Blog: monetizing fandom

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.

What HYBE and UMG’s Q3 earnings tell us about superfans

Cover image for What HYBE and UMG’s Q3 earnings tell us about superfans

Olivia Jones

3 Dec 2024

Universal Music Group

“Superfan” has been this year’s buzzword in the music industry. From Universal Music Group (UMG) setting its superfan agenda at the start of the year to Warner Music Group announcing its plans for a superfan platform, much of the Western music industry has shifted its focus to monetising fandom.

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Artist subscriptions and the myth of a silver bullet

Cover image for Artist subscriptions and the myth of a silver bullet

Tatiana Cirisano

28 Mar 2024

artist subscriptions

monetizing fandom

Artist subscriptions are back in the music industry discourse and the takes are piping hot. James Blake lit up X with his announcement of subscription platform Vault, Warner Music Group is building its own superfan platform, and Spotify confirmed that “superfan clubs” are soon to come.

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Could YouTube be the music-first social platform the industry needs?

Cover image for Could YouTube be the music-first social platform the industry needs?

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Feb 2024

In December, we mused on what could happen if artists collectively stepped off the content treadmill. With Universal Music Group (UMG) removing its catalogue from TikTok, that thought experiment came startlingly close to fruition.

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The $100m+ in-game opportunity behind music producers

Cover image for The $100m+ in-game opportunity behind music producers

Kriss Thakrar

15 Nov 2023

monetizing fandom

MIDiA’s latest forecasts predict that the video game industry will be worth over $300 billion in 2030, a figure that makes a minnow out of a music industry that will reach $87 billion in retail terms by 2030 .

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Superfans may not be super enough

Cover image for Superfans may not be super enough

Mark Mulligan

4 Aug 2023

monetizing fandom

There has been a lot of talk recently of music superfans and how they may be the shining light of the industry’s future. Little surprise, given how record labels are trying to establish superfans as the next growth driver for an investor community that is growing increasingly concerned about slowing streaming growth and looming threats, such as AI.

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Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Cover image for Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Ben Woods

20 Dec 2022

When Twitch influencer Freckled Science wanted to puncture the falsehoods surrounding the beauty industry, she patched in Dr. Michelle Wong for a live interview . The co-stream, incorporating the feeds of both streamers, was among the early try-outs of Guest Star – the livestreaming platform’s latest tool for bolstering viewer engagement.

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Beyoncé raises the question: what does commercial success mean in 2022?

Cover image for Beyoncé raises the question: what does commercial success mean in 2022?

Tatiana Cirisano

4 Aug 2022

monetizing fandom

fragmented fandom

Consumer behaviour

It is hard to believe that six years have elapsed between Beyoncé’s last solo album, Lemonade , and her newest, Renaissance . So much has changed in those six years about how listeners consume music, how fandoms organise, and what is competing for our attention.

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Elon’s Twitter bid is a warning: creators are building on rented land

Cover image for Elon’s Twitter bid is a warning: creators are building on rented land

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Apr 2022

Content Creators

Creator economy

In the creator economy, creators earn money by going direct-to-fan, cutting out traditional middlemen. But it is a misconception that this model gets rid of middlemen entirely. Rather, platforms are becoming the new gatekeepers, power brokers, and fan enablers.

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You can play Snoop Dogg in Call of Duty, but you can’t PLAY him

Cover image for You can play Snoop Dogg in Call of Duty, but you can’t PLAY him

Karol Severin

21 Apr 2022

Call of Duty dropped the ‘Tracer Pack: Snoop Dogg Operator Bundle’, costing 2,400 COD Points ($19.99). It comes with Snoop’s playable skin, his own voice lines and progression path towards unlockable weapons and rewards including sprays, stickers, emblem, weapon charms and four operator outfits etc.

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Spotify’s Loud and Clear is about fandom, not royalties

Cover image for Spotify’s Loud and Clear is about fandom, not royalties

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Mar 2022

Streaming Music

Streaming Royalties

Spotify has updated its Loud & Clear website exploring how it pays royalties to rightsholders, and it claims that more artists are earning income on the platform than ever before. Many in the music industry will spend today picking apart these claims, and they will be right to do so.

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Is live-stream composition the new formula for a hit album?

Cover image for Is live-stream composition the new formula for a hit album?

Ashleigh Millar

1 Oct 2021

We are no stranger to TikTok and its impact on the music industry, which is changing the structure of the business one viral video at a time. Artists and composers are flocking to the innovative social media app with hopes of finding musical success, similar to that of 24KGoldn and Nathan Evans.

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From creator tools to commercial tools

Cover image for From creator tools to commercial tools

Kriss Thakrar

1 Jul 2021

Creator tools are taking an evolutionary step toward commercially empowering creators. Live streaming tool Happs’ recent $4.7 million investment is a relatively small yet significant bet that the future of creator tools in live streaming and beyond is not solely in tools designed to create content.

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MUSIC & GAMING: A NEW WAY TO PLAY

Cover image for MUSIC & GAMING: A NEW WAY TO PLAY

Dara Jegede

13 Apr 2021

monetizing fandom

MUSIC & GAMING: A NEW WAY TO PLAY New report explores how music companies and creators should rethink building and monetising fandom LONDON—Tuesday, April 13, 2021: MIDiA Research, in partnership with Twitch, release a report, Music & Gaming: A new way to play , examining the growing opportunity for music artists to leverage the games industry’s fan economy to develop their careers, connect with their audiences and monetise their craft.

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Gamers: The new frontier of music’s fan-centric growth

Cover image for Gamers: The new frontier of music’s fan-centric growth

Karol Severin

13 Apr 2021

Music companies have begun to realise that as their industry has grown, it has also transferred much of its previous fan value into the subscription and song economy. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent halt of live music events (which, since the advent of streaming, became music’s key way of monetising fandom) increased the urgency with which monetising fandom in the digital era needs to be addressed by artists and their representatives.

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Music Streaming Needs a New Future

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Mark Mulligan

12 Jun 2020

While doing some research on the Chinese streaming market I came across this fantastic UX tear down of Xiami Music . I recommend you read it in full. The day before I found this–also must-read–article on Beyoncé’s streaming strategy ,which explains how she uses different platforms to segment her fanbase (Tidal – super fans, Spotify engaged fans, Netlix, passive fans).

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Free-to-Attend Event: Monetising Fandom

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Mark Mulligan

10 Jul 2019

Join us on Wednesday 17 th July in central London for MIDiA’s next free-to-attend event: Monetising Fandom in a Fragmented Content Landscape. Regular attendees of our events will know that they combine great new data and analysis with insightful panels and a mix of attendees not quite like at any other event, with representation from across multiple industries.

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The Artist Marketing Playbook Needs Rewriting

Cover image for The Artist Marketing Playbook Needs Rewriting

Mark Mulligan

5 Jul 2019

artist marketing

The whole essence of fandom is being turned upside down. An emerging crop of streaming-native artists is finding its audience in a much more targeted and efficient way than via the traditional music marketing.

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