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.

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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Spotify Q1 2021 earnings
Shifting headwinds

Mark Mulligan

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...

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Live streamed concert demand
Ready for prime time

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Kriss Thakrar

May 2021

Spotify

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...

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Hi-Res audio: It’s all about a maturing market

Mark Mulligan

21 May 2021

Streaming

hi res audio

Dolby Atmos

Apple and Amazon made a splash this week by integrating Hi-Res Dolby Atmos audio into the basic tiers of their streaming services . The timing, i.e. just after Spotify started increasing prices, is –...

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Podcast audiences
Competing for attention

Mark Mulligan

May 2021

US

UK

France

2020 was a big year for podcasts, with increased investment, M&A activity and industry moves. Audiences grew too, but still lag behind in hype and expectation, and a portion of this growth has come...

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BTS
BTS hit big with the most successful virtual concert yet

Case Study

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Kriss Thakrar

May 2021

Music

concerts

BTS

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Growth drivers – what comes after streaming

Mark Mulligan

7 May 2021

Streaming

growth drivers

fitness

The pandemic-defined 2020 was an outlier year across digital entertainment, with the extra 12% of time consumers spent with entertainment boosting everything, including music. One of the effects was that...

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Spotify pushes prices up, but do not expect dramatic effects

Mark Mulligan

27 Apr 2021

Spotify

spotify pricing

streaming pricing

Spotify finally announced a significant price increase, raising prices in the UK and some of Europe, with the US set to follow suit. The increases affect Family, Duo and Student plans. The fact that streaming...

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Creator culture
The song becomes the feed

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

April 2021

Creators

Spotify

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...

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Rebalancing the Song Economy

Mark Mulligan and Keith Jopling

April 2021

Free Report

Music

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,...

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The music industry’s centre of gravity is shifting

Mark Mulligan

16 Apr 2021

Creator tools

music industry investment

music investment

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...

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Music & Gaming
A new way to play

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Keith Jopling

April 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,...

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Assessing the streaming opportunity: You’re doing it wrong

Mark Mulligan

9 Apr 2021

TAM

SAM

SOM

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 the...

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Creator tools platforms could become social networks

Mark Mulligan

31 Mar 2021

Music

Product Strategy

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...

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IFPI confirms global recorded music revenue growth

Mark Mulligan

23 Mar 2021

Music

Business Strategy

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 had...

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

Mark Mulligan

15 Mar 2021

Recorded music revenue 2020

musc revenues 2020

label market shares 2020

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...

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Entertainment fandom
Monetise fandom, not attention

Mark Mulligan

March 2021

music fans

Fandom

Twitch

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 within...

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