Blog: monetisation

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.

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
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.
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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
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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Finding the third way for video monetisation

Cover image for Finding the third way for video monetisation
Tim Mulligan
2023 is an inflection point for streaming video; no longer young (Netflix pivoted into subscription video on demand (SVOD) back in 2007), no longer novel (monthly video subscriptions went mainstream in the major English speaking markets in Q4 2019 (Source: MIDiA Research quarterly consumer surveys)), and no longer the preserve of the young (55+’s became the largest binge-viewing demographic in major English speaking markets in Q1 2020).
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YouTube's secret weapon for overtaking Spotify

Cover image for YouTube's secret weapon for overtaking Spotify
Tatiana Cirisano
YouTube has not been quiet about its ambitions to overtake Spotify as the music industry’s top revenue driver by 2025. The clock is ticking, and although YouTube is the most popular platform for music listening globally (55% of consumers watch music videos on YouTube, compared to 24% who listen to Spotify), it still has a significant way to go towards translating that dominance to revenue.
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Lockdown & Dragons: Fantasy proves the fandom effect

Cover image for Lockdown & Dragons: Fantasy proves the fandom effect
Hanna Kahlert
With vaccine rollouts gaining momentum, the post-COVID attention crunch is looming large for the digital entertainment propositions which have all experienced booms over lockdown. The competition is on – making it more essential than ever to understand the trends behind shifting consumer behaviour and sentiment drivers, as ‘in real life’ (IRL) activities return and budget crunches force audiences to make new spending choices.
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Creators Versus Distributors: What Happens When Brands Can No Longer Rely on Their Content?

Hanna Kahlert
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, technology is completely altering the relationship between ‘creators’ and distributors – and it is doing so in a way which is empowering the independent agency of creators, while leaving those companies that focus upon the distribution of their work increasingly scrambling to justify the ROI between content provision and monetisation.
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YouTube is Monetising Fandom Through Subscriptions

Amanda Stears
YouTube is no stranger to subscription models; it had 53 paid channels in 2013 with monthly subscriptions priced from $0.99-$2.99. Four years later, the paid channels were discontinued with YouTube stating in its blog, “This service offered monthly subscriptions for some channels, but with less than 1% of creators using it today, it never achieved popularity with creators or users”.
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