Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

Vinyl now matters more to the music industry

Keith Jopling

11 Oct 2022

It is the final quarter of 2022 and almost time for Spotify Wrapped – that thrilling rush of data that knows more about your music listening habits than you do yourself. However, my Wrapped will be redundant...

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How podcast platforms are setting their sights on global expansion

Annie Langston

5 Oct 2022

Podcasts

Spotify

distribution

The growth of podcast audiences requires a global effort. And while the market is primarily dominated by mostly Western platforms, such as Spotify and Apple, there are opportunities for new players to...

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What happens when the “relentless toll” of the music industry meets the creator economy in a cost-of-living crisis?

Hanna Kahlert

29 Sep 2022

underground

cost of living

Music

The music industry is in a cultural crisis. It is more demanding than ever to be a successful artist, with the work required to meet the demands of social algorithms and to cut through the clutter being...

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WMG is moving beyond superstars – and that is a good thing

Mark Mulligan

16 Sep 2022

Fandom

fragmented fandom

Streaming

Warner Music Group’s ( WMG’s) Steve Cooper recently stated that the major is no longer financially dependent on superstars – which is, of course, quite a different thing from not being culturally...

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Social media is the vessel to amplify the open podcasting ecosystem

Annie Langston

1 Sep 2022

social media

twitter

YouTube

Live audio sparked in lockdowns and blurred the lines between social media and podcasts. Although Clubhouse kickstarted this craze, its success post lockdown has lagged , and other major platforms are...

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From 8-bit to fantasy: Proms’ focus on gaming underscores its cultural relevance

Sam Griffin

10 Aug 2022

Proms

gaming

Fandom

After the humble beginnings of the first melodic loops from NAMCO’s Rally X , the cultural symphony of music, video, and games has since matured toHildur Guðnadóttir and Sam Slater’s recent score...

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Beyoncé raises the question: what does commercial success mean in 2022?

Tatiana Cirisano

4 Aug 2022

monetizing fandom

fragmented fandom

Consumer Behaviour

It is hard to believe that six years have elapsed between Beyoncé’s last solo album, Lemonade , and her newest, Renaissance . So much has changed in those six years about how listeners consume music,...

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Spotify is courting gen Z, but is it enough?

Tatiana Cirisano

13 Jul 2022

Music Streaming

Spotify

Fandom

Spotify just made its first games acquisition by snapping up Heardle , a popular online game where players compete to guess a song by its opening notes. Heardle will remain a standalone website for now,...

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Changing streaming’s royalty model will unlock a new music economy

Kriss Thakrar

12 Jul 2022

Music Streaming

Streaming Royalties

Soundcloud

It has been an excellent year for the music industry as it enters a new era of growth . While streaming has been at the heart of this growth, there is an underlying tension between platforms and the artists...

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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...

The Kate Bush resurgence shows that music consumption has no time stamp

Keith Jopling

13 Jun 2022

Strategy

Spotify

Streaming

There are not many good news stories at the moment. It has brightened up my summer a little, though, to see music legend Kate Bush (or ‘our Kate’ if you happen to be British) acknowledge that her song,...

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Netflix could build a fandom platform with a potential bid for Formula One broadcast rights

Srishti Das

10 Jun 2022

Netflix

attention recession

Formula One

MIDiA predicted the arrival of the attention recession in February 2021, stating that the lockdown-driven increased demand for entertainment would not continue with in real life (IRL) making a comeback....

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Burning out and fading away: the exhausting job of marketing new music

Keith Jopling

31 May 2022

Streaming

Marketing

Online video

The recent protests by music artists about the pressures of keeping up a constant presence on social media are disconcerting in an age when many artists are struggling with mental health issues and wellbeing....

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Is TikTok becoming a record label? The question misses the point

Tatiana Cirisano

18 May 2022

Music Streaming

music industry

Fandom

Every time TikTok does anything that seems to hedge on record label territory, someone inevitably asks the question: is TikTok turning into a record label? Cue the eye-rolls from the music industry. No...

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What Snapchat is getting right about the future (and why music should pay attention)

Tatiana Cirisano

6 May 2022

music industry

social media

snapchat

The music industry has spent the last few years studying the ins and outs of new platforms like TikTok and Twitch, with good reason. But the decade-old Snapchat increasingly appears to be social media’s...

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You can play Snoop Dogg in Call of Duty, but you can’t PLAY him

Karol Severin

21 Apr 2022

Snoop Dogg

Call of Duty

Warzone

Call of Duty dropped the ‘Tracer Pack: Snoop Dogg Operator Bundle’, costing 2,400 COD Points ($19.99). It comes with Snoop’s playable skin, his own voice lines and progression path towards unlockable...

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Why the remix challenge is primed for a revival

Tatiana Cirisano

14 Apr 2022

TikTok

social media

music marketing

Remix challenges have been part of the record label toolbox for more than a decade. Artists let contestants purchase or earn song stems; then the artist and fans vote on the best remixes. The idea is simple:...

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Is the catalogue acquisition market betting tomorrow's success on yesterday's metrics?

Tatiana Cirisano

5 Apr 2022

music industry

music industry investment

music catalogue

The music industry spent $5.3 billion on music catalogue acquisitions in 2021, according to MIDiA's most recent market report , not counting another $6.7 billion that was invested into music companies...

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The future of music consumption is (re)creation

Kriss Thakrar

4 Apr 2022

Creator Economy

social music

creator tools

The music industry has grown at a record rate , led by streaming and boosted by an influx of an increasingly relevant revenue source: non-DSP streaming (via platforms such as TikTok and Twitch). This growth...

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Spotify’s Loud and Clear is about fandom, not royalties

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Mar 2022

Streaming Music

Spotify

Streaming Royalties

Spotify has updated its Loud & Clear website exploring how it pays royalties to rightsholders, and it claims that more artists are earning income on the platform than ever before. Many in the music...

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