Blog: Digital

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 'Analogue revival' report , Culture is moving offline, as people seek real-world connections and entertainment companies need to adapt to a fragmented digital landscape White Lotus is not the internet viral darling that shows like Tiger King or Game of Thrones (GoT) once were.

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 managers and create spaces for fan participation The artists who give back will last, as true fan loyalty now depends on connection and reciprocity, not just popularity or scale The Outlander Magazine recently took to Instagram to issue a pointed challenge to artists and brands: you can only call your audience a "community" if you actively contribute to it.

Key takeaways from this blog: Social platforms dominate culture, but a vibe shift toward offline experiences is emerging as users crave more intentional, less addictive engagement (as explored in MIDiA's' Analogue revival ' report) TikTok’s recent disruption signals a loss of cultural centrality, with no clear successor, leading to fragmented attention across platforms and offline spaces Brands and creators must rethink reliance on shallow metrics and embrace taste-led, context-aware strategies, focusing on sentiment and human nuance over empty virality Consumers no longer need to leave their social feeds.

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 become cluttered with noise that distracts from its original purpose, DMs have become a safe haven for users MIDiA raises the question: will extending ads into DMs result in a significant drop in users? Instagram has recently announced a slew of features and updates to the direct messaging area of its app, from AI chatbots to colourful themes to broadcast channels, and other ways that make it easier for creators (and, of course, brands) to reach their audiences.

[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.

The AI race is a tense one. Billions of dollars have been poured into the likes of OpenAI. Meanwhile, the US and UK governments, among others, have pledged to invest heavily in AI development, suggesting that they feel it is of critical importance to “win” the new space race.

In March of 2020, the world went largely virtual. With no way to go out and live normal day-to-day lives in the physical sense, the digital world took over – from Zoom calls with family members to social storms around Netflix shows, replacing the workplace ‘watercooler moment’.

The music industry has a culture problem. An overabundance of data –– from streaming services and social platforms alike ––has fostered a dependence on digital performance that does not reliably translate into fandom and cultural value.

The jury is very much still out on generative AI and its copyright obligations. Yet the Pandora’s box of AI-generated content has already been opened, and there is no going back. For a world which has become almost entirely reliant on digital content– be it song mp3s or job applications – the implications are widespread and the challenge is simply one of volume.

It is now 2024 (yikes), and New Year’s resolutions are making the rounds. Anecdotally, at least seven of us at MIDiA have resolved to go more analogue this year. More broadly, many people, alongside the traditional attempts to go to the gym more or do ‘Dry January’, seem to be opting to cut down on their social media and broader smartphone usage.

Zoom has been making the news this week over its controversial new terms and conditions that now allow the service (in theory) to utilise user data to train its AI-assisted features. While the company has reassured the public that they need to opt into the usage, which is necessary to use its AI functions like generating transcripts, privacy concerns are still high.

As entertainment companies start planning their next big steps for the coming year, the success and failure of their strategic decisions will hinge on one big, and perhaps surprising, existential question : is this it for the tech industry? Planning for 2023 seems to mean planning for disruption, and this is no easy thing to do – especially given the changes already wrought by the last three years of predominately virtual working.

Spoiler alert, to the disappointment of some: it is not going to be NFTs. Scarcity, real or artificial, is what drives value. The diamond industry is perhaps the most obvious example of managed scarcity driving high-margin revenues .

The attention economy reaching saturation was a disruptive force in entertainment long before the coronavirus pandemic. Too much competition for too little time meant that audience engagement was increasingly hard to grab and harder still to retain.

The coronavirus pandemic has hastened a shift to digital life, creating unprecedented opportunity for entertainment. Streaming is now the default for video and music consumption for mainstream consumers, bumped up by the 12% of additional entertainment time during the pandemic.

Wanda Sports Group’s (WSG) Q2 financials highlight a significant decline in revenues on account of “the broad effects of COVID-19 mitigation efforts”. WSG reported a second successive quarter of decreasing revenues , following its disappointing Q1 results which saw a 26% year-on-year (YoY) decline attributed to losses within the Chinese company’s spectator sports and mass participation divisions.

With fans currently starved of sports entertainment during lockdown, rights holders are jumping out of the gate to be the first to put on live sports to serve any form of quick fix to see a jump in engagement.

The NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell announced to all 32 teams in a memo on March 26th that the NFL draft will go ahead as scheduled from the 23 rd to 25 th of April, despite growing pressures resulting from COVID-19 to postpone the event.