Blog: BandLab

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.

Apple is not the only one crushing the old music-making paradigm

Kriss Thakrar

15 May 2024

Music

creator tools

music production

Apple is crushing it – literally. The new iPad Pro ad received widespread backlash for its controversial crushing of musical instruments to demonstrate what is ‘packed into’ Logic Pro on the iPad....

min read

Can’t cross the moat? Walk around it

Mark Mulligan

12 Apr 2024

Creator economy

consumer creation

Music creators

The music business is bifurcating. On one side, a new AI, fandom, and creation centred business is coalescing. On the other, the traditional business is pulling the draw bridge over its moat by pushing...

min read

Who tomorrow's music business is being built for

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Jun 2023

Music creators

Music

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...

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As Spotify's door closes on Soundtrap, another opens

Tatiana Cirisano

16 Jun 2023

Music streaming

Spotify

SoundCloud

Writing about a new era of music fluidity last month, we noted how streaming services might align more closely with creation, as Spotify has done by acquiring music creation platform Soundtrap. Well, that...

min read

Why making memes with creator tools is the new music industry

Kriss Thakrar

25 Oct 2021

creator tools

user-generated content

music production

The creator tools business has been one of the biggest winners of the pandemic, as people turned to music-making in record numbers. Second-hand gear marketplace, Reverb.com, provided some insight into...

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From creator tools to commercial tools

Kriss Thakrar

1 Jul 2021

creator tools

live streaming

Twitch

Creator tools are taking an evolutionary step toward commercially empowering creators. Live streaming tool Happs’ recent $4.7 million investment is a relatively small yet significant bet that the future...

min read

The music industry’s centre of gravity is shifting

Mark Mulligan

16 Apr 2021

creator tools

music industry investment

music investment

Regular readers will know that MIDiA has been analysing the creator tool space for some time now and building the case for why the changes that are taking place will be transformational not just for the...

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How Soundcloud Could Transform Deezer’s Market Narrative

Mark Mulligan

4 Jul 2017

Access Industries

Apple Music

Artist discovery

News has emerged of Deezer being a potential buyer of troubled Soundcloud. This follows on from Spotify’s prolonged but ultimately abortive courting last year . Soundcloud was once a streaming powerhouse,...

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Welcome To The Post-DIY Era

Mark Mulligan

20 Mar 2017

ADA

Bandcamp

BandLab

I recently took part in the True Music Forum in Madrid, an event organized by Boiler Room. I was on a panel that explored whether DIY is now coming of age with a host of high profile artists, most of them...

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How Spotify Can Become A Next Generation “Label”

Mark Mulligan

21 Oct 2016

Access Industries

Amazon

Apple

One of the themes my MIDiA colleague Tim Mulligan (the name’s no coincidence, he’s my brother too!) has been developing over in our online video research is that of next generation TV operators. With...

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