Blog: Alexa

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.

Suno, Alexa, and the rise of ‘create to consume’

Cover image for Suno, Alexa, and the rise of ‘create to consume’

Ben Woods

21 Mar 2025

Creator economy

This blog was created with collaborative inputs from Ben Woods, Mark Mulligan , Tatiana Cirisano , and Kriss Thakrar . It is hard to think about generative AI without coming back to copyright. There is a pressing need to find IP safeguards before even more copyrighted content is used to train AI mo...

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The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Cover image for The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Hanna Kahlert

14 Dec 2022

As entertainment companies start planning their next big steps for the coming year, the success and failure of their strategic decisions will hinge on one big, and perhaps surprising, existential question : is this it for the tech industry? Planning for 2023 seems to mean planning for disruption, an...

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Ellie Goulding and Billie Eilish Are Streaming’s New Normal

Cover image for Ellie Goulding and Billie Eilish Are Streaming’s New Normal

Mark Mulligan

3 Jan 2020

Christmas number one

Less than a week into the new decade and we already have the first indications that the streaming rulebook continues to be rewritten faster than the ink can dry on its last entry. Three separate articles, on the surface unrelated, when stitched together create the outline of a new streaming narrativ...

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Have We Reached Peak Tech?

Cover image for Have We Reached Peak Tech?

Mark Mulligan

27 Sep 2019

In last week’s Take Five I highlighted a Vox story which reported that over the last year the number of companies using terms like ‘tech’ or technology’ in their documents is down 12%. This is an early indicator of a much more fundamental concept – we may have already reached peak in the t...

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Spotify, Apple Music and Ad-Supported Streaming

Zach Fuller

11 May 2018

ad supported streaming

Cast your mind back to streaming yesteryear, back when the format was yet to establish itself as the industry’s dominant source of revenue. Spotify pushed heavily for a free tier, citing its impressive conversion rates to paid subscriptions.

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Sonos @ 15

Mark Mulligan

8 Sep 2017

Sonos, granddaddy of the connected home audio marketplace, is now 15 years old. Sonos was a pioneer that was so far ahead of its time, it inadvertently found itself as one of the key early drivers of streaming subscriptions.

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The Three Eras Of Paid Streaming

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Mark Mulligan

28 Jul 2017

3 ages of streaming

3 eras of streaming

3 phases of streaming

Streaming has driven such a revenue renaissance within the major record labels that the financial markets are now falling over themselves to work out where they can invest in the market, and indeed whether they should.

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Thoughts On Second-Order Effects For Content Discovery in Voice

Zach Fuller

30 Jun 2017

Second-order effects are rarely considered when new technologies come to the fore and reach critical mass. For example, the realisation of smartphones, the emergence of Apple's app store and the ubiquity of Wi-Fi and cheap, effective data in mature digital markets means a service such as WhatsApp ma...

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Quick Take: Amazon’s Whole Foods Acquisition Is A Major Coup For Voice Control Commerce

Zach Fuller

16 Jun 2017

In the hours following the announcement of Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of American supermarket chain Whole Foods, much of the immediate attention is currently focused on how the e-commerce giant will disrupt the food and grocery brick-and-mortar retail experience.

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Quick Take: Google Home Counters The Echo Threat By Introducing Payments

Zach Fuller

1 Jun 2017

google assistant

Google have released a new Google Payment API with specific emphasis on voice capabilities. The service will allow Google Home device users to pay in-app or online with any verified credit or debit card saved to their Google account via products such as Google Play, Chrome and YouTube.

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Why the Voice Control Landscape Will Be So Competitive

Cover image for Why the Voice Control Landscape Will Be So Competitive

Zach Fuller

26 May 2017

Withthe success of Prime and the Echo, Amazon at present is experiencing the same halo effect that graced Microsoft in the 90s and Apple in the 00s. Withtheir finger on the pulse of everything from entertainment (Manchester by-the-sea, American Gods) to drones, there appears to be a consensus that s...

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Amazon Double Down on Voice Control by Announcing Echo Show

Zach Fuller

9 May 2017

Amazon is doubling down on Echo’s success (60% growth rate since November 2016) by just announcing the Echo Show. A visual iteration on the Echo, the device is priced at $229.99 and will initially only be released in the US, mimicking the rollout strategy of the original Echo device last year.

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Will Amazon’s Lex Platform Be the New App-Store?

Zach Fuller

21 Apr 2017

Amazon Prime Video

Swiftly following the success of the Echo, Amazon have announced their Lex platform is now open to 3rd party developers, allowing them to create and monetise chat-bots, further embellishing the device.

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A Tale Of Two Technologies: The Narrative And The Numbers For VR And Voice

Zach Fuller

1 Feb 2017

In the tradition of effective storytelling, the technology industry’s romantic narrative often involves two basic troupes: a garage and a dream. This alluring chronology is so embedded in start-up folklore that it permeates the foundation myths of everyone from Apple to Google, and it actually pre...

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Will Amazon Eat The Voice Command World?

Karol Severin

9 Jan 2017

Last year was undoubtedly the year of video. As CES kicked off to shine more light on where the efforts of the industry are headed this year, it is becoming increasingly clear just how much voice command is emphasised, particularly as the battle for connected homes and cars heats up.

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