Blog: live music

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.

IMS Business Report 2025

Cover image for IMS Business Report 2025

Mark Mulligan

23 Apr 2025

Today I presented the 11th edition of the IMS Business Report at the ever-brilliant annual electronic music industry conference in Ibiza. And who doesn’t like a conference in Ibiza?! The full report is available via the IMS website.

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Bringing fandom to life: the rise of IRL superfan experiences

Cover image for Bringing fandom to life: the rise of IRL superfan experiences

Olivia Jones

12 Feb 2025

Much of the recent discussion around music superfan monetisation has focused on online superfans, especially as more superstars join fan platforms like Weverse. These monetisation strategies capitalise on fans’ growing desire for artist-fan interaction but often rely on artists’ active participation, adding yet another task to their ever-growing list of marketing responsibilities.

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Music publishing forecasts: strong growth and more to come

Cover image for Music publishing forecasts: strong growth and more to come

Mark Mulligan

15 Aug 2024

Music publishing

publishing forecasts

Following hot on the heels of our future of songwriting report , MIDiA is pleased to announce the release of our latest music publishing forecasts report . Here are some highlights. Thus far, the 2020s have been a good decade for the music publishing industry.

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There are no elite artists without elite artist development

Cover image for There are no elite artists without elite artist development

Kriss Thakrar

24 Oct 2023

artist development

Creator economy

A recent interview with Mariah the Scientist saw her speak about the struggle of performing for only the second time in front of a crowd at one of the world’s biggest festivals, Rolling Loud. She shared that she “wasn’t good at it”, “did not know what she was doing”, and ultimately suffered from the consequences of all the criticism that followed.

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Don’t be fooled by the streams that it’s got, it’s still hip hop from the block

Cover image for Don’t be fooled by the streams that it’s got, it’s still hip hop from the block

Kriss Thakrar

15 Aug 2023

Over its 50 years, hip hop has gone from a block party in the Bronx to a conquering global culture. It now accounts for almost a quarter of Spotify streams , with three-quarters of users listening to hip hop this year.

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Can Swift and Beyoncé save the economy? What the data says about music tourism

Cover image for Can Swift and Beyoncé save the economy? What the data says about music tourism

Tatiana Cirisano

10 Aug 2023

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have more accolades than most artists in history. Now they can add “saving the economy” to the list — well, sort of. Governing bodies in cities from Chicago to Philadelphia to Stockholm have credited the duo’s respective concerts for boosting local tourism (and temporarily inflating prices).

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How live music will change in the next decade

Cover image for How live music will change in the next decade

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Jul 2023

The pandemic sent shock waves through the live music industry — a historic, catastrophic disruption to a decades-old business. But just because touring is back, does not mean that we are in the clear.

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Right place, right time: Taylor Swift's track to the first $1 billion tour

Cover image for Right place, right time: Taylor Swift's track to the first $1 billion tour

Tatiana Cirisano

29 Jun 2023

music marketing

Another day, another record for Taylor Swift. As Wall Street Journal broke down this week, the superstar is now on track to achieve the first $1 billion tour in music history. A billion factors and decisions led up to this moment, with Swift’s songwriting artistry and business savvy high among them.

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Swift and Healy set the tone for live music in the 2020s

Cover image for Swift and Healy set the tone for live music in the 2020s

Ashleigh Millar

23 Mar 2023

When P!nk released her Greatest Hits…So Far! album back in 2010, radio show presenters were quick to respond by discussing what they believed would become the death of her career. According to them, greatest hits albums were essentially the nail in the coffin for music artists; a struggling attempt to stay relevant, unlikely to escape the ‘grand finale’ effect of the project.

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Hybrid live streaming provides new opportunities to build authentic global fanbases

Cover image for Hybrid live streaming provides new opportunities to build authentic global fanbases

Srishti Das

22 Mar 2023

hybrid live streaming

July 2022 saw Boiler Room’s hands in one of the most iconic dance music / pop culture crossovers that led to the era of “Fred againia”. Fred again..’s Boiler Room set has (so far) garnered 16 million views on YouTube, helping to introduce his music to a wider audience, generating significant buzz on social media.

