Blog: Artists direct

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.

A model for a new music streaming industry

Cover image for A model for a new music streaming industry

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

The music industry is approaching a pivot point. On the one hand, things look positive: we have UMG’s Streaming 2.0 , artist centric licensing, the impending launch of supremium and expanded rights revenue hitting $4.

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Why artist subscriptions are the perfect partner to two-tier licensing

Cover image for Why artist subscriptions are the perfect partner to two-tier licensing

Mark Mulligan

2 Nov 2023

With two-tier licensing now a thing , it is time to focus the discussion on how to add new components to the DSP ecosystem that will help long-tail artists continue to thrive in this brave new world. There are many positives that two-tier licensing will bring (helping mid-tier artist remuneration, attaching an appropriate premium to lean-forward listening, etc.

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Who tomorrow's music business is being built for

Cover image for Who tomorrow's music business is being built for

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Jun 2023

Product Strategy

The creator tools industry, meaning the market for music-making hardware and software, has historically served as the funnel to the recorded music industry. At the centre of that industry are big record labels, which trade on career artists.

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The tap water music industry needs to become a bottled one

Cover image for The tap water music industry needs to become a bottled one

Kriss Thakrar

20 Jun 2023

Music streaming

Creator economy

Music and water are often compared to each other in the streaming age. There are many ways to express this analogy, but the bottom line is that music is becoming commoditised. To clarify, commoditisation is the erosion of a product from one that is highly differentiated and highly priced (with high margins) into one that isn’t.

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Why the creator tools and services market is bigger than you think (and it is not AI)

Cover image for Why the creator tools and services market is bigger than you think (and it is not AI)

Tatiana Cirisano

10 May 2023

Creator economy

One of the biggest stories of the past few years is the rise of self-releasing artists, who number 6.4 million in 2022, a 16.8% growth from 2021. Everyone wants a piece of that growth, which is part of the reason why distributors like Stem and TuneCore increasingly offer much more than distribution, major record labels are opening (or acquiring) their own label service operations, and there is a growing roster of what Music Business Worldwide has termed “inside-out majors” , like the recently-launched Gamma.

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Embrace, enhance or hinder: What will AI do for you, the creator?

Cover image for Embrace, enhance or hinder: What will AI do for you, the creator?

Kriss Thakrar

3 May 2023

Creator economy

There has been an abundance of coverage and conversation around AI, and it is unlikely to fade away any time soon. There is a question of how AI will change the music industry and broader creator economy.

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Solving the problems of AI require defining what it is… and these lines are tricky to draw

Cover image for Solving the problems of AI require defining what it is… and these lines are tricky to draw

Hanna Kahlert

20 Apr 2023

Media and Marketing

Universal Music Group has released a statement asking streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music to stop allowing AI’s to train on their datasets, and to remove AI music (largely in the wake of the viral AI-generated hit ‘Heart On My Sleeve’, made in the style of The Weeknd and Drake).

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The coming long-tail cull

Cover image for The coming long-tail cull

Mark Mulligan

8 Nov 2022

independent creators

When governments plan to introduce controversial new policies, they prepare the ground in advance (dropping hints in speeches, privately briefing journalists, etc.), so that by the time the new policy finally arrives, it does not feel quite so controversial.

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Artists and managers: Help shape the future of artist services

Cover image for Artists and managers: Help shape the future of artist services

Kriss Thakrar

7 Nov 2022

Independent artists

It has arguably never been harder for artists to break through on social media, streaming, and in the real world. We repeatedly hear how artists and their teams are overextended, burned out and overwhelmed by the demands of the modern music industry.

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Recorded music market shares 2021 – Red letter year

Cover image for Recorded music market shares 2021 – Red letter year

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2022

Record music market

global music revenues

label trade revenues 2021

We suggested back in 2020, that 2021 was going to be a strong year for the recorded music market. As it turns out, 2021 was the fastest growing year in living memory, with growth across most formats, contrasting strongly with 2020 when streaming was the only growth segment.

