Kriss Thakrar | MIDiA Research

TikTok Music: Here is what it would mean for you

Kriss Thakrar

2 Aug 2022

TikTok has filed a US trademark for TikTok Music , building speculation on whether the platform is gearing up to launch a streaming service. It already has the tools at its disposal with Resso, its streaming service for emerging markets.

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How Epidemic Sound is reinventing production music

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

29 Jul 2022

Business Strategy

Founded in 2009, Epidemic Sound charges a subscription to licence its library of high-quality, “royalty-free” production music across three tiers (personal, commercial, and enterprise). Co-founder Oscar Höglund set out to solve problems on both the supply and demand side of the music sync market.

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Music sync market forecast
Production libraries raise the pitch

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

27 Jul 2022

YouTube SoundCloud Netflix

Amid fragmenting fandom and the attention recession, sync is more important than ever as a tool for both revenue generation and marketing. There are also dozens of emerging use cases for sync, from creator content to fitness platforms and virtual spaces in the evolving metaverse.

Building a fan economy with Fan-Powered Royalties

Kriss Thakrar, Tatiana Cirisano and Perry Gresham

12 Jul 2022

Free Report

Creators artist income Streaming economics

Music streaming has helped the music industry return to growth over the past decade, but many creators feel left behind. The streaming economy has reached a point where the creator remuneration gap can no longer be ignored. It is no secret that many music artists are dissatisfied with the relationship between the consumption of their music on strea...

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 that they depend on.

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The future of music
The rise of a counterculture industry

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

30 Jun 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 deeper relationships with fans nor to generate meaningful income.

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 is an indicator of a major shift in music that will define it going forward, both culturally ...

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Music catalogue acquisition
Picking apart the $5 billion competition for icons

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

31 Mar 2022

investment Music streaming music catalogue

A variety of economic factors and stock market volatility during the coronavirus pandemic helped establish music as an attractive asset class for institutional investors. With labels, publishers, institutional investors, and newly launched funds now competing for the same diminishing pool of evergreen catalogue, competition and prices are high.

Kilometre Music Group
How Kilometre Music Group is finding a niche in a competitive market

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

31 Mar 2022

2021 saw a rise in new investors entering the market to compete for evergreen music catalogues. However, the crowded market makes it harder to stand out as a company, especially one in which artists can trust their legacies. One strategy to stand out and maximise returns is choosing a specialty to drive acquisitions, as Kilometre Music Group has do...

Music creators
Slicing the funnel

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

18 Feb 2022

YouTube SoundCloud TuneCore

Streaming enabled the rise of the independent artist and then the rise of the music creator. The promise of the long tail finally appeared to be realised. But the pandemic’s disruption of live music catalysed an already growing realisation among long- and mid-tail artists that they lack the scale to benefit from streaming economics.

The past, present and future of the creator economy runs through Apple

Kriss Thakrar

11 Feb 2022

Apple Creator economy Streaming

In previous posts, we have talked about the possibilities opening up for the next generation of creators . In particular, posts on fluid audio and social studios showed how music has the potential to become more collaborative, interactive and adaptive to the consumer, turning creation into a consume...

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Hybrid futures
MIDiA 2022 predictions

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

13 Jan 2022

Free Report

Social media Business Strategy MIDiA Research Predictions

MIDiA analysts dive into our 2022 predictions, and why we believe it will be ' the year of the creator '. Watch the webinar here ....

2022 MIDiA predictions
The year of the creator

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

16 Dec 2021

Creators Apple Spotify

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, brands, marketing, games, and sports in 2022 and beyond. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Adele,...

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Growth from transparency
Reframing the value of music through creator rights

Mark Mulligan, Keith Jopling, Srishti Das and Kriss Thakrar

12 Nov 2021

Free Report

Creators Streaming Business Strategy

The music industry has been through an unprecedented period of change over the past five years.Innovations in live streaming, games, user-generated content (UGC), digital art, and trading of rights represent welcome new opportunities for music creators - opportunities that will require creators to adapt in order to take full advantage.

Can music rights expand to drive the new music creator economy?

Kriss Thakrar

11 Nov 2021

rights acquisition Music publishing music catalogue M+A

The investment that is pouring into music rights has exploded in recent years, hitting $10 billion at the time of writing and set to increase much further. Many rights acquisitions deals have been based on the catalogues of the traditional music industry (writer/publishing and master rights).

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Creator consolidation: Fender becomes the next creator tools major

Kriss Thakrar

2 Nov 2021

creator tools music production Independent artists

When Francisco Partners brought together Native Instruments and Izotope, it created the first creator tool major . Now a second player has staked its claim: Fender has made one of the biggest creator tools moves of the year through its acquisition of guitar-focused creator tools company, PreSonus .

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Why making memes with creator tools is the new music industry

Kriss Thakrar

25 Oct 2021

creator tools user-generated content music production

The creator tools business has been one of the biggest winners of the pandemic, as people turned to music-making in record numbers. Second-hand gear marketplace, Reverb.com, provided some insight into the products driving the creator boom – and two, in particular, stand out: the MPC One and OP-1 s...

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Beatport
A modern creator tools ecosystem

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

30 Sep 2021

Music

Beatport was founded in 2004 as an online music marketplace geared towards DJs. This remains its core business, but in the time since (and particularly the past several years), it has expanded to offer more. Beatport now owns Loopmasters, including both sound packs platform Loopcloud, and music plug-in marketplace Plugin Boutique, as well as distri...

Fender
The journey from a vintage icon to a driver of modern music making

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

30 Sep 2021

Music

Fender has long been renowned for one thing more than anything else – guitars. Since releasing its first guitars in the early 1950s, Fender has become an icon in music. For a long time, their historical legacy was enough to ride on, as an established collector market would drive sales of vintage recreations and custom shop models.

Creator hubs
Creator tools’ next growth driver

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

7 Sep 2021

Creators Spotify Artists

The emerging competitive dynamic between insurgents and incumbents is the catalyst for an unprecedented period of innovation in the music creator tools space. However, because this dynamic is underpinned by substantial institutional investment and strong market growth, the second order effect is the further fragmentation of an already congested and...