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 Marketing
The Velocity Game

Cover image for Music Marketing

Mark Mulligan

August 2020

Spotify

Spotify

YouTube

Music streaming has become so central to the functioning of the record label business model that labels are becoming beholden to streaming service optimisation. A shift towards ever-larger numbers of new releases targeted at streaming success threatens to dislocate the underlying business model of bigger record labels and cause a disconnect between what music audiences want and what they actually get.

Music Discovery
Streaming’s Growing Role

Cover image for Music Discovery

Mark Mulligan

August 2020

Streaming

Streaming Music

Spotify

Radio has long led music discovery and continues to do so today. However, streaming – both audio and video – are making up ground fast, especially among more engaged and younger music fans. These shifts in discovery come as music marketing strategy is placing an ever-greater emphasis on streaming.

Spotify Q2 2020 Earnings
In the Shadow of COVID

Cover image for Spotify Q2 2020 Earnings

Mark Mulligan

August 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

Spotify’s share price grew strongly in June 2020, with the markets responding positively to its podcast investments. However, while that increase was sustained throughout July, by mid-August the share price was heading back down to late-June levels.

What AWAL’s $100k artists mean for the streaming economy

Cover image for What AWAL’s $100k artists mean for the streaming economy

Mark Mulligan

14 Aug 2020

Kobalt’s AWAL division announced that‘hundreds of its artists have reached [the] annual streaming revenue threshold [of $100,000]’ . Make no mistake, this is major milestone for a record label that has around 1% global market share.

min read

Apple to launch subscription bundle – we called it!

Cover image for Apple to launch subscription bundle – we called it!

Mark Mulligan

13 Aug 2020

In MIDiA’s 2020 Predictions report published in December 2019 we predicted that tech majors would start creating subscription bundles, with Apple leading the fray. Lo and behold, news has just come out that Apple is working on ‘ Apple One’ – a multi-genre subscription bundle that will includeApple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and Apple News+.

min read

Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

Cover image for Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

Mark Mulligan

12 Aug 2020

The #brokenrecord debate continues to build momentum and new models such as user-centric are getting increased attention, including at governmental level in the UK. But as Mat Dryhurst correctly observes , there is a risk of the market falling into streaming fatalism; that the obsession with trying to fix a model that might not be fixable distracts us from focusing on trying to build alternative futures.

min read

Newsflash: UMG, WMG and Spotify may have a problem with Tencent

Cover image for Newsflash: UMG, WMG and Spotify may have a problem with Tencent

Mark Mulligan

7 Aug 2020

Tencent Music Entertainment

UPDATE: A White House official confirmed to the LA Times that the announcement, at this stage, will not affect Tencent shareholdings of companies and clarified that the order only refers to transactions 'related to' WeChat.

min read

The MIDiA Research Podcast: Episode 1 – What Next for Tencent?

Cover image for The MIDiA Research Podcast: Episode 1 – What Next for Tencent?

Mark Mulligan

7 Aug 2020

Media & Marketing

We are excited to announce the first episode of the MIDiA Research podcast: What Next for Tencent? President Trump's executive orders concerning Bytedance and Tencent set the cat among the pigeons. In this podcast we explore what the potential ramifications are for Tencent's bold and disruptive entertainment business strategy in the West.

min read

COVID-19 hit major labels much harder than it did Spotify

Cover image for COVID-19 hit major labels much harder than it did Spotify

Mark Mulligan

5 Aug 2020

Streaming revenue

major label streaming revenue

COVID-19 was always going to have a significant impact on the music business, and with the Q2 results for all of the major music companies now in we can start to look at just how big that impact has been so far.

min read

We are at a turning point for social music

Cover image for We are at a turning point for social music

Mark Mulligan

4 Aug 2020

In recent days we have seen three major developments that, collectively, are a potential pivot point for social music: 1. TikTok close to a US-entity buyout by Microsoft to avoid potential sanctions, following hot on the heels of an India blackout 2.

min read

Attention Economy
Media Consumption Q2 2020

Cover image for Attention Economy

Mark Mulligan

July 2020

Streaming

Music Subscriptions

US

This report presents MIDiA’s Q2 2020 media consumption data, exploring time and money spent by consumers during the quarter. As such, it presents a snapshot of consumer behaviour that reflects both the impact of longer-term shifts and the shorter-term COVID-19 effect for the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France and Germany.

