Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

‘Brat’ summer and the dilemmas of going mainstream

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Tatiana Cirisano
It has become a rule of thumb that the moment corporate America begins capitalising on a trend, that trend begins to die. Cultural fragmentation has helped niches and scenes flourish, but it has also left large corporations that depend on mainstream products hungry for relevance — and willing to do anything to tap into the zeitgeist, including wringing cultural moments dry.
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As Spotify cuts back on podcast creation, opportunities arise for competitors in Latin America

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Rutger Rosenborg
In an early 2024 editorial for media and marketing publication Campaign, we declared, “ It is time for the podcast industry to think global and act local ”. Geared towards helping advertisers better optimise their content for international success, the larger context of this declaration was the continued growth of podcasts outside of the US and UK — especially in “emerging” markets like Latin America.
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How CapCut is challenging Adobe Premiere Pro’s dominance of the video editing market

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Ben Woods
Social platforms have brought a significant number of new creators into the market. With this has come a whole host of creator tools companies looking to capitalise on the opportunity. While their features may vary, they share a common goal: each app wants to secure steady, long-term engagement as a user progresses from a beginner to an advanced creator.
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Instagram and the download-delete cycle: a cultural shift for social platforms

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Hanna Kahlert
Forget the tech-centric sci-fi future promised by the early 2000’s; the new aspiration is going offline. Analogue is the new ‘cool’, and it is not just about nostalgia. Audiences are searching for authenticity, connection, novelty, experience, and tangible ownership of the things they love, all of which are scarce now in an oversaturated digital environment .
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HYBE 2.0 diverges from the major-label blueprint in 4 key ways — will it work?

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Tatiana Cirisano
HYBE kicked off the month with new leadership and a new plan to bring the Korean entertainment company into its next era of growth. In a letter to shareholders , outgoing CEO Jiwon Park and new chief Jason Jaesang Lee were refreshingly open about HYBE’s past weaknesses as they laid out a plan to prepare for market shifts and bring the “K-pop system” to new genres and regions.
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The future of AI-generated audiobooks is here

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Rutger Rosenborg
In March, on the heels of a Danish man becoming the first person convicted of streaming fraud, MIDiA explained how AI could soon enable a golden age of audio piracy . Coupled with the fact that book publishers have been reporting that AI-generated books are being published under their names or oddly similar ones on sites like Amazon and Goodreads, there are big implications for audiobooks.
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What Audible’s new royalty model means for its audiobook battle with Spotify

Cover image for What Audible’s new royalty model means for its audiobook battle with Spotify
Rutger Rosenborg
In early July, Audible’s blog broke the news that the company was introducing a new royalty model for audiobooks. Previously, according to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman , Audible would do a “buyout”, paying a publisher an upfront fee to have their book on the service rather than distributing royalties according to titles or hours listened.
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Marketers, don't miss out on GTA 6

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Rhys Elliott
Grand Theft Auto VI ( GTA 6 ) is due to launch in autumn 2026. It will be one of the century's biggest entertainment launches, and its impact will ripple through culture for years to come. Remember how every brand jumped on the Barbie movie hype train with an everything-pink activation? GTA 6 is about to usher in a similar opportunity –– a bigger one that will last far beyond a single summer.
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The video creator economy’s challenge: not all creators want to pay for editing tools

Cover image for The video creator economy’s challenge: not all creators want to pay for editing tools
Ben Woods
Video creation has never been more accessible. More and more entertainment consumers are shifting from passive to lean-through consumption by creating their own content. However, those creators have different priorities from professional editors and videographers who have made up the video creator economy for decades.
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