Mark Mulligan

Spotify Podcasts Q3 2019: Solid Start

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

29 Oct 2019

Word count is always a useful guide for how important something is to a company’s ambitions. It is therefore no small detail that Spotify’s Q3 2019 earnings release mentioned the word ‘podcast’…

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) October 28th 2019

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

28 Oct 2019

SiriusXM, podcast marvel: SiriusXM has struck a multiyear deal with Marvel to create exclusive podcasts , illustrating that traditional radio companies still have the potential to be the major players…

Smart Speakers and Headphone Market Shares
Expanding Streaming’s Addressable Base

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Report by Mark Mulligan

25 Oct 2019

The 20,000 Foot View: The rise of digital pushed music out of the home stereo and into the earbud. Over recent years this has created a booming market for headphones, but speakers are fighting back –…

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) October 14th 2019

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

14 Oct 2019

Fortnite black hole: In what may be the most audacious global games marketing stunt ever, Epic Games killed off Fortnite in Sunday’s end-of-season event , which one million people viewed…

How Music Publishers Are Driving a Full Stack Revolution

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

14 Oct 2019

Music publishing catalogues are gaining momentum fast as an asset class for institutional investments, with transactions ranging from large catalogue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) through to investment…

Music Publishing
A Full-Stack Revolution

Report by Mark Mulligan

9 Oct 2019

The 20,000 Foot View: Tencent’s bid for 10% of Universal Music Group has set a new high-water mark for what risks becoming an overheated music rights mergers and acquisitions (M&A) sector. However,…

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) October 7th 2019

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

7 Oct 2019

Streaming pricing, emerging questions: Music Business Worldwide raised the question of why streaming is discounted in emerging markets when BMWs and Amazon Echoes are not. There are many layers to…

Abbey Road 50 Years On: The Two Worlds of Music Listening

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

7 Oct 2019

Half a century after it first after it first topped the charts, the Beatles’ Abbey Road is back at the summit of the UK charts. With the anniversary editions retailing for between $20 and $100,…

Consumer Ad Receptiveness
Apathy, Evasion and Engagement

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Report by Mark Mulligan

30 Sep 2019

The 20,000 Foot View: On-demand audiences expect to be able to control their digital experiences, and many have opted for the ad-free oases of streaming subscriptions. While traditional media might be…

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) September 27th 2019

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

30 Sep 2019

Music licensing hubs: Monokromelaunched its Rights Hub , contractual rights and file management platform for rightsholders, while Soundfeed put its label sub-licensing platform into open beta.…

Have We Reached Peak Tech?

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

27 Sep 2019

In last week’s Take Five I highlighted a Vox story which reported that over the last year the number of companies using terms like ‘tech’ or technology’ in their documents is down 12%. This…

Music Consumer Behaviour Q2 2019
Fragmentation and Disruption

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Report by Mark Mulligan

26 Sep 2019

The 20,000 Foot View: This report presents key trends and analysis from MIDiA’s quarterly Music Brand Tracker survey, including places of listening, streaming music activities, radio, demographics,…

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) September 22nd 2019

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

22 Sep 2019

Amazon, hi-def bet: Amazon has launched its long-slated Amazon Music HD service, delivering lossless FLAC files to a new HD streaming tier. Amazon is betting on its older, higher-income user base…

The Future of Music: A Vision of Post-Format

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

18 Sep 2019

Formats have shaped and dictated the evolution of recorded music. The constraints that formats set have, in turn, become the creative frameworks within which music has operated. Now, in the internet era,…

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) - September 16th 2019

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

16 Sep 2019

Spotify – small step, big step: Spotify has announced that it is ac quiring musician marketplace company Soundbetter. Back in July, Spotify halted its artist direct offering. Some quarters…

Songwriters Aren’t Getting Paid Enough and Here’s Why

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2019

Music Business Worldwide recently ran a story on how Apple has proposed a standard streaming rate for songwriters, with Google and Spotify apparently resistant. Of course, Apple can afford…

How Technology Is Radically Reshaping Politics

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

6 Sep 2019

As I write this, the UK is in the midst of a potential constitutional crisis following the UK government’s proposed changes to political norms in order to push through Brexit. In some ways this is what…

Spotify Q2 2019 Earnings
Mature Markets Still the Engine Room of Growth

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Report by Mark Mulligan

29 Aug 2019

The 20,000 Foot View: Q2 2019 was another solid quarter for Spotify, adding the same number of subscribers it typically does in promotional quarters. Core metrics such as churn and average revenue per…

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) August 23rd 2019

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

23 Aug 2019

Taylor Swift, pre-sale love: Taylor Swift tends not to adhere to prevailing industry trends. As a millennial artist with a strong Gen Z following, streaming should rightly be the core of her recordings…

Why Spotify and Netflix Need to Worry About a Global Recession

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

23 Aug 2019

A growing body of economists is becoming increasingly convinced that a global recession is edging closer. The last time we experienced a global economic downturn was the 2008 credit crunch.…