Blog - Page 77

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.

Amazon launches HD streaming: Is quality still enough to escape commodification?

Zach Fuller

23 Sep 2019

Streaming Music Music Amazon

This week, Amazon will launch Amazon Music HD in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, offering 50 million lossless HD songs with a sample rate of 44.1kHz described by Amazon as ‘CD quality’. It is an interesting move for the company and arguably the first to meaningfully push HD music streaming back ...

How Fender riffed on trends to drive its future forward

Keith Jopling

23 Sep 2019

Music Fender Business Strategy

By now everyone connected with business, music or both, knows the cautionary tale of Gibson Guitars. Rescued from insolvency in 2018, Gibson had been taken to the brink by a series of calamitous decisions, from transforming into a music lifestyle business loosely modelled on ‘what Nike is to sport...

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

Mark Mulligan

22 Sep 2019

Take Five Cultural trends

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 to care more about quality than Spotify users.

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The future of music: A vision of post-format

Mark Mulligan

18 Sep 2019

Music music industry Recorded music

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, formats are becoming a thing of the past – and yet the way in which music is made and distribu...

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Advertising at the Dawn of AVOD: Privacy and Consumer Sentiment

Hanna Kahlert

18 Sep 2019

Marketing Strategy Audio

The market is prepping itself for a big push into ad-supported video on demand (AVOD), as illustrated by Viacom’s recent acquisition of Pluto TV, Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s launch of STIRR, and Amazon’s IMDbTV rebrand and subsequent European rollout.

Prosus – The Prometheus Rising of the tech major era

Tim Mulligan

17 Sep 2019

Naspers Prometheus Rising Prosus

Post-war western alternative culture was distilled in Robert Anton Wilson’s cult classic Prometheus Rising . First published in 1983, it was considered a guidebook of “how to get from here to there” and described by its author as an “owner’s manual for the human brain”.

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NFL Tackles Gen Z through social media platforms

Amanda Stears

17 Sep 2019

Gen Z NFL Social media

5 September marked the kick-off of the 2019 National Football League (NFL) season – its 100th season to-date. This will be particularly relevant for broadcasters and sports rights holders alike, as the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl LIII back in February recorded its TV audience at an all-time low si...

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

Mark Mulligan

16 Sep 2019

Take Five Business Strategy

Spotify – small step, big step: Spotify has announced that it is acquiring musician marketplace company Soundbetter.Back in July, Spotify halted its artist direct offering. Some quarters viewed that as the end of Spotify’s disruptive label-competitor strategy.

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What the recorded music industry can learn from the 19th century whaling industry

Zach Fuller

15 Sep 2019

music industry Music

A high-risk industry with large upfront costs and no guarantee of return. No, this is not the recorded music industry, nor is it venture capital (VC) – this is the whaling industry of the 19th century.

Arcade plays to Apple’s strengths and everyone else’s weaknesses

Karol Severin

11 Sep 2019

Apple Arcade games subscriptions Gaming

Apple has revealed more detail about its upcoming Arcade. For $4.99 per month, users will have the ability to download and play 100+ exclusive games across Apple devices. While Apple is positioned as a ‘download and play’ proposition, the reality is it will compete against games streaming as wel...

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The rationale behind Apple TV+’s debut pricing

Tim Mulligan

11 Sep 2019

AppleTV+ SVOD Video

Yesterday, (September 10th 2019), Apple announced both a launch date and new pricing for its video subscription service Apple TV+. This follows on from the March Showtime event where Apple rolled out the Apple TV+ brand and the big names it has engaged to build out a premium video content offering.

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Songwriters aren’t getting paid enough – here’s why

Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2019

songwriters Streaming Royalties Music streaming

Editors note: Since this blog was first published, MIDiA has expanded its research into the challenges facing songwriters in the current music industry landscape. Find out more here . Music Business Worldwide recentlyran a storyon how Apple has proposed a standard streaming rate for songwriters, wit...

Streaming in Southeast Asia: Challenges and opportunities for international competitors

Amanda Stears

10 Sep 2019

asia pacific Southeast Asia streaming services

With a combined population of 371.7 million and a combined GDP of $2.9 trillion, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia represent sizeable and fast-growing markets for streaming services. The largest players by subscriptions are Netflix, iflix and Viu, with each competing and differentiating through their...

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Netflix’s binge-watching problem

Tim Mulligan

9 Sep 2019

Binge-watching Neflix Video

Netflix has announced that it is going to start releasing new episodes of The Great British Bake Off and reality series Rhythm + Flow on aweekly basis (via Polygon ). For a company which de-facto created the phenomenon of binge-viewing, this decision brings it more into line with current market tren...

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How technology is radically reshaping politics

Mark Mulligan

6 Sep 2019

Media News politics

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 you get when a country only has a part-written constitution and never quite got round to phasing...

Does Disney+ make Disney recession-proof?

Tim Mulligan

5 Sep 2019

Disney Disney+ Business Strategy

The storm clouds of recession continue to spread across the world. In the US, the inversion of the treasury bond yield which occurred in March of this year has meant that financial asset allocators are now prepared to pay more for less as they bid up the price of long-term government debt issuance.

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Quick take: Spotify expands premium duo into Latin America

Zach Fuller

5 Sep 2019

Music streaming Spotify Critical Developments

Spotify has announced that its Premium Duo plan will be expanding to another 17 countries, 14 of which are in Latin America. The plan, which is effectively a mini version of its popular family offering, has been created with the express intention of servicing couples who reside at the same home addr...

Sports fans consumer trends 2019

Hanna Kahlert

4 Sep 2019

Fans Media and Marketing Sports

This post features excerpts from MIDiA’s recently published Sports and Marketing and Brands report, ' Sports Fans Consumer Trends 2019 ' by Alistair Taylor. Sports-centric subscription video on demand (SVOD) services have largely struggled to entice subscribers, based on their current value propos...

Starz to Increase Brand Presence with AT&T Carriage Deal

Amanda Stears

3 Sep 2019

OTT Pay TV pay tv operators

On August 30, AT&T announced a multi-year content carriage deal with Starz, allowing AT&T to offer STARZ content to its customers. This content deal includes STARZ and STARZ ENCORE premium linear and HD channels, On-Demand, HD On-Demand and online services.

YouTube Returns to Its Roots by Making Originals Free

Amanda Stears

30 Aug 2019

ad supported strategy AVOD cord cutters

YouTube is shifting its original programming strategy by lifting the paywall for all of its original content. Since the rebranding of YouTube Premium in 2018, viewers can opt to pay for a monthly subscription fee of $11.

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