MIDiA Research 2020-2027 Global Music Forecasts
Volume Trumps Value as Emerging Markets Dominate Growth

Cover image for MIDiA Research 2020-2027 Global Music Forecasts

Mark Mulligan

July 2020

Music revenue

Spotify

YouTube

This report presents the key figures, trends and drivers of MIDiA’s music forecast model. The figures presented in this report are retail values and 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 methodology statement.

Why Spotify needs Russia

Cover image for Why Spotify needs Russia

Mark Mulligan

16 Jul 2020

Spotify’s delayed Russia launch finally happened this week . While it did not drive a stock price growth like the Josh Rogan deal did (the stock closed just 1 cent higher than the previous day’s close) it will actually prove much more important in the medium term.

min read

How the DNA of a hit has changed over 20 years

Cover image for How the DNA of a hit has changed over 20 years

Mark Mulligan

13 Jul 2020

the song economy

Updated on 13/03/2025: Five years is a long time in the fast-changing music industry. To see how the DNA of a hit has evolved since this blog was published, check out our latest post by MIDiA's music researcher, Olivia Jones: " How the DNA of a hit changed in the last five years ".

min read

Time to stop playing the velocity game

Cover image for Time to stop playing the velocity game

Mark Mulligan

3 Jul 2020

music marketing

We all know that streaming has transformed consumption and business models alike, but this is not a ‘now-completed’ process. Instead, it is one that continues to evolve at pace, and the dynamic of pace is the pivotal variable.

min read

Recession Impact
Music Industry 2020 Growth Scenarios

Cover image for Recession Impact

Mark Mulligan

June 2020

live music

Music publishing

Record labels

As part of MIDiA’s research stream focused on how COVID-19 is impacting the entertainment industries, this report explores how the combination of lockdown measures and the coming recession will impact music industry revenues in 2020.

Music Subscriber Market Shares Q1 2020

Cover image for Music Subscriber Market Shares Q1 2020

Mark Mulligan

23 Jun 2020

music subscribers

music subscriber market shares

WWDC would have been a perfect opportunity for Apple to announce another streaming milestone for Apple Music. It didn’t but the good news is that MIDiA already have a figure for Apple Music, as part of our latest music subscriber market shares.

min read

Recovery Economics
Outlook for Music, Games, Video & Sports

Cover image for Recovery Economics

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin and Alistair Taylor

June 2020

Video

Recorded music

Music streaming

MIDiA analysts present in this webinar report how the entertainment industries can plan not to simply bounce back, but to rebuild their value propositions and supply chains to adjust to the realities of the new normal and flourish in the post-lockdown era.

Just what is Tencent’s Endgame?

Cover image for Just what is Tencent’s Endgame?

Mark Mulligan

16 Jun 2020

Tencent’s combined $200 million investment in WMG follows on the heels of its $3.6 billion joint investment in Universal Music. It is hardly Tencent’s first investments in music, having spent $6.2 billion on music investments since 2016.

min read

Music Streaming Needs a New Future

Cover image for Music Streaming Needs a New Future

Mark Mulligan

12 Jun 2020

While doing some research on the Chinese streaming market I came across this fantastic UX tear down of Xiami Music . I recommend you read it in full. The day before I found this–also must-read–article on Beyoncé’s streaming strategy ,which explains how she uses different platforms to segment her fanbase (Tidal – super fans, Spotify engaged fans, Netlix, passive fans).

min read

‹
1
2
...
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
...
38
39
›

Showing 281 to 300 of 765 results.