Blog: Audience Insight

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.

Brands and social TV: The next big entertainment power move

Ben Woods

5 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Audience Insight Video

One question is often asked when traditional entertainment companies start exploring a social-first strategy: how do we make it pay? It’s a valid line of inquiry that does not come with a neat answer.

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The new gaming economy: Why gamers are buying less but playing more

Brandon Sutton

23 Oct 2025

Audience Insight Consumer behaviour Gaming

A new reality is emerging in the gaming economy that is being obscured by projections of growth, and its long-term effects are only beginning to be felt. Despite more money being spent on games than ever before, most consumers are spending less on a smaller number of games.

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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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Decoding the video creator economy’s potential at IBC2025, Amsterdam

Ben Woods

9 Sep 2025

Audience Insight Video Creator economy

The video industry is in the middle of a substantial shift. The days of traditional entertainment and the creator economy occupying separate lanes are ending. Creators are expanding beyond social platforms to produce more premium content on SVOD services.

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Calling all audio creators: Shape the future of the industry and get a chance to win $100!

Laura Fisher

27 Aug 2025

Audience Insight Audio survey

Take the MIDiA research 2025 Audio Creator survey and have your voice heard. MIDiA Research has long been known for its music creator surveys – and even its video creator surveys. But this year, for the first time ever, we’re turning the spotlight on audio creators with our brand-new 2025 Audio ...

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The ‘pure’ songwriter is disappearing – and it’s everyone’s problem

Tatiana Cirisano

19 Jun 2025

Music songwriters music industry

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) annual meeting is known for making headlines. At last year’s event, CEO David Israelite used his state-of-the-union speech to announce a formal complaint against Spotify’s audiobook bundling, lodged with the Federal Trade Commission.

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MIDiA Music Creator Survey 2025

Mark Mulligan

16 Jun 2025

Audience Insight Music Music creators

It is that time of the year again: the annual MIDiA Music Creator Survey is here. Every year, we field this survey to take the pulse of music creators globally, diving into topics such as career aspirations, services and tools used, challenges and hurdles faced, and much more.

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The age of the premium content creator is here – but will audiences buy into it?

Ben Woods

23 May 2025

Audience Insight Video Creator economy

What makes a content creator popular? At first glance, this question feels easy to answer. Successful creators often have distinctive characteristic that propel their success. MrBeast is known for his stunt video format, Twitch streamer Shroud has impeccable gameplay on first person shooters, and An...

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Music discovery is not dead, just evolving – the industry needs to evolve with it

Olivia Jones

9 May 2025

Audience Insight Music streaming Social media

Music streaming algorithms have changed the way we listen to music – for better and for worse. While the radio used to be the main way to find new music, streaming and social algorithms now drive discovery as listeners crave (and have come to expect) more personalised recommendations.

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Where do you stand on AI’s transformation of the video creator economy?

Ben Woods

9 May 2025

Audience Insight Video US

Artificial intelligence is imposing revolutionary change on the creator economy. Tried and tested workflows are being automated, streamlined, and recalibrated by large language learning models that are promising to rid creators of tedious tasks.

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Has music reached peak fragmentation?

Tatiana Cirisano

2 May 2025

Audience Insight Streaming Music

If you have read any of MIDiA’s work, you will know we keep a close eye on the fragmentation of music consumption. Thanks to both the internet’s democratising force and the rise of recommendation algorithms, consumers are spreading their listening across more songs and artists than ever, while t...

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Video creators: Tell us how you create for a chance to win a slice of our $1,000 prize pool

Ben Woods

17 Apr 2025

Audience Insight Video Creators

After a successful launch last year, MIDiA is returning with a new survey to ensure the voice of video creators is heard loud and clear across the industry. To achieve this, we are calling on all video creators – no matter their skill or what they create – to complete a quick survey to ensure th...

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The medium is no longer the message – the messenger is now, too

Rutger Rosenborg

4 Apr 2025

Podcasts Audio Spotify

Key takeaways from this blog: Podcasts now rival traditional media in influence, especially around current events, thanks to their strong personalities, flexibility, and direct audience engagement The success of top podcasts is driven by hosts, not media networks — charisma, connection, and commen...

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Songwriters, we want to hear from you! Raise your voice in MIDiA’s new survey

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Artists songwriters

Last year, MIDiA’s inaugural songwriter survey uncovered an alarming statistic: 67% of songwriters name “lack of meaningful streaming income” as their biggest challenge. More alarming yet is the fact that this remained the most common challenge for songwriters in our survey across income level...

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20% of gamers love couch co-op: Split Fiction’s success is proof players want more

Rhys Elliott

20 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Games Gaming

Key insights from this blog: MIDiA's research shows that a significant portion of gamers consider couch co-op a favourite genre. The runaway success of Split Fiction supports these findings Producing more couch co-op games would cater to gamer segments that MIDiA has identified as being underserved,...

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Live and direct: lessons for streamers from the appeal of online radio

Laura Fisher

20 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Music Audio

Key insights from this blog: Online radio has a growing audience, with further opportunity to capitalise on what is missing from music streaming We explore why online radio is gaining popularity – covering the elements of loyalty, dynamism, and humanity – and explain how this connects to MIDiA's...

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Why ads in DMs are not the solution Instagram wants them to be

Hanna Kahlert

18 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Instagram advertising

Key insights from this blog: Instagram's direct messaging features have become a core component of the platform; MIDiA data highlights that the majority of social media users log in to the platform to keep up to date with friends As Instagram's Feeds – and subsequently its Stories feature – have...

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Why do gamers play games? Half say mainly to relax, but the other half has different goals

Rhys Elliott

6 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Games Gaming

We are proud to have launched our new gamer segmentation , which focuses on motivations, attitudes, and underlying reasons behind gaming behaviours. This article zooms in on some key data and insights from our segmentation, based on both qualitative and quantitative data.

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YouTube is winning emerging markets by being social – and format-flexible

Hanna Kahlert

5 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Cultural trends YouTube

In English-speaking markets (and much of Europe), entertainment consumption is split across a large number of digital platforms, segmented largely by content format, rights access, and legacy uptake. It is also fragmented across devices: smart TVs, smartphones, laptops, and consoles all play big rol...

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Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Feb 2025

Audience Insight Spotify Facebook

In the battle of music streaming versus social, the major (at least Western) music streaming services have never fully committed to implementing social features. Spotify has come the closest: an early version offered direct messaging, and the company even acquired a handful of social media-related s...

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