Tatiana Cirisano | MIDiA Research

How live music will change in the next decade

20 Jul 2023

The pandemic sent shock waves through the live music industry — a historic, catastrophic disruption to a decades-old business. But just because touring is back, does not mean that we are in the clear.

min read

Return to live
Post-pandemic music fans

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

July 2023

Consumer behaviour

live music

Music creators

Today’s live music audience skews 45+, with rock concerts and theatres / concert halls dominating sales. Fandom is by far the strongest factor in purchasing tickets, eclipsing price, and location. So, despite challenges like inflation and scalping, most concertgoers plan to attend more or the same number of concerts going forward.

Will ByteDance build the first cultural graph for music recommendations?

Tatiana Cirisano

11 Jul 2023

TikTok

bytedance

Music streaming

ByteDance’s long-awaited new subscription streaming app, TikTok Music, is here, with an initial launch in Indonesia and Brazil. The news overshadowed the US beta launch of ByteDance’s new music creation app, Ripple, which is likely to make waves.

min read

Right place, right time: Taylor Swift's track to the first $1 billion tour

Tatiana Cirisano

29 Jun 2023

Taylor Swift

Record labels

music marketing

Another day, another record for Taylor Swift. As Wall Street Journal broke down this week, the superstar is now on track to achieve the first $1 billion tour in music history. A billion factors and decisions led up to this moment, with Swift’s songwriting artistry and business savvy high among them.

min read

Who tomorrow's music business is being built for

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Jun 2023

Music creators

Music

Product Strategy

The creator tools industry, meaning the market for music-making hardware and software, has historically served as the funnel to the recorded music industry. At the centre of that industry are big record labels, which trade on career artists.

min read

As Spotify's door closes on Soundtrap, another opens

Tatiana Cirisano

16 Jun 2023

Music streaming

Spotify

SoundCloud

Writing about a new era of music fluidity last month, we noted how streaming services might align more closely with creation, as Spotify has done by acquiring music creation platform Soundtrap. Well, that vision for Spotify is no longer.

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What ‘Barbie’, ‘The Idol’, and more say about the future of artists in film

Tatiana Cirisano

8 Jun 2023

music industry

Record labels

Music publishing

2023 is already shaping up to be another big year for music artists in Hollywood. Late last month, Jack Harlow made his acting debut in a Hulu remake of 1992 basketball comedy White Men Can’t Jump . The Weeknd (who is now going by Abel Tesfaye) stars in Max’s controversial new series, The Idol , in which BLACKPINK's Jennie also makes her acting debut.

min read

UMG, Endel, and the case for labels in the AI space

Tatiana Cirisano

1 Jun 2023

Universal Music Group

Warner Music Group

Record labels

The flood of new music created using artificial intelligence (AI) will further erode major label market share, and some label executives’ recent comments about the value of human-made music seem to put those fears in plain sight.

min read

Livestreaming strategy in a social-video world
Work with UGC, not against it

Cover image for Livestreaming strategy in a social-video world

Tatiana Cirisano

June 2023

live

Amazon Prime

gigs

Livestreamed concerts are establishing themselves as complementary experiences, rather than replacements for in-person gigs. A picture of the average livestreamer — older millennials who are entertainment super-consumers — is coming into focus. Now, as the rise of social video coincides with the return of in-person concerts and festivals, user-generated content (UGC) at shows is joining the digital concert mix.

How Coachella put the power of UGC livestreaming on display

Tatiana Cirisano

June 2023

YouTube

Music

Business Strategy

Read the case study …

A new era of music fluidity is here

Tatiana Cirisano

23 May 2023

Music fandom

user-generated content

Social media

What do AI Drake, adaptive music, and TikTok open-verse challenges have in common? All reflect a major shift of music consumption from a passive, static, and uni-directional experience to an active, dynamic, multi-directional one.

min read

Why the creator tools and services market is bigger than you think (and it is not AI)

Tatiana Cirisano

10 May 2023

Music creators

creator tools

Creator economy

One of the biggest stories of the past few years is the rise of self-releasing artists, who number 6.4 million in 2022, a 16.8% growth from 2021. Everyone wants a piece of that growth, which is part of the reason why distributors like Stem and TuneCore increasingly offer much more than distribution, major record labels are opening (or acquiring) their own label service operations, and there is a growing roster of what Music Business Worldwide has termed “inside-out majors” , like the recently-launched Gamma.

min read

Artists direct
Focus on passion, not professionalism

Tatiana Cirisano

May 2023

Spotify

SoundCloud

All eyes of the music business are on artists direct, the fastest-growing segment of the industry. But the 6.4 million artists in this segment are far from a unified group, and have varied aspirations, challenges, and needs. MIDiA’s 2023 creator survey reflects that the two largest sub-segments of artists direct are those who seek full-time music careers; and those who are passionate about music, but not seeking a full-time career.

AI and the future of music
The future is already here

Cover image for AI and the future of music

Mark Mulligan, Hanna Kahlert and Tatiana Cirisano

May 2023

Spotify

SoundCloud

Netflix

Unlike most new technology hype cycles, the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) has on the world is already surpassing expectations. Within the music industry, AI will largely be an enabler and accelerant of already-existing trends and market shifts: the growth of self-releasing artists, the consumerisation of music-making, and the resulting oversaturation and hyper-fragmentation of the market.

An AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd collab is shaking the music industry

Mark Mulligan, Hanna Kahlert and Tatiana Cirisano

May 2023

Music

Read the case study …

Why AI generation might be just what music needs

Tatiana Cirisano

25 Apr 2023

Record labels

artificial intelligence

Music streaming

In her hit ‘Saoko’, Rosalía celebrates her multi-dimensionality, singing (translated from Spanish): “I contradict myself, I transform / I’m everything, I transform”. As artists navigate the world of AI-generated music, her words might become a mantra.

min read

Live streams won’t steal ticket sales, but social just might

Tatiana Cirisano

18 Apr 2023

live streaming

coachella

music festivals

Frank Ocean’s headlining Coachella set on Sunday night was one of the most-anticipated sets ever, not least because the elusive singer has not performed publicly since 2017, but also because the performance was a holdover from 2020’s cancelled festival.

min read

Music streaming’s looming generational blind spot

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Apr 2023

Music streaming

millennials

Gen Z

Music streaming platforms have clamoured to attract Gen Z, with good reason. The cool, new kids out-stream everyone and are pioneering new ways to engage with music, yet they are spending more time on TikTok than streaming services might like.

min read

US millennial snapshot
A looming generational blind spot

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

April 2023

Spotify

YouTube

Deezer

In the US, 25-34-year-olds are the music industry’s most valuable segment. Yet their relationship with streaming is tenuous. Streaming is not meeting these consumers’ need for a more social, less algorithm-driven experience. What is more, they appear most likely to give their subscriptions up.

Apple Music is winning over US 25-34s

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

April 2023

Apple

Spotify

Music

Read the case study …