Blog: Cultural trends

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.

Social media bans: boom or bust?

Hanna Kahlert

6 May 2026

Cultural trends Social media Australia

In November 2024, Australia passed regulation aimed at social media platforms. From December 2025, children under the age of 16 could no longer legally hold accounts, with platforms held liable for infringements.

Cover image for Social media bans: boom or bust?

Roblox, social media, and the future of AI integration

Hanna Kahlert

30 Apr 2026

Cultural trends Roblox Social media

The AI race is well underway, with social media companies going all-in. Meta’s triple-digit-billion investment in the space has pushed its AI developments across the board, from a recent partnership with Overview Energy to power servers with satellite solar (per Social Media Today ), to Instagram�...

Cover image for Roblox, social media, and the future of AI integration

IMS electronic music business report 2025/6

Mark Mulligan

22 Apr 2026

Cultural trends Fandom Music

It’s that time of year again for the definitive annual assessment of the global electronic music market: The IMS electronic music business report . Premiered at the annual IMS conference in Ibiza, this year’s report paints the picture of a healthy industry with thriving scenes but also a few war...

Cover image for IMS electronic music business report 2025/6

Social media doesn’t feel social anymore – so where does online community go from here?

Laura Fisher

21 Apr 2026

Cultural trends Social media Podcasts

A curious divergence is emerging in the UK's media habits. Earlier this month, Ofcom published its latest report on adults' media use, and one finding stands out. Social media usage remains high, with 89% of UK adults using at least one platform daily.

Cover image for Social media doesn’t feel social anymore – so where does online community go from here?

Music and AI: What happens when quality is no longer a differentiator?

Tatiana Cirisano

16 Apr 2026

Cultural trends Music streaming Music

For most of recorded music history, quality was scarce. Recording, producing, and distributing a song that sounded “good” required significant investments of time, money, and skill, along with access to gatekeepers, who carefully filtered what entered the system.

Cover image for Music and AI: What happens when quality is no longer a differentiator?

The Boiler Room reckoning: Why scapegoating won’t fix live music’s funding problem

Laura Fisher

24 Mar 2026

Cultural trends Music live

There has been a lot of scrutiny recently about how dance music is funded. Two cases in point illustrate why. Boiler Room, the influential livestreaming platform, was acquired by DICE in 2021, then sold to Superstruct, a private equity-backed entity, in January 2025.

Cover image for The Boiler Room reckoning: Why scapegoating won’t fix live music’s funding problem

The dos and don’ts of community: What digital entertainment can learn from the live sector

Hanna Kahlert

18 Mar 2026

Cultural trends Social media Content

Social media has fundamentally changed – and the consequences matter whether you’re a consumer, a content creator, a regulator, or a marketer. Here’s why: 1. Social platforms are now passive entertainment Content creation remains a niche activity, and simply posting for friends has become less...

Cover image for The dos and don’ts of community: What digital entertainment can learn from the live sector

What history really tells us about AI’s potential

Mark Mulligan

5 Mar 2026

Cultural trends Creators Innovation

History is being used to argue both for and against AI, with citations of previous cultural events and practices as evidence. Unfortunately, however, most of the historical references used are just plain wrong.

Cover image for What history really tells us about AI’s potential

The Chicken Nugget Theory of AI music consumption

Adham Nazir

19 Feb 2026

Cultural trends Music consumer

Wisdom about human nature often presents itself as guidance from an elder sage. Every now and again, though, it comes in the form of chicken nuggets. Amidst the arguments about the extent to which generative AI in music is morally, creatively, or legally just, the music industry risks forgetting som...

Cover image for The Chicken Nugget Theory of AI music consumption

From quip to category: What the Golden Globes signifies for podcasting's future

Laura Fisher

17 Feb 2026

Cultural trends Podcasts Entertainment

There was a time, not so very long ago, when mentioning you worked in podcasting required a somewhat defensive preamble about what podcasting actually is. There is a TikTok trend circulating that goes something like this: if you cannot explain your job to a five-year-old or your grandmother, it does...

