Blog: Engagement

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.

A case against video podcasting

Cover image for A case against video podcasting

Laura Fisher

16 Apr 2025

Product Strategy

Key takeaways from this blog: While video is at the forefront of entertainment, audio-only formats can be equally important for engagement Prioritising video-first podcasting risks dilution – favouring style, celebrity, and algorithms over knowledge and authenticity MIDiA argue that audio-only pod...

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Fandom reciprocity: Why sustaining a community requires give and take

Cover image for Fandom reciprocity: Why sustaining a community requires give and take

Laura Fisher

9 Apr 2025

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 m...

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Everyone wants to monetise fandom – but we must fix fan data first

Cover image for Everyone wants to monetise fandom – but we must fix fan data first

Olivia Jones

4 Apr 2025

Key takeaways from this blog: Fandom monetisation is booming, with MIDiA data showing how expanded rights is growing, driving labels to prioritise direct control over fan data instead of relying on third-party platforms.

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Is it too soon to be talking about podcast superfans?

Cover image for Is it too soon to be talking about podcast superfans?

Rutger Rosenborg

28 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

Key insights from this blog: Podcasting faces challenges on its way to becoming a mainstream format on the level of radio, music, and TV While the medium excels at creating a sense of community and personal connection, discovery and accessibility hurdles have so far held podcasts back Supported by o...

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Audio creators are the creator economy's unsung heroes

Cover image for Audio creators are the creator economy's unsung heroes

Rutger Rosenborg

14 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

Key insights from this blog: MIDiA's latest audio report, ' The audio creator opportunity ' , argues that brands and platforms can no longer afford to neglect audio creators Audio creators are a fast-growing force in the creator economy, driving demand for better tools and marketing They are more li...

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Why social is a double-edged sword for streaming TV

Cover image for Why social is a double-edged sword for streaming TV

Ben Woods

7 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

TV shows, movies, and social creator content are lane hopping in search of engagement. It is common practice now for SVOD services to distribute one or several episodes for free on YouTube and TikTok in the hope of transforming social video viewers into SVOD subscribers.

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Why do gamers play games? Half say mainly to relax, but the other half has different goals

Cover image for Why do gamers play games? Half say mainly to relax, but the other half has different goals

Rhys Elliott

6 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

We are proud to have launched our new gamer segmentation , which focuses on motivations, attitudes, and underlying reasons behind gaming behaviours. This article zooms in on some key data and insights from our segmentation, based on both qualitative and quantitative data.

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YouTube is winning emerging markets by being social – and format-flexible

Cover image for YouTube is winning emerging markets by being social – and format-flexible

Hanna Kahlert

5 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

Cultural trends

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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Mining fandom: Music’s Drive to Survive moment

Cover image for Mining fandom: Music’s Drive to Survive moment

Ben Woods

28 Feb 2025

Marketing Strategy

Netflix’s Drive to Survive did more than introduce a new entertainment layer for sports fans. The F1 docuseries provided a framework for re-igniting and nurturing fandom. Before then, sports documentaries would have been considered ‘spin-off’ content.

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How to build a strong fanbase using identity resonance

Cover image for How to build a strong fanbase using identity resonance

Olivia Jones

27 Feb 2025

As entertainment consumption fragments, superstars dominate less, with fans gravitating towards ever-multiplying niches. This trend, alongside the maturation of streaming subscription growth, is driving record labels’ renewed focus on nurturing – and monetising – core bases of superfans.

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Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Cover image for Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Feb 2025

Audience Insight

In the battle of music streaming versus social, the major (at least Western) music streaming services have never fully committed to implementing social features. Spotify has come the closest: an early version offered direct messaging, and the company even acquired a handful of social media-related s...

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Can the smart TV become a canvas for content creation?

Cover image for Can the smart TV become a canvas for content creation?

Ben Woods

21 Feb 2025

Audience Insight

YouTube’s growing strength on smart TVs is a head scratching moment for the video industry. The social video platform recently revealed that US consumers watched 1 billion hours of YouTube content daily on their smart TVs in December 2024.

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The case for more digestable games: Over a third of console and PC gamers play LESS than 5 hours a week

Cover image for The case for more digestable games: Over a third of console and PC gamers play LESS than 5 hours a week

Rhys Elliott

20 Feb 2025

The attention economy is oversaturated. Games are not just competingwith other games but with TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, and well ... life. But the games industry – especially premium games on console and PC – has a unique twofold challenge: Supply : New AAA games can take five years or more to m...

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The audio listener is too valuable for the music industry to ignore

Cover image for The audio listener is too valuable for the music industry to ignore

Rutger Rosenborg

13 Feb 2025

On the heels of positive Q4 2024 financials for Spotify , the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has not lost a step in holding the company accountable for what it sees as unauthorised music usage.

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The podcast attention game: How algorithmic discovery may remake podcasting

Cover image for The podcast attention game: How algorithmic discovery may remake podcasting

Rutger Rosenborg

29 Jan 2025

Audience Insight

Open the YouTube app on your TV and the first category you will see below “Home” is “Podcasts”. According to the YouTube blog , viewers watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts every month in 2024, just on living room devices alone.

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Ban or no ban, what comes next for TikTok creators?

Cover image for Ban or no ban, what comes next for TikTok creators?

Hanna Kahlert

22 Jan 2025

Marketing Strategy

The TikTok ban saga continues. The official date of the ban saw the app go dark in the US and Canada, replaced by a notice that the law had come into effect. However, only a few hours later, the app came back online, with a new notice that thanks to the Trump administration’s willingness to work o...

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The podcast listener journey reveals a desire for human connection

Cover image for The podcast listener journey reveals a desire for human connection

Rutger Rosenborg

21 Jan 2025

Audience Insight

As the global podcast industry zeros in on video – especially social video – one overlooked discovery source has never really gone away: word of mouth. Despite a format that was born to be digital, podcasting still relies on the most analog of recommendation systems for discovery in the US, UK, ...

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Who wins the social spiral? Consumers’ relationship with social platforms is changing

Cover image for Who wins the social spiral? Consumers’ relationship with social platforms is changing

Hanna Kahlert

28 Aug 2024

There is no shortage of takes on the role of social platforms in our daily lives, from former influencers lamenting the end of Twitter’s golden era to researchers studying social media’s impact on teens’ mental health .

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The co-op opportunity

Cover image for The co-op opportunity

Perry Gresham

25 Nov 2022

This month Microsoft released the results from a consumer survey they commissioned into Christmas-period gaming habits. According to the survey, video games are a more popular seasonal activity than either board games or outdoor activities (among those who celebrate the season).

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Retention and engagement are both key to streaming resilience in 2022

Cover image for Retention and engagement are both key to streaming resilience in 2022

Tim Mulligan

7 Jun 2022

attention recession

The great video subscriber gains made between the D2C big bang era of 2019 and 2021, and the engagement gains of the Covid-19 pandemic, are being eclipsed by the increasing pressures of the attention economy and the cost of living crisis.

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