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Blog: Creators

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, audio and social.

The problem with democratisation

Mark Mulligan

29 Oct 2026

Clients only

Letter from the MD Streaming Apple Google

The demise of gatekeepers was part of the internet’s founding mythology – but, in reality, we quickly learned that they were going nowhere. However, the human ones were cast aside as algorithms took their place.

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From creator to capitalist: The creator economy is investing in itself

Hannah Walker

21 Oct 2026

Business Strategy Creators Creator economy

The most successful creators no longer look like online personalities. They now operate as fully-fledged media businesses with capital, networks, and business expertise – and they’re using these attributes to help nurture the next generation.

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Will the next social media competitor be social at all?

Hanna Kahlert

21 Oct 2026

Business Strategy Social media Creators

With Meta in the regulatory hotseat and western “social” apps becoming increasingly entertainment-first, a natural question arises: is the opportunity ripe for a new competitor? Few saw TikTok coming, but the short-form video app –boosted by the Covid pandemic – has reshaped the social media...

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From newsroom to newsfeed: Why news broadcasters and content creators should partner to reach young people

Hannah Walker

7 Oct 2026

Business Strategy Fandom Social media

As the attention economy fractures traditional media consumption habits, Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) risk losing reach among young viewers. According to Ofcom , three-quarters of 16–24-year-olds report that they get their news from social media platforms.

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Audiences are craving connection – could livestreaming be the answer?

Hannah Walker

30 Sep 2026

Marketing Strategy YouTube TikTok

This year has shown a clear audience appetite for live, shared viewing experiences. The finale of the UK’s The Traitors attracted a live audience of 9.4 million viewers in January. An international audience flooded to watch sporting events like the Super Bowl and World Cup, with both events genera...

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To understand where AI will go, look at where it came from

Mark Mulligan

30 Sep 2026

Clients only

Letter from the MD consumer Creators Content

AI, in its widest sense, is a massive unknown. While whistleblowers claim it is already out of control, others suggest this is AI company scaremongering to help justify their huge valuations. Both can be true.

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Could YouTube be a new home for TV talent?

Hannah Walker

23 Sep 2026

Product Strategy YouTube Creators

The power dynamic between media personalities and media distributors is shifting – a change that has picked up pace over the last few years. Traditional media companies are cautiously opening their doors to creator talent, recognising them for the lucrative opportunity that they represent.

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Threads versus X: Algorithmic USP and the benefits of a cross-platform offering

Hanna Kahlert

22 Sep 2026

Business Strategy Social media Creators

In a September interview with Sources , Mark Zuckerberg dropped the finding that Threads is as big – or at least closing in on – X, the platform it was designed to compete with. The platforms’ respective monthly active user reported numbers are 550 million for X, as of May 2026, and 500 millio...

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The creator investor: a compelling alternative to the creator product line

Hannah Walker

17 Sep 2026

Business Strategy Product Strategy Creators

The most successful creators are not just creative storytellers – they’re commercially minded entrepreneurs. The most sophisticated operators in this field recognise that launching their own product lines can be a lucrative and reliable revenue stream.

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Meta agrees to new user protections that will shape the course of the social marketplace

Hanna Kahlert

9 Sep 2026

Cultural trends YouTube TikTok

Meta has settled a landmark court case in the US over the negative impacts of social media on teens and adolescents. Without admitting culpability, the outcome is that they will owe an $18 billion agreed payment over 10 years, and develop and implement a host of new protective measures for younger u...

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A case for ownership

Mark Mulligan

27 Aug 2026

Clients only

Letter from the MD Streaming Fandom Creators

In the old world, media often lived in physical formats and, by inference, had a sense of permanence. Consumers built collections of CDs, DVDs, games discs, and books. Digital replaced ownership with access, proclaiming to be a wholly good thing.

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Why music is not enough for an artist fan club

Kriss Thakrar

31 Jul 2026

Cultural trends Instagram Deezer

With 90,000 AI-generated tracks uploaded to Deezer every day (at the time of writing), AI-generated music now constitutes the majority of new releases on the platform. Music was an oversaturated world before AI, with 60,000 tracks released a day in 2021, but a threefold increase in five years makes ...

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The other side of the UGC coin: fans as part of the creative process

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jul 2026

Cultural trends YouTube Fandom

Algorithmic personalisation and niche scenes have seemingly undermined mainstream culture . Labels struggle to break new superstars and Hollywood productions have fallen into a repetitive cycle of remakes and franchises.

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Niche is the new mainstream: Marketing in an AI-saturated social landscape

Hanna Kahlert

22 Jul 2026

TikTok Instagram Social media

Social feeds are saturated with content – both original and AI-powered. In this competitive attention landscape, brand activations and traditional advertising are struggling to cut through. Simply getting a brand name out in the market is no longer enough to build loyalty.

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The future of the music creator economy

Mark Mulligan

9 Jul 2026

Audience Insight Streaming Creators

AI is a black swan event for music, intertwining the futures of the creator economy and the music industry. The number of gen AI music monthly active users (MAUs) nearly tripled between 2023 and 2025, adding nearly nine times as many users as the global base of musicians over the same period.

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Social media first principles: What it takes to go beyond the algorithm

Hanna Kahlert

8 Jul 2026

Business Strategy Social media Creators

The formula for success on social platforms changes regularly, much to the frustration of emerging creators and marketers alike. This is a natural consequence of content saturation. The moment the code gets cracked and everyone follows the same rulebook, that rulebook stops delivering anything that ...

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Now’s the time to have your say: Audio creator survey still open

Laura Fisher

1 Jul 2026

Audience Insight Creators Audio creators

The response to MIDiA's audio creator survey has been brilliant, so thank you to everyone who has already taken part. But, if you haven't yet, there's still time to have your say. Following a successful first year, we're back and once again inviting spoken-word audio creators to share their experien...

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Why now is the time for the creator right

Mark Mulligan

26 Jun 2026

Business Strategy Creators Artists

YouTube’s Lyor Cohen and the Recording Academy’s Harvey Mason Jr. recently penned an op-ed for Variety in which they made the case for the NO FAKES act being seen as the starting pistol rather than the finish line.

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Understanding the significance of a play: What the AMP’s new measurement framework means for the audio industry

Laura Fisher

25 Jun 2026

Clients only

Audience Insight Spotify Creators

Podcasting has spent much of the last decade trying to prove its value through metrics inherited from a fundamentally different era of digital media. That era may finally be coming to an end. On 4 June, the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP), an industry task force established to address g...

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Video creation has never been easier – so why does it feel harder? Share your experience in our survey

Ben Woods

24 Jun 2026

Audience Insight Creators Creator economy

There has never been a better time to make video. The barriers to creation have collapsed. Editing software that once cost thousands is available on subscription. AI can generate transcripts, captions, thumbnails, clips, and even entire video sequences.

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