Mark Mulligan | MIDiA Research

UMG’s buoyant stock debut is a new chapter for the music business

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

22 Sep 2021

Universal Music Group (UMG) had an extremely positive first day of trading as a standalone entity, with shares at one stage trading 35% up from their reference point and making the market cap leap to $55...

‘Middle class’ artists need niche, not scale

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

17 Sep 2021

Music

Business Strategy

Streaming continues to grow strongly, as evidenced by the 28% growth reported by the RIAA for H1 2021 in the US . Everything looks great for the build-up to the impeding Universal Music Group (UMG) IPO....

The oncoming fandom crisis

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2021

music fans

music fandom

Fandom

The Chinese authorities’ crackdown on fandom represents the first major growing pain for the global fandom economy. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) will likely be the bellwether of this shift, with...

Creator hubs
Creator tools’ next growth driver

Report by Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

7 Sep 2021

£3,000.00 excl. VAT

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...

Splice

Case Study by Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

7 Sep 2021

Music

Justin Bieber

AI

Read the case study …

Kanye just obliterated the creative full stop

Blog post by 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...

Can Spotify break out of its lane?

Blog post by 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...

Spotify Q2 2021 earnings
Slowdown arrives

Cover image for Spotify Q2 2021 earnings

Report by Mark Mulligan

11 Aug 2021

£3,000.00 excl. VAT

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...

MIDiA is recruiting for a Business Development Manager

Blog post by 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,...

The record labels are weaning themselves off their Spotify dependency

Blog post by 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...

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

Blog post by 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...

Addressable creator markets
An opportunity with many layers

Cover image for Addressable creator markets

Report by Mark Mulligan

29 Jul 2021

£4,000.00 excl. VAT

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....

Spotify and music listening 10 years from now

Blog post by 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...

Music consumer survey Q1 2021
YouTube extends its reach

Cover image for Music consumer survey Q1 2021

Report by Mark Mulligan

20 Jul 2021

£3,000.00 excl. VAT

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...

Global music subscriber market shares Q1 2021

Blog post by 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...

Emerging markets may be about to change the superstar business

Blog post by 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...

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

Cover image for MIDiA Research 2021 – 2028 global music forecasts

Report by 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...

How Bandcamp could really fix the music business

Blog post by 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.”...

The paradox of small

Blog post by 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,...

We’re Hiring (again)

Blog post by 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...