Mark Mulligan | MIDiA Research

Spotify Q4 2018: Solid Growth With a Hint of Profitability But Longer Term Questions

Mark Mulligan

14 Feb 2019

Spotify finished 2018 strongly, over performing in both subscriber and ad supported MAU additions. This was accompanied by Spotify’s first ever profitable quarter and two major podcast acquisitions early in 2019 hinting at a positive year ahead.

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Spotify Q4 2018 Earnings
Strong Subscriber Growth With a Hint of Profitability but Long-Term ARPU Deflation

Cover image for Spotify Q4 2018 Earnings

Mark Mulligan

February 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

Spotify finished 2018 strongly, over performing in both subscriber and ad-supported MAU additions. This was accompanied by Spotify’s first ever profitable quarter and two major podcast acquisitions early in 2019, hinting at a positive year ahead. However, at the same time, premium ARPU continues a long-term decline.

Podcasts: a Netflix Moment for Radio But Perhaps not the Future of Spotify

Mark Mulligan

6 Feb 2019

Anchor

Gimlet

Podcasts

Wednesday was a busy day for Spotify: it reported above-expected subscriber growth, hitting 96 million paid subscribers, strong total user growth reaching207 million MAUs , improved margins and its first ever profitable quarter, registering an operating profit of €94 million.

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Why First is Far Less Important Than Best

Mark Mulligan

4 Feb 2019

Epic Games

Fortnite

fortnite live stream

Following Marshmello’s ‘live’ performance in Fortnite which was seen by 10 million simultaneous gamers, there has been the inevitable chorus of ‘but 2 nd life did this more than a decade ago’.

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Marshmello Just Live Streamed on Fortnite…So Just What is a Concert?

Mark Mulligan

2 Feb 2019

Epic Games

Fortnite

fortnite live stream

On Saturday I watched my 12 year old son scoff down his meal so that he could rush upstairs to get logged on with his friends in time for a Marshmello live streamed event on Fortnite. As you can see from the video this was Marshmello appearing as a Fortnite character, on stage with his music playing.

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MIDiA Research Music Forecasts 2018–2026

Mark Mulligan

February 2019

Business Strategy

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. Retail values refer to total revenues generated, including retailer margin, music publishing royalties and sales tax.

Japan Should Look to China for Future Streaming Growth

Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2019

China

china streaming market

japan

Japan is the world’s second largest recorded music market and accounts for 14% of the global total. However, Japan is not following the wider market path of surging streaming revenues driving overall market growth.

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Ad-supported Strategies Are Playing A Growing Role In The Digital Economy

Mark Mulligan

21 Jan 2019

Critical Developments

2018 was a big year for subscriptions, across music (Spotify on target to hit 92 million subscribers), video (global subscriptions passed half a billion), games (98 million Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus subscribers) and news (New York Times 2.

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Bingo: The Analogue Antidote to Digital Overload

Mark Mulligan

18 Jan 2019

bing players millions

Bingo

bingo market

This week MIDiA published a report on a sector that has been on the side lines for some time but is returning to health: Bingo! If you are based in the UK you may well have seen or heard some of the extensive media coverage this report that was commissioned by Buzz Bingo got.

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Just Who Would Buy Universal Music?

Mark Mulligan

14 Jan 2019

Access Industries

Artists direct

Bolloré Group

Vivendi continues to look for a buyer for a portion of Universal Music . Though the process has been running officially since May 2018 , the transaction (or transactions) may not close until 2020. In many instances, dragging out a sale could reflect badly, suggesting that the seller is struggling to find suitable buyers.

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Africa and Asia Music Repertoire Shares

Mark Mulligan

January 2019

iTunes

Spotify

YouTube

This report provides repertoire splits across streaming music services in a number of sub-Saharan African and Asian markets. Also presented are details on the key labels, artists and genres for each of the countries covered. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Apple Music, Avex, AWA Music, Boomplay, Cashtime, Chocolate City, Deezer, D-Hits, Emperor, Empire Mates Entertainment (E.

Why Music and Video are Crucial to Apple’s Future

Mark Mulligan

7 Jan 2019

Amazon Prime

apple earnings

comes with music

Apple’s downgraded earnings guidance represents its first profit warning in 10 years. This is clearly a big deal, and probably not as much to do with a weakening Chinese economy ifAlibaba’s 2018 Singles’ Day annual growth of 23% is anything to go by.

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How YouTube’s Domination of Streaming Clips the Market’s Wings

Mark Mulligan

3 Jan 2019

Ad Supported

ad supported arpu

ad supported streaming

Firstly, happy new year to you all. Now on to the first post of 2019. The Article 13 debate that shaped so much of the latter part of 2018 will continue to play an important role throughout 2019 while European and then national legislators deliberate on the provision and the wider Digital Copyright Directive of which it forms a part.

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Artists Direct and Streaming the Big Winners in 2018

Mark Mulligan

18 Dec 2018

2018 music revenues

2019 Recorded music revenue

Artists direct

With less than two weeks of 2018 left, the die is largely cast for the year, but we’ll have to wait at least a couple more months for the major labels to announce their results (though WMG still hasn’t declared its calendar Q3 results), and then another month or so for the IFPI numbers.

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Soon to be the Biggest Ever YouTube Channel, T-Series May Also Be About to Reshape Global Culture

Mark Mulligan

13 Dec 2018

Media and Marketing

Some time over the next month or so aYouTube landmark will bepassed: T-Series will pass PewDiePie as the most subscribed YouTube channel on the planet .As of time of writing T-Series had 75.4 million subscribers compared to PewDiePie’s 76.

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5G: Use Cases, Hurdles and Opportunity

Mark Mulligan

December 2018

Amazon

telco

mobile carriers

5G promises to be the next big step change both in telco business models and the digital content economy. The arrival of 5G will supercharge the business models of many companies across infrastructure and services but the outlook is less promising for others who are at risk of having their core revenue streams disrupted.

Music Consumer Behaviour Q3 2018
YouTube Leads the Way But At What Cost?

Cover image for Music Consumer Behaviour Q3 2018

Mark Mulligan

December 2018

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

This report presents music consumption data for Q3 2018, with consumer data for US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Japan, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Amazon, Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited,...

Independent Labels Grew Global Market Share to 39.9% in 2017

Mark Mulligan

4 Dec 2018

Media and Marketing

The global independent label trade body WIN has just published the third edition of the Worldwide Independent Market report. You can download the entire report for free here. As regular readers will know, MIDiA Research has conducted this study on behalf of WIN for each of the three editions, collecting an unparalleled volume of data from many hundreds of independent record labels right across the globe.

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Taylor Swift, Label Services and What Comes Next

Mark Mulligan

22 Nov 2018

#MERKY

ADA

Billy Bragg

Taylor Swift has done it again, striking a deal with UMG that includes a commitment from the world’s largest label group to share proceeds from Spotify stock sales with artists, even if they are not recouped (ie haven’t generated enough revenue to have paid off the balance on their advance so not yet eligible to earn royalty income).

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MIDiA Research Welcomes Veteran Telco Analyst Paolo Pescatore To Team

Mark Mulligan

16 Nov 2018

MIDiA Analyst Team

MIDiA Research

Paolo Pescatore

I am very pleased to announce that seasoned and respected analyst Paolo Pescatore is joining MIDiA’s analyst team, to head up our new Telco Consumer Services research stream. Paolo has spent the last 20 years covering telecoms, media and technology (TMT) research and advising leading telcos and technology companies at the c-suite on topics such as convergence, content bundles and consumer services.

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