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.

Music has developed an attention dependency

Mark Mulligan

15 Jan 2021

Music

The attention economy defines and shapes today’s digital world. However, we have long since reached peak in the attention economy with all available free time now addressed. What this means is that previously, when digital entertainment propositions grew, they were often using up users’ free time.

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Virtual concerts: A new video format

Mark Mulligan

8 Jan 2021

The global pandemic thrust the live music sector into chaos, with global revenues falling by 75% in 2020 compared to one year previously. The music industry was rocked by first-order impacts (no concerts, no fan engagement) and second-order impacts (many artists realising that streaming did not add up without live income alongside it).

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Virtual Concerts
A New Video Format

Mark Mulligan

December 2020

YouTube

Amazon

Facebook

The global pandemic thrust the live music sector into chaos, with global revenues falling by 75% in 2020 compared to one year previously. The music industry was rocked by first-order impacts (no concerts, no fan engagement) and second-order impacts (many artists realising that streaming did not add up without live income alongside it).

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Driift
Driift creates a new vertically integrated approach to live performances

Case Study

Mark Mulligan

December 2020

live music

Music

Product Strategy

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2021 Predictions: The year of the immersive web

Mark Mulligan

18 Dec 2020

As we approach the end of 2020 it is time to look forward to what 2021 may bring. MIDiA has published the fifth edition of our Annual Predictions report which clients can read here . There are 27 predictions in the report, but I am sharing a few of them here.

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Global independent label survey

Mark Mulligan

14 Dec 2020

Music

MIDiA Research is conducting a major study of independent label revenue in order to create a definitive review of the independent sector’s contribution to the global music market. MIDiA conducted this work for a number of years on behalf of the Worldwide Independent Network and is now independently creating a dataset for 2020.

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Creator tools: The music industry’s new top of funnel

Mark Mulligan

30 Nov 2020

For most of 2020, MIDiA has been working on a major piece of work around the fast-growing creator tools space. The themes we had already started working on became rocket propelled with the onset of the pandemic, with an unprecedented volume of artists starting to engage with music production tools, services and hardware.

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Spotify Q3 2020 Earnings
The Shift to Free

Mark Mulligan

November 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

With three quarters of 2020 gone, Spotify has prospered during the most challenging of times, with consistent growth across most metrics. Q3 2020 saw a slight deviation from the script though, with ad-supported in the driving seat, especially in emerging markets.

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Time to move beyond the song economy

Mark Mulligan

27 Nov 2020

Music

The UK parliament is currently running an inquiry into the streaming music economy, having called for evidence from across the music business. Earlier this week were the first verbal submissions, from a number of UK artists including Tom Gray (Gomez), Guy Garvey (Elbow), Ed O’Brien (Radiohead) and Nadine Shah.

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2021 Predictions
The Year of the Immersive Web

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Alistair Taylor and Hanna Kahlert

November 2020

Spotify

Spotify

Discovery

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, brands, marketing, games and sports in 2021 and beyond. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Amazon...

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Snapchat buys Voisey to enter the music market

Mark Mulligan

20 Nov 2020

Snapchat parent company Snap Inc is reported to have acquired music collaboration tool Voisey . Voisey is a relatively new start-up, having raised its first major round mid-2019 and launching later the same year .

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YouTube at two billion: Still much more music opportunity to be had

Mark Mulligan

17 Nov 2020

Music

YouTube just announced its milestone of reaching two billion music users on the platform . YouTube has long been the largest music service on the planet, and it has just extended that lead. In 2019, its official total user number was two billion.

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BandLab
BandLab taps the growing demand for creator communities

Case Study

Mark Mulligan

November 2020

Music

BandLab

online publishing

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Creator Tools
The Music Industry’s New Top of Funnel

Mark Mulligan

November 2020

Creators

Apple

Apple

Music production has traditionally been, at best, an adjacent industry to the recording business, and at worst simply a cost centre. That is now all changing. COVID-19’s disruption catalysed the already-rapid shift towards affordable production tools and the rise of a new generation of online platforms that are reimagining music production as SAAS-based communities.

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Are rights holders missing the point with Twitch?

Mark Mulligan

13 Nov 2020

Twitch has apologised to its users for the growing volume of rights holder takedown notices for music used in Twitch videos . Twitch is in an awkward transitionary phase with music rights holders, not dissimilar to where YouTube was when it was acquired by Google.

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Post-Pandemic Programming Webinar Presentation

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Alistair Taylor, Keith Jopling and Hanna Kahlert

November 2020

Free Report

Video

Music

Games

After a period of disruption to the global entertainment landscape, many businesses have found a way to adapt to the new normal, but the recession and prospect of further pandemic peaks have created an unprecedented outlook for entertainment companies.

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Discovery Mode: Understanding how Spotify thinks

Mark Mulligan

4 Nov 2020

Spotify’s Discovery Mode announcement looked at the very best a poorly timed announcement, coming at a time when artists and songwriters are more concerned about their income than at any other since the music business returned to growth more than half a decade ago.

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We’re hiring!

Mark Mulligan

2 Nov 2020

MIDiA Research is hiring for a consultant to join our fast growing consulting division. Want to be a part of exciting strategic projects, helping some of the world’s biggest entertainment companies solve market shaping projects? Then send us your CV! More details on the role and how to apply here.

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State of the YouTube Music Economy 3.0
End of the Beginning

Mark Mulligan

October 2020

Spotify

YouTube

YouTube

This is the third bi-annual report of its kind, providing the most comprehensive view available of the YouTube music economy. It presents data for revenues, royalty payments, streams, subscribers, user behaviour and user demographics. We explore success factors, cultural trends, monetisation frameworks and contextualise music’s performance against other content genres.

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Spotify Q3 2020: What price growth?

Mark Mulligan

29 Oct 2020

Spotify reported another strong quarter in Q3 2020, with subscriber growth up 27% year-on-year (YoY) and ad-supported user growth up 21%. Spotify continues to set the pace for the global streaming market and has demonstrated that streaming has proven resilient to lockdown.

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