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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 year of change behind us, a new epoch ahead: Predicting 2026

Hanna Kahlert

16 Dec 2025

Business Strategy Social Digital

2025 is drawing to a close. Looking back through the year’s updates and events, it’s been a busy one. The major highlights: entertainment’s relationship with AI has changed dramatically, and there were a number of major mergers and acquisitions, including Netflix purchasing Warner Bros.

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Overanalysing our 2025 Spotify Wrapped: what MIDiA’s stats say about the industry

Tatiana Cirisano

11 Dec 2025

Fandom Spotify Streaming

Nothing signifies the holiday season like snowy days, Christmas jingles – and for many of us, Spotify Wrapped. The streaming platform’s annual listenership stats are back, and so is MIDiA’s tradition of over-analysing them.

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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.

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Why audience ownership is the driving force behind creator IP expansions

Ben Woods

10 Dec 2025

Business Strategy Video Creators

Distribution is the tie that binds all creators together. Most successful creators use social media platforms as a springboard for turning their creative idea into a career. Social platforms have enabled creators to forge deep connections with audiences, while mastering the nuances of algorithmic di...

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Peter Doig’s ‘House of Music’ and the importance of audio as a shared experience

Laura Fisher

9 Dec 2025

Music Audio Community

The Sound Service at Peter Doig’s House of Music exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery has been open since early October. While the exhibition itself explores themes of music and collective gathering, it is this live element that fully activates its central premise.

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NewJeans never die: What the year-long scandal means for K-pop’s global expansion

Olivia Jones

4 Dec 2025

Business Strategy Music Artists

The biggest scandal in modern K-pop turned one year old last Friday – and may have officially reached a resolution. To recap: on November 28, 2024, K-pop girl group NewJeans announced they were terminating their exclusive contract with ADOR, citing a breach of trust and failure to meet requests fo...

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The AI-social media dilemma: Can TikTok, Meta, and diVine curb low-quality content without hurting creators?

Ben Woods

3 Dec 2025

Business Strategy Facebook TikTok

Social platforms are grappling with a difficult balancing act. Generative AI can deliver a revolutionary engagement opportunity by turning even more consumers into creators. However, low-quality AI content also poses a threat to the user experience of social platforms.

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ARC Raiders is disrupting the games industry: What developers can learn from its success

Brandon Sutton

27 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Social Gaming

ARC Raiders has quickly become one of 2025’s standout releases. Developed by Embark Studios, founded by former EA-owned studio DICE leaders, the game has quickly exceeded commercial and critical expectations for smaller developers.

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Valve announces new Steam Hardware: What the launch means for gaming

Brandon Sutton

21 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Gaming Games

In true Valve fashion, the company unveiled a surprise suite of new devices aimed at consumers last week – consisting of a PC-console hybrid, a new virtual reality headset, and a controller (via Valve ).

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The future of record labels: Shifting sands

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Music streaming Music

The question of whether artists still need record labels never seems to fade from industry discussion. It has invariably surfaced in conference panels, think pieces, and behind-closed-doors conversations for years.

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Why ignoring creator wellbeing is a financial risk for the creator economy

Ben Woods

20 Nov 2025

Audience Insight Video Creators

Each day, millions of hours of video content are uploaded onto social video platforms. The stream of creative output is so vast that it can be easy to forget that behind each one of these videos there is often a creator putting in a significant amount of work.

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(di)Vine is back: Is there space for another short-form video app?

Hanna Kahlert

19 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Video Creators

Long before we had TikTok, Reels, or Shorts, we had Vine. An app arguably well before its time, the original short-form platform for 6-second video clips was a huge moment for millennial culture. Compilations of archived content still rack up millions of views on YouTube, indicating its longevity, p...

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The audio drama renaissance: The curious case of Sherlock & Co.

Laura Fisher

14 Nov 2025

Product Strategy Podcasts Entertainment

The audio drama, a format once consigned to history, is enjoying a remarkable revival. At its epicentre is a compelling case study in modern audience engagement: Goalhanger’s Sherlock & Co . a narrative podcast now approaching one million monthly downloads.

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Amazon winding down New World may signal the end of Western-developed MMORPGs

Brandon Sutton

13 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Amazon Gaming

Amazon’s announcement that it will wind down support for its flagship title, New World , raises major questions about the future of Western-developed Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) and about Amazon’s own role in the gaming industry (via Amazon Game Studios ).

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AI music creators: music’s superfans

Mark Mulligan

13 Nov 2025

Audience Insight Fandom Creators

Not a week seems to go by without some big news in the world of music AI. Hot on the heels of UMG’s Udio deal , GEMA just secured a favourable ruling against OpenAI (via Reuters ). Over the course of the year, however, court rulings have fallen roughly evenly for media companies and AI companies, ...

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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.

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Online radio and community building: A closer look at NTS’ Don’t Assume Day

Laura Fisher

6 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Music

By any measure, streaming defines today’s music landscape. It’s a period in which digital platforms determine how audiences access, discover, and share music. Yet as algorithmic playlists saturate the experience, a counter current has emerged: listeners are seeking context and connection, not ju...

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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.

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Brands and social TV: The next big entertainment power move

Ben Woods

5 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Audience Insight Video

One question is often asked when traditional entertainment companies start exploring a social-first strategy: how do we make it pay? It’s a valid line of inquiry that does not come with a neat answer.

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The end of the Console Wars? What Xbox’s shift means for the future of gaming

Brandon Sutton

30 Oct 2025

Business Strategy Gaming Games

With the remake of Halo: Combat Evolved , once the definitive Xbox exclusive, coming to PlayStation 5 in 2026, many are proclaiming that the ‘console wars’ may finally be over. For decades, these ‘console wars’ – a colloquialism for competition among major gaming platforms – were defined...

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