Kriss Thakrar

Kriss is one of MIDiA’s consultants and music analysis contributors. His main areas of interest are creator tools, music sync, and rights.

The ghost of the 2000s lingers over the catalogue acquisition market

Cover image for The ghost of the 2000s lingers over the catalogue acquisition market
Kriss Thakrar
Product Strategy
investment
music catalogue
Sign up here for MIDiA’s Masterclass webinar on catalogue investment, this Thursday June 26, 2025, with Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano. In the second quarter of 2025, a range of catalogue acquisition deals have broken the typical mould: Sony acquired Hipgnosis Songs Group from Recognition Music Group, and its Japan division acquired full rights to Spookiz animation franchise Create Music Group acquired K7! and Monstercat, and struck a JV with EZMNY Records Exceleration acquired Cooking Vinyl Concord acquired Broadway Licensing Global Pophouse acquired Swedish House Mafia’s label Axtone Reservoir launched PopIndia and made its first acquisition in Musicraft Chord Music Partners acquired Morgan Wallen’s label Big Loud for $200m Warner music acquired Zach Bryan’s catalog for $350m DJ Khaled struck a catalog and JV deal with Influence Media Taylor Swift got her masters back There is a clear theme with these deals – most are for labels or publishers rather than individuals.
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Music is losing a generation of young men

Cover image for Music is losing a generation of young men
Kriss Thakrar
Music
Social media
Entertainment
Key insights from this blog: Netflix’s hit Adolescence has renewed conversation around the radicalisation of young men, particularly in online spaces MIDiA’s research highlights that all entertainment is becoming increasingly gendered, with social media platforms displaying a growing gender gap amongst young users However, this issue also extends to music, with live music attendance amongst young men plummeting and their spending on video games overtaking music (including live) Over the past year, there has been increasing attention on the flailing state of young men in Western societies.
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Splice x MIDiA Sounds of 2025

Cover image for Splice x MIDiA Sounds of 2025
Kriss Thakrar, Tatiana Cirisano, Samuel Griffin, Mark Qi and Olivia Jones
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 influentialproducer Oliver featuring prominently.
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Beyond the obvious
Building future-focused strategy

Cover image for Beyond the obvious
Mark Mulligan, Keith Jopling and Kriss Thakrar
Product Strategy
Business strategy has long been demarcated across sustaining and disruptive innovation. In the digital realm the latter has had the upper hand, but as digital enters a slower growth phase, sustaining innovation is back in favour. Yet this is also a period of dramatic value chain shifts and is thus exactly the period when companies should instead be pursuing disruptive, future-focused strategy.
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MIDiA’s 2024 predictions report
The algorithm is not listening

Cover image for MIDiA’s 2024 predictions report
Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Perry Gresham, Kazia Rothwell and Ben Woods
Business Strategy
2023 was another year of change and disruption. 2024 will be even more defined by change than the years that preceded it. But much of this change will be defined by reaction more than action. The unintended consequences of years of innovation have resulted in environments where many consumers are getting further away from their wants and needs, not closer.
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There are no elite artists without elite artist development

Cover image for There are no elite artists without elite artist development
Kriss Thakrar
artist development
Creators
Creator economy
A recent interview with Mariah the Scientist saw her speak about the struggle of performing for only the second time in front of a crowd at one of the world’s biggest festivals, Rolling Loud. She shared that she “wasn’t good at it”, “did not know what she was doing”, and ultimately suffered from the consequences of all the criticism that followed.
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