Zach Fuller | MIDiA Research

MIDiA Data Spotlight: Podcasts
Riding Streaming’s Wave

Cover image for MIDiA Data Spotlight: Podcasts

Report by Zach Fuller

3 Oct 2018

This is part of MIDiA’s data snapshot series in which we spotlight curated consumer datasets. Figure 1: Podcasts are Gaining Real Traction, Particularly in More Developed Streaming Markets Percentage...

Google Reveals Interactive YouTube Ad Tools as it Prepares to Compete with Amazon

Blog post by Zach Fuller

2 Oct 2018

digital advertising

Facebook

Online video

Ads on YouTube are about to get a lot more interactive. With competition from Amazon heating up, Google is doubling down on the competitive advantage of its video assets, namely YouTube’s unrivalled...

Sirius XM Acquires Pandora: Greater Than The Sum Of Their Parts?

Blog post by Zach Fuller

24 Sep 2018

Amazon Prime Music

Deezer

media acquisitions

In the latest example of media acquisitions, though one less likely to flood the headlines as Comcast’s purchase of Sky, Sirius XM has announced it will be purchasing streaming service Pandora for $3.5...

Will Direct Distribution Result in the YouTubification of Spotify?

Blog post by Zach Fuller

21 Sep 2018

Spotify until now has been chiefly about, for want of a better word, the ‘professional musician’. True, many artists on the platform may not be making a living exclusively through their art, but many...

S4 Capital's Growth Strategy

Blog post by Zach Fuller

14 Sep 2018

Advertising industry

communications

digital advertising

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said there are no second acts in American lives. Sir Martin Sorrell however is not an American, despite having conducted extensive business in the US and being rumoured to...

Until Subscriptions Take Off, Is YouTube the Main Way to Build Emerging Market Audiences?

Blog post by Zach Fuller

12 Sep 2018

Streaming has opened previously untapped emerging markets for music due to both heavy piracy and the absent legacy of a robust music industry, but monetisation remains lower in emerging markets because...

Quick Take: Twitch and Amazon’s Advertising Strategy

Blog post by Zach Fuller

22 Aug 2018

digital advertising

Media

Twitch

It is the fastest growing segment of the business and yet until recently no one seems to have addressed the extent to which Amazon’s advertising is becoming an increasing force in ad land. Now that’s...

Paid News Digital Subscriptions
Bubble or Breakthrough?

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Report by Zach Fuller

22 Aug 2018

Subscriptions

google

Facebook

Still feeling imbued with the often cited ‘Trump bump’, paid news media subscriptions continued their healthy growth trajectory throughout 2017 and into the first quarter of 2018. The market, excepting...

Quick Take: Was This the Week Snapchat Officially Lost the Stories War?

Blog post by Zach Fuller

10 Aug 2018

arpu

Daily Active users

Instagram

It does not seem long ago that slowed growth was enough to imbue discussions around then social media enfant terrible Snapchat with rumours of decline. However, this week’s Q2 announcement was a defining...

Tech Majors Market Shares Q2 2018
A Tale of Mixed Fortunes

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Report by Alistair Taylor, Karol Severin, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

10 Aug 2018

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Q2 2018 delivered contrasting milestones for the tech majors with Apple becoming the first company to have a trillion-dollar market capitalisation while Facebook simultaneously saw the single biggest one-day...

Why Vivendi Is Selling 50% of Universal Music Group

Blog post by Zach Fuller

31 Jul 2018

Critical Developments

This really sets the cat amongst the pigeons. Following months of rumours that suggested French media giant Vivendi would spin off UMG into a separate entity via an IPO, the Bollore owned company have...

Culture Bubbles: Is Trap the Disco of the 2010s?

Blog post by Zach Fuller

27 Jul 2018

cultura bubbles

disco

disco bubble

The tipping point in the 2015 film The Big Short, based on Michael Lewis’s book on the 2008 financial crisis, is when it dawns on Steve Carrell’s character upon traveling down from New York City to...

How The Telegraph Media Group Is Approaching Digital Disruption

Blog post by Zach Fuller

19 Jul 2018

Media and Marketing

At a surface level, the Telegraph Media Group’s earnings review a few weeks back had all the features of print news’ annual reports since the digital disruption began. Revenue for the Telegraph Media...

As Comcast Outbids 21st Century Fox, Sky Becomes Kingmaker for Traditional Media

Blog post by Zach Fuller

12 Jul 2018

Media and Marketing

It is THE blockbuster of the summer. A love triangle of fear, greed and jealousy played against the backdrop of generational successions and the previous masters of the universe competing for limited resources...

Streaming and the News Cycle: The Posthumous Success of XXXTentacion

Blog post by Zach Fuller

9 Jul 2018

blackboard jungle

childish gambino. this is america

soundcloud rap

Three weeks after his death and XXXTentacion remains a strong presence within the higher echelonsof the Billboard chart in the US. The late Florida rapper is far from the first artist to enjoy posthumous...

Corporate Mergers and the Battle for Fandom

Blog post by Zach Fuller

22 Jun 2018

Comcast

corporate mergers

Disney

Back in 1999, the Cluetrain Manifesto appeared across the nascent web as a predictive gospel of what this new technology meant for commerce. Still revered among software entrepreneurs, the ebook outlined...

What’s in a Log-In? Social Platform Wars 2018

Blog post by Zach Fuller

15 Jun 2018

Evan Spiegel

Facebook

Instagram

Snap Inc has launched an alternative to the ubiquitous ‘log-in with Facebook’ offer, which commands the paucity of visual real estate available on app screens. This follows Snap’s recent announcement...

The Outlook for Music Catalogue
Streaming Changes Everything

Cover image for The Outlook for Music Catalogue

Report by Mark Mulligan and Zach Fuller

14 Jun 2018

Spotify

Amazon

Napster

Catalogue was a real money spinner for the music industry throughout the sales era. First it underpinned the CD boom (convincing music fans to re-purchase old albums they already owned on prior formats)....

Tech Majors Market Shares Q1 2018
Advertising and Subscriptions Power Growth

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Report by Alistair Taylor, Karol Severin, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

7 Jun 2018

Subscriptions

Streaming

Apple

In Q1 2018 advertising revenue and services revenue drove strong growth for the tech majors – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, with Alphabet and Apple retaining their respective leads in each of those...

Do Playlists Make the Power Law in Music Even More Extreme?

Blog post by Zach Fuller

31 May 2018

apple music

Music Charts

Music Streaming

Music has always been a superstar economy. Data going back to the 50s shows that, like many other areas of life and business, a disproportionate amount of the results come from a small number of factors....