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.

Format versus context: Can a YouTuber make it on TV?

Cover image for Format versus context: Can a YouTuber make it on TV?
Hanna Kahlert
Media and Marketing
Cultural trends
Fandom
YouTube star MrBeast is making recent headlines for his video upload experiment with X , and now a potential partnership with Amazon Prime Video for a new reality series. The competition to turn the popular YouTuber into an audience draw for other platforms is on –but can a star in one place, still be a star anywhere else? This would not be the first time an entertainment company has tried to convert a popular social media figure.
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PLAY – music’s next chapter

Cover image for PLAY – music’s next chapter
Mark Mulligan
Music
Business Strategy
The old maxim that change is the only constant feels tailor made for the 21stcentury music business. No sooner does the industry get its head around one paradigm shift then another one comes along. First piracy, then downloads, then streaming, then the rise of the independent artist and now…well, just what is ‘now’? AI may be the word on everyone’s lips, but as transformational as it will be, it is going to be an enabler of a wider shift, one that will see a forking from today’s LISTEN-focused ecosystem, resulting in the emergence of a new, parallel PLAY-focused one.
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The crumbling of music media is a disaster for the music industry

Cover image for The crumbling of music media is a disaster for the music industry
Tatiana Cirisano
Music fandom
music journalism
Record labels
As a former music journalist, I can say that layoffs are somewhat to be expected when you work in media. Nobody gets into this industry looking for stability. But the past 12 months have felt especially grim, with a growing list of mass layoffs and complete shutdowns that includes Bandcamp Daily , MTV News , NPR , Vox Media, and Los Angeles Times , to name just a few.
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For years, we said to take games efforts of these companies seriously – now they are serious players

Cover image for For years, we said to take games efforts of these companies seriously – now they are serious players
Karol Severin
Netflix
Apple Arcade
Games
MIDiA has always been bullish about traditionally non-gaming tech companies’ opportunity in games. The first time we wrote about Netflix’s opportunity in games was in 2017. We also wrote about the significance of Apple Arcade early on ( here , here , and reiterated reasons for the games industry to take it seriously again, here ).
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The slow-TV opportunity

Cover image for The slow-TV opportunity
Samuel Griffin
Video
Product Strategy
Since its debut in 2010, Netflix’s Fireplace for Your Home – consisting of three one-hour long episodes of crackling, rolling, digital flames – has been a semi-popular release on the platform. This year, for the first time, however, the show made it into the global top 10 most watched shows during the week leading up to Christmas, spanning across 10 countries across Europe and the Americas.
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Are we approaching an analogue revival?

Cover image for Are we approaching an analogue revival?
Hanna Kahlert
analogue
dvds
Vinyl
It is now 2024 (yikes), and New Year’s resolutions are making the rounds. Anecdotally, at least seven of us at MIDiA have resolved to go more analogue this year. More broadly, many people, alongside the traditional attempts to go to the gym more or do ‘Dry January’, seem to be opting to cut down on their social media and broader smartphone usage.
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