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.

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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...

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Splice

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

7 Sep 2021

Music Justin Bieber AI

Founded in 2013, US-based music creator platform Splice has become one of themost recognisable brands in the creator tools space. Splice took the subscription access model for music sounds and samples to a global scale, both riding anddriving the creative trend towards sounds-based music production.

Kanye just obliterated the creative full stop

Mark Mulligan

3 Sep 2021

Kanye West music product strategy creator tools

Kanye West knows how to stir things up, not least in making us rethink what music is and nudging us away from considering it as linear and static. First there was his announcement that Life of Pablo was a “ living, breathing, changing creative expression ”, and now there is his Donda Stem Player...

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Can Spotify break out of its lane?

Mark Mulligan

13 Aug 2021

Spotify TikTok YouTube

After years of relative stability, music consumption is shifting, with the DSP streaming model beginning to lose some ground as illustrated by the major labels growing streaming revenue by 33% in Q2 2021 while Spotify was up by just 23%.

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Spotify Q2 2021 earnings
Slowdown arrives

Mark Mulligan

11 Aug 2021

Streaming Music Subscriptions Spotify

The growth headwinds that appeared in Q1 2021 manifested in a pronounced user growth slowdown in Q2, with ad-supported users hit hardest. Spotify has been through lean growth periods before, but what is different this time is that streaming’s new players are growing at pace.

MIDiA is recruiting for a Business Development Manager

Mark Mulligan

9 Aug 2021

Video Media and Marketing

Building on our continued success in 2021, MIDiA is recruiting for a new Business Development Manager. The successful candidate in this role will lead MIDiA’s commercial activities across video and games, building on our existing client base of leading global companies in these sectors.

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The record labels are weaning themselves off their Spotify dependency

Mark Mulligan

6 Aug 2021

Spotify Streaming TikTok

The major labels had a spectacular streaming quarter, registering 33% growth on Q2 2020 to reach $3.1 billion. Spotify had a less impressive quarter, growing revenues by just 23%. After being the industry’s byword for streaming for so long, Spotify’s dominant role is beginning to lessen.

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Labels are going to become more like VCs than they probably want to be

Mark Mulligan

30 Jul 2021

Record labels Labels artist accelerators

When you are in the midst of change it can be hard to actually see it. Right now, the music business is undergoing a consumption paradigm shift that is changing the culture and business of music. Streaming may be well established and maturing in many markets but the market impact will continue to ac...

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Addressable creator markets
An opportunity with many layers

Mark Mulligan

29 Jul 2021

Apple Apple Artists

The music creator tools space is undergoing a change that is simultaneously renaissance and transformation. The creator culture boom has driven an unprecedented degree of investment and investor interest. However, because the music creator tools space is a collection of diverse products and services, an underlying challenge has been how to identify...

Spotify and music listening 10 years from now

Mark Mulligan

23 Jul 2021

Streaming music listening Spotify

July marks ten years since Spotify’s US launch. Although the tendency among some is to consider this ‘year zero’ for streaming (thus ignoring everything that had happened in prior years both within and outside of the US) it does present a useful opportunity to reflect on what the next decade m...

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Music consumer survey Q1 2021
YouTube extends its reach

Mark Mulligan

20 Jul 2021

Spotify YouTube Deezer

The data in this report is taken from MIDiA’s Q1 2021 consumer survey. The full data from this survey and all the preceding quarterly surveys are available, along with data visualisation tools and dynamic segmentation, on MIDiA Fuse. The countries covered in this report are US, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Brazil, South Korea.

Global music subscriber market shares Q1 2021

Mark Mulligan

9 Jul 2021

music subscribers subscriber market shares Streaming

The music industry’s growing obsession with declining ARPU will continue to colour the outlook for the global streaming market in revenue terms, but the positive driver of this equation is the rapid growth of music subscribers.

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Emerging markets may be about to change the superstar business

Mark Mulligan

2 Jul 2021

emerging markets anglo repertoire Music

The traditional recorded music business was all about selling units, which naturally meant that the most important markets were not the most populous but the wealthiest. Throughout the late 20thcentury this created a ‘global’ market that was dominated by North America, Europe and a few others.

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MIDiA Research 2021 – 2028 global music forecasts
ARPU growth finally delivers

Mark Mulligan

30 Jun 2021

revenue Global Music

This report presents the key figures, trends and drivers of MIDiA’s music forecast model. The figures presented in this report are both retail and label trade values and are in billions of US dollars unless otherwise stated. An Excel file posted alongside this report provides complete country level data, including DSP market shares and a detailed...

How Bandcamp could really fix the music business

Mark Mulligan

25 Jun 2021

Independent artists Artists Streaming Music

“A thought: has streaming become the place to address consumers and the likes of Bandcamp the places to engage fans? i.e., fans and fandom inherently matter less on streaming because it/they are a minority.

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The paradox of small

Mark Mulligan

18 Jun 2021

Artists direct independent creators creator culture

When the history books are written about our current times, the rise of creator culture will likely go down as one of the most impactful paradigm shifts. It is a dynamic that extends far beyond music, but it is impacting the music industry more directly than it is other entertainment industries – ...

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We’re Hiring (again)

Mark Mulligan

11 Jun 2021

Streaming Music Music Business Strategy

The pandemic rewrote the rules of digital entertainment, creating new opportunities and threats at an unprecedented rate while also intensifying competition for consumer attention. Never before has the interconnected nature of the digital entertainment landscape been more important, which also means...

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The productisation of music rights

Mark Mulligan

4 Jun 2021

music rights music catalogues music catalogue acquisitions

News that New York-based Pershing Square Tontine Holdings is planning to acquire 10% of UMG is the latest in a wave of financial transactions in the music rights space. Alongside this, Believe’s impending IPO has the potential to be one of the biggest things to happen to the independent music sect...

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Music and podcasts are competing for the same time

Mark Mulligan

28 May 2021

Podcasts Streaming Music media consumption

The pandemic changed media consumption. Consumers acquired an extra 12% of entertainment time and though everything was up, some categories grew much faster than others. One of the biggest gainers was spoken word audio, with podcasts and audiobooks seeing dramatic rises and while music hours grew to...

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Spotify Q1 2021 earnings
Shifting headwinds

Mark Mulligan

27 May 2021

Spotify YouTube Deezer

The first quarter of the year is usually a slow one for Spotify, but Q1 2021 saw a few metrics slowing more than in previous years. There were lots of solid performance metrics in Spotify’s results and a slew of new product announcements, but there were also signs of a coming slowdown driven in large part by wider industry headwinds.

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