Kriss Thakrar | MIDiA Research

Hip hop fandom is driving the music business' future in gaming, live streaming and beyond

Kriss Thakrar

17 Aug 2021

The music industry is at a pivot point as new ways of interacting and monetising music arise with unprecedented speed. Kanye West’s Donda live stream generating $7 million in merch sales demonstrates the financial scalability of a unique live stream event that cannot be replicated in the on-demand era.

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Why Spotify’s creator strategy needs to pay more attention to fans

Kriss Thakrar

10 Aug 2021

Spotify

Streaming

Fandom

Spotify’s shift towards becoming an audio platform encompasses a push to become a creator-first business, with a vision of 50 million creators supplying content to a billion users. However, the company’s focus on creators and users may be coming at the expense of artists and fans.

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What is an artist in the age of creators?

Kriss Thakrar

26 Jul 2021

Strategy

Marketing

YouTube

MIDiA has previously explored what it means to be a superstar in today’s industry. Here we go deeper into the fundamental of what it is to be an artist. YouTuber, boxer and rapper KSI achieved his first number 1 on the UK charts after releasing his new album, All Over the Place.

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From creator tools to commercial tools

Kriss Thakrar

1 Jul 2021

creator tools

live streaming

Twitch

Creator tools are taking an evolutionary step toward commercially empowering creators. Live streaming tool Happs’ recent $4.7 million investment is a relatively small yet significant bet that the future of creator tools in live streaming and beyond is not solely in tools designed to create content.

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The opportunity behind the Roblox lawsuit

Kriss Thakrar

14 Jun 2021

Roblox

music piracy

Gaming

Three months ago, MIDiA reported on the role of the Boombox in Roblox and the potential of the unique (and unlicensed) behaviour that was emerging around it. Subsequently, the National Music Publishers Association has filed a $200 million lawsuit against the platform, directly citing the copyright infringement facilitated by the in-game product.

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Live streamed concert demand
Ready for prime time

Cover image for Live streamed concert demand

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Kriss Thakrar

May 2021

Spotify

live music

Virtual concerts went from zero to a hundred at an unprecedented rate during the pandemic-shaped 2020, and the momentum carried through to 2021. But if lockdown years are like dog years, then so too the evolution of the current virtual event marketplace has been concertinaed.

BTS
BTS hit big with the most successful virtual concert yet

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Kriss Thakrar

May 2021

Music

concerts

BTS

Read the case study …

Creator culture
The song becomes the feed

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

April 2021

Creators

Spotify

The creator tools marketplace is creating a revolution in the culture and business of music. The third decade of the millennium represents the opening of a new chapter for the music business, with the means of production and distribution fully democratised.

The social studio will empower the next million producers

Kriss Thakrar

23 Apr 2021

creator tools

Social Studio

Social media

MIDiA recently explored the concept of the social studio and the more sophisticated tools for creation that are being embedded in social media platforms. It did not take long for this to go from concept to reality with Facebook’s Sound Studio announcement.

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Social media is becoming a social studio

Kriss Thakrar

13 Apr 2021

creator tools

Social media

TikTok

Social media platforms have spent the past decade redefining what it means to be a visual creator. They are now on the cusp of doing the same with music. TikTok has announced a wave of new features , including Music Machine, a loop-based MIDI production tool within the app.

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How Amazon could enhance its NFL coverage with virtual concert experiences

Kriss Thakrar

30 Mar 2021

SVOD

Amazon Prime

NFL

Amazon Prime has acquired the exclusive Thursday Night Football (TNF) rights to 15 NFL games, marking a new era for the world’s most valuable sports league. This shift is a giant step towards the normalisation of live entertainment on SVOD platforms as it takes Amazon’s four-year coverage of TNF beyond digital and into exclusive broadcast territory – making the ecommerce platform the only place to view TNF between 2023 and 2033.

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Addison Rae will not be owned: The pitfalls of the major label business model

Kriss Thakrar

25 Mar 2021

Major labels

TikTok

Independent artists

TikTok stars are rejecting major labels. It is no secret that major labels are being outpaced by independent artists in the overall market. Addison Rae has a combined following of over 100 million between TikTok and Instagram alone, and she has leveraged her position to independently put together an all-star team for her first release.

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Roblox, piracy and the future of music in UGC 2.0

Kriss Thakrar

19 Mar 2021

user-generated content

music piracy

Roblox

A community of Roblox users are losing a battle against moderation as the platform cracks down on music piracy, due to the platform’s newly public status bringing with it a new level of responsibility.

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