Mark Mulligan

Mark Mulligan is a music analyst and the founder at MIDiA Research. He is a long-term tech analyst and a leading digital thinker with more than 20 years of experience, working with leading global music, entertainment, and tech companies. At MIDiA, Mark focuses on the streaming and creator economies, as well as music business trends and market metrics such as forecasts and market shares.

Are we reaching peak fandom?

Cover image for Are we reaching peak fandom?
Mark Mulligan
Business Strategy
Streaming
Music
With streaming revenue growth slowing to 6.2% in 2024, the recorded music industry’s attention is firmly fixed on superfans as the ‘get out of jail free’ card. The growing sophistication of artist merch has reached the stage where fans can buy Taylor Swift fashion bags and shop her jewelry range , meanwhile all eyes are on the impending Spotify supremium tier (as reported by Bloomberg ).
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Cultural movements
A new take on mainstream for the fragmentation era

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Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano
Entertainment
mainstream
Cultural trends
Entertainment has become nichified, mainstream has become smaller, and audiences have fragmented. While this has been crucial to the rise of the long tail and the creator economy, there is a need for a new, fragmentation-era successor to mainstream. Building upon MIDiA’s work on scenes, in this report we make the case for cultural movements, the cultural pyramid, and how entertainment audiences operate in the fragmentation era.
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Music subscriber market shares Q4 2024
Full stream ahead

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Mark Mulligan, Tatiana Cirisano, Mark Qi, Olivia Jones and Laura Fisher
music subscriber market shares
Business Strategy
Streaming market metrics are bifurcating. Label streaming revenues were up in 2024, indicating a much anticipated slow down in revenue growth. Yet, at the same time, music subscriber growth was nearly double that of label streaming revenues for 2024. As is so often the case, there are many factors at play.
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Music streaming consumer profile Q4 2024
Stabilisation and fandom slowdown

Cover image for Music streaming consumer profile Q4 2024
Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano
Willingness to pay
Music consumers
Streaming
Consumer music behaviours are both stabilising and showing signs of coming change. Change that could be challenging for all music business stakeholders, especially with regards to fandom monetisation. This report presents data-focused visuals and impactful analysis of trends and anomalies that will inform your understanding of what is happening to today’s music consumer, why it is happening, and where these trends are heading.
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AI is reshaping the music creator economy, and that change will reshape the music business

Cover image for AI is reshaping the music creator economy, and that change will reshape the music business
Mark Mulligan
Business Strategy
Music
Creator economy
MIDiA is pleased to announce the release of not one but two new music creator economy reports. These are our latest " State of the music creator economy "and " Music creator tools forecasts "reports. These annual deliverables have quickly become industry benchmarks, and if you operate in the music creator economy, they are must-reads.
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