Mark Mulligan

Rebalancing the Song Economy

Report by Mark Mulligan and Keith Jopling

16 Apr 2021

Introduction – Rebalancing the song economy After half a decade of streaming-driven growth the global music business hit a speed bump in the shape of the COVID-19 pandemic. Live music stopped in an instant,…

The music industry’s centre of gravity is shifting

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

16 Apr 2021

Regular readers will know that MIDiA has been analysing the creator tool space for some time now and building the case for why the changes that are taking place will be transformational not just for the…

Music & Gaming
A new way to play

Report by Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Keith Jopling

13 Apr 2021

Free Report

In today’s music business, the consumer boom is rapidly leading to a creator bust. For the music industry to untangle itself from this dysfunctional loop, it needs to find new ways of monetizing fandom,…

Assessing the streaming opportunity: You’re doing it wrong

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

9 Apr 2021

Buoyed by lockdown, streaming enjoyed another strong year in 2020, up 17.1% on 2019 according to MIDiA’s recorded music market shares report . But the revenue slowdown will come in 2021, driven by…

Creator tools platforms could become social networks

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

31 Mar 2021

With all the growing interest and investment in creator tools companies, music production platform Bandlab hitting 30 million users points to a longer-term future for the space – one in which the boundaries…

IFPI confirms global recorded music revenue growth

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

23 Mar 2021

Last week MIDiA reported that recorded music revenues grew by 7% in 2020. Today the IFPI confirmed that figure, reporting 7.4% growth. (Similarly, the IFPI reported 19.9% growth for streaming, MIDiA…

Recorded music revenues hit $23.1 billion in 2020, with artists direct the winners – again

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

15 Mar 2021

The global pandemic caused widespread disruption to the music business, in particular decimating the live business and impacting publisher public performance royalties. Although the recorded music business…

Entertainment fandom
Monetise fandom, not attention

Report by Mark Mulligan

12 Mar 2021

£3,000.00

In the attention economy, entertainment consumption is intertwined and competition straddles formats and genres. The same applies to fandom. Entertainment fans are fans of not just multiple subgenres…

Recorded music market 2020
Pandemic-era growth

Cover image for Recorded music market 2020

Report by Mark Mulligan

11 Mar 2021

£7,000.00

The global pandemic turned the music industry upside down. While live was decimated throughout 2020, after an initial downturn, the recorded music market returned to growth and finished the year with…

Native Instruments and iZotope: creator tools major in the making

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

11 Mar 2021

At the start of the year private equity firm Francisco Partners acquired a majority stake in creator tools stalwart Native Instruments. It always looked like it was going to be the start of something big…

The music business in 2021: Joining the dots

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

4 Mar 2021

It has been one of those weeks, with impactful music business announcements coming thick and fast. As is often the case, a succession of apparently unrelated events actually have a connecting thread. In…

Smaller independents and artists direct grew fastest in 2020

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

1 Mar 2021

Last year we identified a small but crucial metric from Spotify’s annual report: the share of all streams accounted for by majors and independent licensing body Merlin. It was crucial because it enabled…

Spotify Q4 2020 earnings
ARPU pays the price for growth

Cover image for Spotify Q4 2020 earnings

Report by Mark Mulligan

28 Feb 2021

£3,000.00

In 2020 Spotify accelerated the growth of its total user base, with emerging markets playing a key role. However, revenue increases became decoupled from user growth across all categories, resulting in…

Clubhouse session: Is attention killing culture?

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

24 Feb 2021

Join myself, Hanna Kahlert and Karol Severin Thursday 25th at 5pm GMT / noon EST / 9am PT on Clubhouse for discussion of the Attention Economy’s second order effects on culture and creativity.…

The COVID bounce and the coming attention recession

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

19 Feb 2021

2020 was by any measure a unique year in modern times. While the societal impact of the pandemic was, and continues to be, horrific, for the entertainment industries it was a year of plenty. At the start…

Last call for the global independent label survey

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2021

With 2020 now comfortably behind us and public companies in their earnings cycle, a clear picture is starting to emerge of how the global recorded music market performed. MIDiA is midway through fielding…

Three trends that will shape the rest of 2021, and beyond

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

15 Feb 2021

Late last year, MIDiA published its latest predictions report (clients can read the entire report here). The central theme was the Immersive Web, which we summarised as follows: “The immersive web…

Media consumption
Lockdown’s attention boom

Report by Mark Mulligan

12 Feb 2021

£3,000.00

2020 was a year like no other. With large swathes of the population confined to their homes for portions of the year, audiences had more time on their hands and more money in their pockets. These conditions…

Sony just became (even more of) an independent powerhouse

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

1 Feb 2021

Sony Music has bought AWAL (and Kobalt Neighbouring Rights) from Kobalt for $430 million . By adding AWAL to its already-booming Orchard division (as well as other distribution companies), it now has leading…

Equitable remuneration, artist income and unintended consequences

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

29 Jan 2021

The UK Parliament’s inquiry on the economics of streaming appears to be building a case for equitable remuneration (ER). There are many iterations of what ER can mean, but a simplified description of…