Blog: audience

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.

The music industry’s boiling frog moment

Mark Mulligan

12 Feb 2026

Business Strategy Streaming Social media

Throw a frog in a pot of boiling water and it will instantly jump out, terrified (and very hot). But put it in a pot of cool water and slowly increase the heat to boiling and it will stay there until it dies.

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Why ignoring creator wellbeing is a financial risk for the creator economy

Ben Woods

20 Nov 2025

Audience Insight Video Creators

Each day, millions of hours of video content are uploaded onto social video platforms. The stream of creative output is so vast that it can be easy to forget that behind each one of these videos there is often a creator putting in a significant amount of work.

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The audio drama renaissance: The curious case of Sherlock & Co.

Laura Fisher

14 Nov 2025

Product Strategy Podcasts Entertainment

The audio drama, a format once consigned to history, is enjoying a remarkable revival. At its epicentre is a compelling case study in modern audience engagement: Goalhanger’s Sherlock & Co . a narrative podcast now approaching one million monthly downloads.

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Online radio and community building: A closer look at NTS’ Don’t Assume Day

Laura Fisher

6 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Music

By any measure, streaming defines today’s music landscape. It’s a period in which digital platforms determine how audiences access, discover, and share music. Yet as algorithmic playlists saturate the experience, a counter current has emerged: listeners are seeking context and connection, not ju...

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The future of trust in media: Why transparency is key

Laura Fisher

29 Oct 2025

Content Media audience

What is the future of trust in media? It feels like a multi-million-pound question. A recent webinar by The Media Leader explored the topic, which then prompted me to crystallise some of my own thoughts on the subject.

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Beyond listening: What podcast libraries can tell us about consumer identity

Laura Fisher

22 Oct 2025

Audience Insight Podcasts Consumer behaviour

Podcast libraries have evolved beyond a simple log of listening habits, becoming a telling indicator of personal identity. Increasingly, the most revealing source of who someone is may not be their social media feed or viewing history, but the podcasts they choose to follow.

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Beyond the anecdote: The need for a data-driven superfan definition

Laura Fisher

10 Sep 2025

Fandom Entertainment Engagement

Whether you work in the entertainment industry or not, you have almost certainly used the term superfan . It’s a ubiquitous label we apply to the most ardent audiences. It’s the fans who camp out for new releases, who own every variant of a vinyl, who drive viral moments, and whose identities ar...

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From niche to mainstream: How video games adaptations are taking over movies and television

Brandon Sutton

3 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Entertainment Games

Today’s most successful movies and television shows are video game adaptations. For those who remember the media landscape of the 1980s and 1990s, this represents a marked shift in the entertainment industry.

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What traditional media can learn from sports fandom’s bifurcation moment

Ben Woods

15 Aug 2025

Fandom Entertainment Engagement

Too often, fans are categorised as one amorphous group. They can be lumped together regardless of their age, purchasing power, community engagement, or entertainment consumption behaviours. Fans are a diverse group and always have been.

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Instagram Maps: Feature or future?

Hanna Kahlert

14 Aug 2025

Instagram Snapchat Social media

Meta’s Instagram has begun rolling out a new ‘Maps’ feature, similar to Snapchat’s (but with added privacy concerns). It has also rolled out a new ‘friends’ tab on the Reels page, allowing users to see videos already liked by others they follow, seemingly weighted by the friends they int...

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What to do when the medium loses meaning

Laura Fisher

17 Jul 2025

Business Strategy Entertainment Content

We are living through a peculiar moment in media evolution, where the traditional categories used to organising content – TV, radio, podcast, film – are collapsing under their own weight. Not because they are obsolete, but because they do not reflect how audiences are consuming media.

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Building fandom is about the journey, not the destination

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jul 2025

Fandom Entertainment Media

“Superfans” remain the headline topic for the entertainment industries , in music and beyond. They are the biggest cheerleaders amongst their peers, the most engaged on social media and streaming, and the highest spenders across the board.

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Why fandom’s ‘more is more’ era could backfire

Olivia Jones

9 Jul 2025

Marketing Strategy Fandom Social media

‘Less is more’ has long been a pillar of entertainment marketing strategy, promoting the importance of quality over quantity. However, in the past decade, the new phrase has effectively become “more is more” as all forms of entertainment push to release as much content as possible, as often ...

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“Just because a song is viral doesn’t mean it’s good” and that’s a real problem for artists

Laura Fisher

1 May 2025

Music Creators Artists

I saw this statement shared (ironically, virally) as a post on Instagram over the weekend. My initial thought – from the perspective of someone who has never paid much mind to chart placements – was: “ well , yeah .

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Online culture is fragmenting: Why White Lotus spoilers are not flooding the internet

Hanna Kahlert

9 Apr 2025

Cultural trends TikTok Streaming

Key takeaways from this blog: Audience fragmentation is growing, with platforms like TikTok losing influence and shows like White Lotus thriving in niche, offline conversations Oversaturation of content is making it hard for entertainment to create shared cultural moments As MIDiA explores in our 'A...

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Fandom reciprocity: Why sustaining a community requires give and take

Laura Fisher

9 Apr 2025

Fandom Instagram Music

Key takeaways from this blog: Fandoms are becoming two-way relationships, with artists like AJ Tracey and Maverick Sabre involving fans through grassroots gigs, remix contests, and fan-led tour decisions Fans want real engagement, not just content – prompting artists and labels to hire community m...

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How streaming platforms are adapting in the race for affordable content

Rutger Rosenborg

19 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Spotify YouTube

Music is expensive – not for consumers, but for companies who have to license music copyrights from rightsholders. It is a large reason Spotify did not have a full year of profitability until 2024 . What helped the company get there? Podcasting.

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Craft versus character: the equation the music industry needs to fix

Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2025

Fandom TikTok Streaming

I recently wrote about the unflattening of music :how creativity, craft, and fandom can – if done right – counter the growing commodification of music. Not surprisingly, I focused on the music side of the equation, but in doing so I missed the other big flattening challenge music faces.

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The audio listener is too valuable for the music industry to ignore

Rutger Rosenborg

13 Feb 2025

Fandom Spotify US

On the heels of positive Q4 2024 financials for Spotify , the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has not lost a step in holding the company accountable for what it sees as unauthorised music usage.

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The unflattening of music

Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2025

Cultural trends Spotify TikTok

[This post builds on two other recent MIDiA posts: Background music and What got you here ] At the half way point of the decade it is a good time to reflect on how the business of music is reshaping the culture of music – and where this is heading.

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