Blog: emerging markets

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.

Tokyo Game Show 2025: What’s in store for the future of gaming?

Brandon Sutton

2 Oct 2025

Business Strategy Games Gaming

Asian developers and markets are becoming increasingly central to the global games industry as both a source of market opportunity and competition for Western developers. The 2025 Tokyo Game Show (TGS) made this crystal clear.

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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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DeepSeek and Rednote signal the dawning era of APAC

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Netflix TikTok

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.

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Warner’s acquisition of DIVO showcases its focus on growing authentic local music cultures

Srishti Das

17 Feb 2023

RRR Naatu naatu goldern globes

A year ago, Warner Music Group (WMG) acquired a South African independent distribution company, Africori , which focused on distributing local scenes from Africa. Now, it has acquired a majority stake in DIVO, an Indian distribution and digital music company focused on South Indian music.

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It is time for DAWs to break the boundaries of conventional music production

Srishti Das

30 Jan 2023

daw emerging markets Ableton

We recently wrote about how the direction of music inspiration has reversed , that established music markets have begun to draw inspiration from sounds, scenes, and cultures from emerging markets, such as Nigeria, South Korea and India.

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Emerging market music cultures are shaping the global music industry

Srishti Das

13 Jan 2023

Scenes cultural insight emerging markets

The music industry's focus has slowly but steadily moved towards emerging markets in order to find the next billion music consumers. The first phase of this move saw major labels consciously pushing their music into new markets in the pursuit of creating new cultural moments.

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A resurgent Netflix has reassured Wall Street despite the warning signs appearing in emerging markets

Tim Mulligan

19 Oct 2022

Netflix Netflix Q3 2022 emerging markets

Netflix Q3 2022 results were well received by the financial markets, with NFLX shares up 14.4% in after-hours trading. This follows a challenging year for the world’s largest subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, one that saw its first-ever global membership decline in Q1 2022 and resulted ...

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The internationalisation of content: What it means when local goes global

Hanna Kahlert

8 Dec 2021

internationalisation Content podcast

Digital-first life has broken down cultural borders, allowing content and fans from all over the world to spread far and wide on both a niche and mainstream level. It is now possible for small independent artists to have substantial yet geographically disparate global fanbases, and for mainstream ar...

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Believe is building growth stories for local independent labels in India

Srishti Das

2 Dec 2021

Believe Digital Regional Music emerging markets

Believe Music, launched in France in 2005 with an aim to empower and support independent artists and labels. Since launching in India in 2013, the company has worked hard to bring their values to the Indian music market.

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Axing exclusive music licenses in China will drive new local music cultures

Srishti Das

15 Sep 2021

China emerging markets Tencent

As a result of the new guidelines set out by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), record labels are no longer allowed to issue exclusive licenses to music services. Previously, music services in China were able to secure exclusive deals with record labels which meant that these services cou...

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Middle East’s ESMAA points the way for music rights in emerging markets

Srishti Das

20 Aug 2021

music rights emerging markets ESMAA

The importance of emerging markets for the next growth story in the music industry is resulting in labels and streaming services prioritising growth in these territories. In addition to resolving the industries growth problem, these new markets are going to change the superstar business.

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Redefining global sounds through local cultures – the role of homegrown services in emerging markets

Srishti Das

6 Jul 2021

emerging markets Music streaming Music

In developed music markets, streaming was an outcome of the recorded music industry. Creators and labels released music, and streaming services created a simpler experience for listeners in already mature markets.

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Emerging markets may be about to change the superstar business

Mark Mulligan

2 Jul 2021

emerging markets anglo repertoire Music

The traditional recorded music business was all about selling units, which naturally meant that the most important markets were not the most populous but the wealthiest. Throughout the late 20thcentury this created a ‘global’ market that was dominated by North America, Europe and a few others.

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Staggered vaccine rollouts will prime entertainment for (further, faster) innovation

Hanna Kahlert

4 May 2021

Media and Marketing post-pandemic coronavirus

The ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ of COVID-19 is theoretically drawing closer. Yet, as we blogged about last week , staggered vaccine rollouts mean that the ‘new normal’ will begin for some consumers sooner than others – painting a year-ahead picture of a global marketplace as different...

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Why Spotify needs Russia

Mark Mulligan

16 Jul 2020

Music Spotify Russia

Spotify’s delayed Russia launch finally happened this week . While it did not drive a stock price growth like the Josh Rogan deal did (the stock closed just 1 cent higher than the previous day’s close) it will actually prove much more important in the medium term.

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Music Subscriber Market Shares Q1 2020

Mark Mulligan

23 Jun 2020

Streaming music subscribers music subscriber market shares

WWDC would have been a perfect opportunity for Apple to announce another streaming milestone for Apple Music. It didn’t but the good news is that MIDiA already have a figure for Apple Music, as part of our latest music subscriber market shares.

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Disney’s Latest Earnings Are Buoyed by Growth in Their Theme Park and Direct-to-Consumer Revenues

Alistair Taylor

10 May 2019

21st Century Fox additive service assets

On Wednesday night the Walt Disney Company reported quarterly earnings for its second fiscal quarter ending March 31st 2019, beating analyst estimates with a 3% increase in year-on-year (YoY) quarterly revenue.

10 Trends That Will Reshape the Music Industry

Mark Mulligan

3 Apr 2019

23 capital albums Amuse

The IFPI has reported that global recorded music revenues have hit $19.1 billion, which means that MIDiA’sownestimatespublished in Marchwere within 1.6% of the actual results . This revenue growth story is strong and sustained but the market itself is undergoing dramatic change.

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Why India Matters to Spotify, and Why it May Not Deliver

Mark Mulligan

28 Feb 2019

emerging markets India india streaming

Warner Music and Spotify have been involved in a rather unseemly and very public spat this week over Spotify’s India launch . I’ll leave for someone else, the discussions of the potential implications of a blanket license for songwriter rights in India for an on-demand streaming service.

Spotify’s Tencent Risk

Mark Mulligan

21 Sep 2018

Africa asia emerging markets

NOTE: a previous version of this post referred to a non-compete clause with Spotify detailed in this SEC filing. I have been advised that the scope of this clause is narrower than I had originally interpreted.

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