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How touring pits artists against their own fans

Cover image for How touring pits artists against their own fans

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Dec 2022

The live music industry is now facing the reckoning we predicted last spring, as it is increasingly clear that touring is not financially sustainable for most artists, while superstars are facing backlash for skyrocketing ticket prices.

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From 8-bit to fantasy: Proms’ focus on gaming underscores its cultural relevance

Cover image for From 8-bit to fantasy: Proms’ focus on gaming underscores its cultural relevance

Samuel Griffin

10 Aug 2022

After the humble beginnings of the first melodic loops from NAMCO’s Rally X , the cultural symphony of music, video, and games has since matured toHildur Guðnadóttir and Sam Slater’s recent score for Battlefield 2042 .

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How (and why) Billie Eilish won Glastonbury

Cover image for How (and why) Billie Eilish won Glastonbury

Mark Mulligan

6 Jul 2022

fragmented fandom

Glastonbury returned to great fanfare after the pandemic-enforced break, which meant it was the first one since 2019. The music world has changed a lot since then, with streaming getting bigger than ever and TikTok now established as a cornerstone of the music business.

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Music industry earnings 2021: Riding the wave

Cover image for Music industry earnings 2021: Riding the wave

Mark Mulligan

6 May 2022

Streaming Music

Universal music’s Q1 2022 earnings showed continued growth but a noticeable slowdown in streaming growth, with streaming revenues up 12% year-on-year (YoY) in USD term compared to a growth of 35% one year earlier.

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The pandemic catalysed a streaming business model reckoning. Is the live sector next?

Cover image for The pandemic catalysed a streaming business model reckoning. Is the live sector next?

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Apr 2022

The news is everywhere: concerts are back. Coachella heralded the return of a roaring festival season, hundreds of acts are back on the road, and Live Nation says it is expecting a record year. But other headlines paint a different picture: Little Simz canceled her tour because it was not financially viable for her as an independent artist, reporters are calling out many venues for taking a 25% cut of merch sales, artists everywhere are struggling with the financial — not just health — risk of contracting coronavirus on tour, live music revenue has not yet bounced back , and tweets like these are going viral.

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Live streaming’s second growth phase

Cover image for Live streaming’s second growth phase

Mark Mulligan

6 Oct 2021

live streamed concerts

virtual concerts

Live streaming erupted in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic. As the year progressed, the market transformed rapidly from a bunch of bands playing guitar in their bedrooms to highly produced, ticketed shows with tens of thousands of viewers.

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Live streaming centre stage for 2021

Cover image for Live streaming centre stage for 2021

Keith Jopling

2 Nov 2020

Live music industry

The longer the pandemic continues, the harder it gets for the live music business (and other cultural sectors built around live performance) to sustain hope of a ‘return to normal’. I hate saying it, but there it is.

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The Future of Live

Cover image for The Future of Live

Mark Mulligan

20 May 2020

The almost total cessation of live music has sent shockwaves throughout the wider music industry. Though live companies are clearly at the epicentre, labels and streaming services are the in the blast radius too as the gaping hole left in most artists’ income is causing them to question their other income sources, streaming especially – with both labels and DSPs in the sights.

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How Will Finance’s Interest in Music Impact the Industry Compared to Big Tech?

Zach Fuller

16 Dec 2019

With Hipgnosis continuing to acquire copyright, coupled with Warner Music Group and Providence Equity’s announcement of Tempo Music Investments, the finance industry’s interest in the recorded music business continues to gather momentum.

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The Future of Music: A Vision of Post-Format

Cover image for The Future of Music: A Vision of Post-Format

Mark Mulligan

18 Sep 2019

Formats have shaped and dictated the evolution of recorded music. The constraints that formats set have, in turn, become the creative frameworks within which music has operated. Now, in the internet era, formats are becoming a thing of the past – and yet the way in which music is made and distributed still conforms to the old physical world.

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