-driven podcasting, rather than entertainment...

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Streaming’s growth plan in the connection economy

Kriss Thakrar

18 Sep 2024

Superfans

Music Streaming

Streaming clubs

During Universal’s Capital Markets Day, Universal Music Group (UMG) chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge cited some “fundamental facts” of the music business (per Music Business Worldwide ). These include...

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Songwriters take the stage
A new playbook for a new era

Cover image for Songwriters take the stage

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...

Social is the new entertainment; enter MIDiA’s new social vertical

Hanna Kahlert

24 Jul 2024

social

Audience behaviour

AI

Social platforms are now inextricable from the digital world and every aspect of entertainment. Fans and A&Rs alike discover new music on social platforms. Marketing strategies for artists and concerts...

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Music isn’t getting worse, genre is

Mark Mulligan

10 Jul 2024

genre

music genre

music culture

A couple of weeks ago Rick Beato put out a video titled “ The real reason why music is getting worse” . The core arguments centre around too many people making music, and tech making it both easier...

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The make-or-break of live in 2024

Hanna Kahlert

9 Jul 2024

Fandom

Superfans

Digital

The music industry has a culture problem. An overabundance of data –– from streaming services and social platforms alike ––has fostered a dependence on digital performance that does not reliably...

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Playable Post Malone in WWE is a cross-entertainment bullseye

Karol Severin

20 Jun 2024

post malone

WWE

cross-entertainment

Wrestling game WWE 2K24 shared an image of the playable Post Malone character this week. The rapper and producer is joining the playable roster as a part of the game’s upcoming DLC pack. Having curated...

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Commodification’s kickbacks: trends emerging in the pendulum swing back from content overload and AI

Hanna Kahlert

18 Jun 2024

Fandom

monetisation

trends

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the state of entertainment (and culture more broadly). AI generated content is taking up ever-larger swathes of the internet. Passive consumption drives high numbers that...

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Mainstream is the new niche

Mark Mulligan

14 Jun 2024

mainstream

niche

superstars

Five years ago, we made the call that ‘niche is the new mainstream’ . Today, this dynamic is so fundamental to music and culture that we are firmly in the stage of second order consequences. Superstars...

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The state of the attention economy: why don’t fan-first platforms work?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Jun 2024

Fandom

taylor swift

fans

The music industry is increasingly looking to fan-first solutions to drive its next era of growth (and solve artists’ financial woes), with all eyes towards the Taylor Swift model of fan frenzy. At the...

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Audience agency and the value of social media: the rise of the “digitine”

Hanna Kahlert

15 May 2024

digitine

TikTok

influencer

“Let them eat cake,” declared model and influencer Haley Kalil , dressed for the $75,000-per-ticket Met Gala in an unironically Marie Antoinette-style dress, in a viral TikTok video last weekend. Somehow,...

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Helldivers 2's woes show publishers should nudge, not push, gamers

Rhys Elliott

10 May 2024

playstation 5

Sony

helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is one of the most popular games of the year so far and has been PlayStation’s biggest PC and live-service success story to date. But PlayStation drew the ire of the game’s PC fanbase...

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Music fandom’s future (and its existential crisis)

Hanna Kahlert

1 May 2024

Fandom

taylor swift

Streaming

The launch of Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department”, broke records last week (small surprise there). Swift’s reputation for playing to her fanbase has once again proven to...

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