Hanna Kahlert

Hanna is one of our expert analysts, helping drive MIDiA’s research into the future of digital entertainment. Her key areas of interest are cross-entertainment audience behaviour, the creator economy, and social platforms.

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

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

Hanna Kahlert

15 May 2024

“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, this did not go down very well among audiences on social media, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of whom are currently struggling to remain encamped in University campuses or taking to the streets in protest worldwide.

min read

Cutting through the clutter: why an analogue revival is inevitable

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Hanna Kahlert

9 May 2024

The jury is very much still out on generative AI and its copyright obligations. Yet the Pandora’s box of AI-generated content has already been opened, and there is no going back. For a world which has become almost entirely reliant on digital content– be it song mp3s or job applications – the implications are widespread and the challenge is simply one of volume.

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Music fandom’s future (and its existential crisis)

Cover image for Music fandom’s future (and its existential crisis)

Hanna Kahlert

1 May 2024

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 be in a class of its own – be it changing the fortunes of cinema chains , or altering local economies with her tour.

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Niche is mainstream
How scenes, niche aggregators, and creators will reshape entertainment

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Hanna Kahlert

April 2024

Audience Insight

As niche officially becomes mainstream, the entertainment industry faces a delicate balance. Audiences are losing interest in broad, mainstream propositions, but hyper-personalised niches are inherently difficult to scale and monetise while retaining what made them special to fans in the first place.

AI cannot replace creators… and the proof, surprisingly, is books

Cover image for AI cannot replace creators… and the proof, surprisingly, is books

Hanna Kahlert

17 Apr 2024

Creator economy

The asset-class-ification of entertainment has tended to reduce art to content made only to ensnare views, which lends itself to generative AI uptake. However, in a digital economy increasingly looking towards fandom for solutions, this environment has not exactly fostered the development of ideas, stories, and art worth being a fan of .

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The techification of entertainment (and why it needs to reverse)

Cover image for The techification of entertainment (and why it needs to reverse)

Hanna Kahlert

10 Apr 2024

Entertainment today is almost inseparable from streaming – for better and for worse. The tech infrastructure that underpins today’s entertainment industry has had a huge impact not only on how content is delivered, but who consumes it, how, and why.

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Forget TikTok trends; the scene is TikTok itself

Cover image for Forget TikTok trends; the scene is TikTok itself

Hanna Kahlert

4 Apr 2024

Much of marketing today focuses on chasing the latest TikTok trend. Catching the ‘next big thing’ just as it is taking off, then watching the cultural clout dissolve as the trend disappears as quickly as it appeared, is an exhausting enterprise.

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Reddit’s IPO is a nail in the coffin for the centralised internet

Cover image for Reddit’s IPO is a nail in the coffin for the centralised internet

Hanna Kahlert

28 Mar 2024

centralised internet

Last week, Reddit, the 19 year old social(ish) platform and long-time backbone of the internet, went up for IPO. The news is not exactly a surprise; the company has been hinting at it for years now, and initially filed in 2021 before the market turned unfavourable.

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Gender inequality in music mirrors the challenges of streaming… as do its opportunities for change

Cover image for Gender inequality in music mirrors the challenges of streaming… as do its opportunities for change

Hanna Kahlert

20 Mar 2024

It has never been easier to become a music artist, but it has never been harder to turn that into a long-term career. A hyper-saturated content environment means record levels of competition and decreasing shares of stable revenues.

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What would a post-TikTok (US) future look like?

Cover image for What would a post-TikTok (US) future look like?

Hanna Kahlert

14 Mar 2024

The US House of Representatives has just passed a bill, with bipartisan support, which would make TikTok break with parent company Bytedance or be banned from app stores. Based on current discourse, it looks unlikely that TikTok will comply; and unlike past legislation, it looks like this bill may have ‘ teeth ’.