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Artists survey 2022 - MIDiA asks music creators: how will you grow your audiences, earnings and career?

Cover image for Artists survey 2022 - MIDiA asks music creators: how will you grow your audiences, earnings and career?

Keith Jopling

8 Feb 2022

Music streaming

Content Creators

As the music industry continues to debate the many pros and cons of ‘the streaming era’ (while enjoying the unprecedented industry growth that it has brought), the spotlight can sometimes move away from those artists and songwriters who make a living from music but are not the big stars or household names that we know and read about in the news.

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The paradox of small

Cover image for The paradox of small

Mark Mulligan

18 Jun 2021

independent creators

creator culture

When the history books are written about our current times, the rise of creator culture will likely go down as one of the most impactful paradigm shifts. It is a dynamic that extends far beyond music, but it is impacting the music industry more directly than it is other entertainment industries – in large part because the music business is not yet set up for the economies of micro audiences.

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Gamers: The new frontier of music’s fan-centric growth

Cover image for Gamers: The new frontier of music’s fan-centric growth

Karol Severin

13 Apr 2021

Music companies have begun to realise that as their industry has grown, it has also transferred much of its previous fan value into the subscription and song economy. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent halt of live music events (which, since the advent of streaming, became music’s key way of monetising fandom) increased the urgency with which monetising fandom in the digital era needs to be addressed by artists and their representatives.

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The Age of the Creators

Cover image for The Age of the Creators

Hanna Kahlert

17 Feb 2020

artist streaming income

Chart Of The Week

For the meek shall inherit the earth… Since early 2019, MIDiA has been publishing findings that we are moving progressively into a market dynamic in which creators are being empowered by technology to have greater direct control of their output, from conception to completion to monetisation.

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Spotify Q4 2019: First Signs of the New Spotify

Cover image for Spotify Q4 2019: First Signs of the New Spotify

Mark Mulligan

5 Feb 2020

spotify creator tools

Spotify’s Q4 2019 results reflect another strong quarter and a good year for Spotify. Look a bit deeper, however, and there are the first signs of the new company that Spotify is building – and they point to a very different and much bolder future.

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Independent Artists: The Age of Empowerment

Cover image for Independent Artists: The Age of Empowerment

Mark Mulligan

11 Jul 2019

MIDiA is proud to announce an exclusive new report in conjunction with Amuse – Independent Artists: The Age of Empowerment . The report is based on a global survey of independent artists that we conducted earlier this year, with respondents from all of the world’s continents.

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PledgeMusic and Not-So-Glorious Failure

Mark Mulligan

10 May 2019

Pioneering fan funding platform PledgeMusic is now officially over, having entered administration (i.e. Chapter 11) in the UK reportedly owing its artists around $1 million and with little expectation of any asset sale generating enough cash to clear those debts.

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Last Call for Our Artist Survey

Mark Mulligan

15 Apr 2019

This is your last chance to take part in our global artist survey - we are closing the survey this Friday (19th April). As a reminder: In partnership with independent distribution company Amuse, MIDiA Research is undertaking a detailed study of the music artist landscape.

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Calling all Artists!

Mark Mulligan

14 Mar 2019

In partnership with independent distribution company Amuse, MIDiA Research is undertaking a detailed study of the music artist landscape. We are fielding a survey to the artist community , exploring issues such as: What success looks like to you Career aspirations The importance of signing to a record label Financial wellbeing Maintaining creative control If you are a singer, DJ, producer, performer, or in a band, then we’d love to hear your views.

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2018 Global Label Market Share: Stream Engine

Cover image for 2018 Global Label Market Share: Stream Engine

Mark Mulligan

13 Mar 2019

Recorded music revenues grew in 2018 for the fourth consecutive year, reaching $18.8 billion, up $2.2 billion from 2017. Streaming was the engine room of growth, up 30% year on year to reach $9.6 billion.

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