Cover image for From quip to category: What the Golden Globes signifies for podcasting's future

The problem with the “AI versus human” music narrative

Tatiana Cirisano

5 Feb 2026

Cultural trends Streaming Music

While attending the NAMM conference and Grammys week events over the last fortnight, AI was, of course, a dominant topic. AI-assisted gadgets shared space with traditional physical instruments at NAMM; at the Grammys, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason reaffirmed that “ only human creators ” are...

Cover image for The problem with the “AI versus human” music narrative

The 2026 Grammys and Bad Bunny’s cementation of the local language era

Laura Fisher

4 Feb 2026

Cultural trends Music Artists

The 68th Grammy Awards offered no shortage of significant moments, but perhaps none carried more cultural weight than when Bad Bunny’s seminal Debí Tirar Más Fotos made history. It’s crowning as Album of the Year – a first for a predominantly Spanish-language release – reflects a profound,...

Cover image for The 2026 Grammys and Bad Bunny’s cementation of the local language era

Why the music industry needs to learn to live with AI

Mark Mulligan

29 Jan 2026

Cultural trends Consumer behaviour Music

If life is a party, AI gate crashed it in 2025. With financial losses rising even more quickly than critical voices, AI will not find things quite so easy in 2026. You don’t have to look very far to find alarm bells being rung.

Cover image for Why the music industry needs to learn to live with AI

Sounds of 2026 | MIDiA and Splice name Afro house as the sound of the year

Adham Nazir

13 Jan 2026

Cultural trends Music Splice

MIDiA and Splice have teamed up once again to deliver a fresh round of insights and predictions for music in the coming year. In the Sounds of 2026 report, we dive deep into the trends behind the music producers are creating, using the data of today to identify the sounds of tomorrow.

Cover image for Sounds of 2026 | MIDiA and Splice name Afro house as the sound of the year

The re-evolution of email chains: Why social thrives on simplicity

Hanna Kahlert

11 Dec 2025

Cultural trends Social platforms

The year is 2003. Your Yahoo inbox jingles at you with a new message, subject “FW:FW:FW: Send this to 10 people or bad luck for 7 years”. A random classmate has CC’d you along with everyone else they have in their address book.

Cover image for The re-evolution of email chains: Why social thrives on simplicity

Accessing the internet: How AI will reshape digital discovery, consumption, and ad revenues

Hanna Kahlert

12 Nov 2025

Cultural trends Social Digital

In last week’s blog, I wrote about whether AI is the new “world wide web”. Having a www-dot address was once a path towards making millions. With the benefit of hindsight, this oversimplification seems absurd.

Cover image for Accessing the internet: How AI will reshape digital discovery, consumption, and ad revenues

Is AI the new “world wide web”?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Nov 2025

Cultural trends AI dot com

Back in the days of the dot-com era, anything online could become a hype-driven investment. The big losses when the bubble burst are almost comical with the benefit of hindsight. Pets.com burned through millions of investor capital and collapsed a year after its IPO.

Cover image for Is AI the new “world wide web”?

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.

Cover image for The future of trust in media: Why transparency is key

How social’s reach is undermining its culture

Hanna Kahlert

21 Oct 2025

Cultural trends Fandom Content

Despite all the promise of digital interconnectivity, the internet has become more isolated than ever. The major platforms are now so focused on entertainment-style content that the original concept of a ‘social’ network has become diluted – seeing a post from a friend has now become a rarity.

Cover image for How social’s reach is undermining its culture

Why digital natives and data science are key to embracing the creator economy

Ben Woods

17 Oct 2025

Cultural trends Creators Creator economy

Social platforms and the creator economy have been re-writing the rules of audience engagement for some time now. Together, they have accelerated the fragmentation of entertainment and made niche the new mainstream.

Cover image for Why digital natives and data science are key to embracing the creator economy

© 2026 MIDiA Research Ltd. All Rights Reserved.