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BE THE CHANGE
Gender equity in music

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Hanna Kahlert, Tatiana Cirisano, Sophia Oleksiyenko, Ashleigh Millar, Samuel Griffin and Kazia Rothwell

March 2024

Business Strategy

Audience Insight

In many ways, women ruled the music industry in 2023. Women swept the 2024 Grammy Awards, winning all the “big four” categories. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé completed record-breaking tours and, according to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the share of women artists on Billboard’s US Hot 100 year-end chart reached a 12-year high of 35%.

Niche is mainstream. So… what next?

Cover image for Niche is mainstream. So… what next?

Hanna Kahlert

29 Feb 2024

Entertainment industries today are navigating two contrasting pressures. On the one side is the demand for niche personalisation: algorithms drive hyper-targeted content to just the right audiences, who identify strongly with it and form small, powerful communities, which can allow those propositions to carve out durable success.

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Social is the new streaming… but the cracks are already showing

Cover image for Social is the new streaming… but the cracks are already showing

Hanna Kahlert

22 Feb 2024

When streaming first overtook music, it did so by force. Audiences quickly latched on to the freedoms of digital life and the accessibility of music on the internet. Piracy was on the rise and downloading music via Napster and LimeWire became a shared memory for millennials.

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Social landscape
Mapping the balance of platforms’ audience, features, and strategy

Cover image for Social landscape

Hanna Kahlert

February 2024

Audience Insight

This report maps how social platforms are used by consumers, looking at behaviours such as talking to friends, shopping / browsing, and creating content. It further looks at how this differs with age. The current marketplace is maturing, with platforms now either pursuing a “do everything well” or a “do one thing the best” approach.

Format versus context: Can a YouTuber make it on TV?

Cover image for Format versus context: Can a YouTuber make it on TV?

Hanna Kahlert

1 Feb 2024

Media and Marketing

Cultural trends

YouTube star MrBeast is making recent headlines for his video upload experiment with X , and now a potential partnership with Amazon Prime Video for a new reality series. The competition to turn the popular YouTuber into an audience draw for other platforms is on –but can a star in one place, still be a star anywhere else? This would not be the first time an entertainment company has tried to convert a popular social media figure.

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One stream’s trash, another stream’s treasure – if everything’s niche, what success can you measure?

Cover image for One stream’s trash, another stream’s treasure – if everything’s niche, what success can you measure?

Hanna Kahlert

24 Jan 2024

At this point, we are all on the same page, or at least should be, that ‘niche is the new mainstream’. Thanks to the (sometimes brutal) accuracy of social algorithms, pretty much any artist can find their ideal fans, no matter where they are in the world.

min read

Instagram is becoming Facebook. So where do all the people go?

Cover image for Instagram is becoming Facebook. So where do all the people go?

Hanna Kahlert

18 Jan 2024

Facebook is the most used social media platform in Western markets (not including YouTube, which may host user-generated content but is not typically considered in the same category). Yet, the broad consensus, from competitors to Gen Z, is that the platform is ‘dead’.

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MIDiA's 2024 predictions webinar
The algorithm is not listening

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Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Kriss Thakrar, Tatiana Cirisano, Perry Gresham, Kazia Rothwell, Ben Woods and Ashleigh Millar

January 2024

MIDiA analysts dive into our 2024 predictions, and why we believe the algorithm isn't listening. Watch the webinareither on YouTube or LinkedIn ....

Are we approaching an analogue revival?

Cover image for Are we approaching an analogue revival?

Hanna Kahlert

11 Jan 2024

It is now 2024 (yikes), and New Year’s resolutions are making the rounds. Anecdotally, at least seven of us at MIDiA have resolved to go more analogue this year. More broadly, many people, alongside the traditional attempts to go to the gym more or do ‘Dry January’, seem to be opting to cut down on their social media and broader smartphone usage.

min read

Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse and the blending of fan and franchise

Cover image for Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse and the blending of fan and franchise

Hanna Kahlert

3 Jan 2024

Long known for its strict intellectual property strategy, Disney is seeing one of its core characters – the 1928 version of Mickey Mouse – enter the public domain, presenting an excellent case study on how fan engagement in entertainment has evolved in today's digital age.

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