Adele’s success will be best measured in cultural impact – not sales

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

15 Oct 2021

adele

30

streaming

Adele is something of an anomaly in the modern music business, a throwback to how things used to be. These days even the biggest artists struggle to get mainstream attention for their new releases in a…

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Did July 1st 2019 mark the end of Spotify’s music creator dream?

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

8 Oct 2021

creator tools

Spotify

Soundbetter

On July 1st 2019, Spotify announced that it was closing its system that allowed artists to upload their music directly to Spotify . The move came in the wake of fierce opposition from record labels who…

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Live streaming’s second growth phase

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

6 Oct 2021

live streaming

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…

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

Blog post by Ashleigh Millar

1 Oct 2021

TikTok

live streaming

songwriters

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…

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Creator TAMs: a new way to assess the creator economy

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

1 Oct 2021

creator tools

Music

business strategy

The music creator tools space is undergoing a change that is simultaneously renaissance and transformation. The creator culture boom has driven an unprecedented degree of investment and investor interest.…

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Content proliferation is remaking entertainment categories and giving rise to experiential consumption

Blog post by Hanna Kahlert

23 Sep 2021

Media and Marketing

fandom

Digital

The attention economy reaching saturation was a disruptive force in entertainment long before the coronavirus pandemic. Too much competition for too little time meant that audience engagement was increasingly…

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UMG’s buoyant stock debut is a new chapter for the music business

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

22 Sep 2021

Music

business strategy

Universal Music Group (UMG) had an extremely positive first day of trading as a standalone entity,  with shares at one stage trading 35% up from their reference point and making the market cap leap to…

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‘Middle class’ artists need niche, not scale

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

17 Sep 2021

Music

business strategy

Streaming continues to grow strongly, as evidenced by the  28% growth reported by the RIAA for H1 2021 in the US . Everything looks great for the build-up to the impeding Universal Music Group (UMG) IPO.…

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Creator tools will drive the (equal opportunity) future of music

Blog post by Hanna Kahlert

17 Sep 2021

women in music

creator tools

synth

The last two years under a pandemic have driven more music creators in a DIY direction. Equipment and instrument sales reported record-breaking growth over lockdown – Sweetwater, for example, had its…

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Axing exclusive music licenses in China will drive new local music cultures

Blog post by Srishti Das

15 Sep 2021

China

emerging markets

tencent

As a result of the new guidelines set out by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), record labels are no longer allowed to issue exclusive licenses to music services. Previously, music services…

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The oncoming fandom crisis

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2021

music fans

music fandom

fandom

The  Chinese authorities’ crackdown on fandom  represents the first major growing pain for the global fandom economy. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) will likely be the bellwether of this shift, …

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Kanye just obliterated the creative full stop

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

3 Sep 2021

Kanye West

music product strategy

creator tools

Kanye West knows how to stir things up, not least in making us rethink what music is and nudging us away from considering it as linear and static. First there was his announcement that Life of Pablo was…

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Creator tools are changing the power dynamic of audiences and platforms

Blog post by Hanna Kahlert

31 Aug 2021

creator tools

social media

streaming

As ever, the maturation of markets begs the question: “what next?” – and we have now hit this point with streaming, as the ‘ big bang’ moment of D2C video streaming platforms coincides with the…

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Fluid audio is here, and music is about to meet its next mp3 moment

Blog post by Kriss Thakrar

26 Aug 2021

creator tools

ugc

gen z

Kanye West has released the Donda Stem Player, a handheld remixing speaker that can interact with music, as a way to create a personalised experience with his new album. However, this is not just an interactive…

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Middle East’s ESMAA points the way for music rights in emerging markets

Blog post by Srishti Das

20 Aug 2021

music rights

emerging markets

ESMAA

The importance of emerging markets for the next growth story in the music industry is resulting in labels and streaming services prioritising growth in these territories. In addition to resolving the industries…

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Hip hop fandom is driving the music business' future in gaming, live streaming and beyond

Blog post by Kriss Thakrar

17 Aug 2021

Fortnite

fandom

gaming

The music industry is at a pivot point as new ways of interacting and monetising music arise with unprecedented speed. Kanye West’s Donda live stream generating $7 million in merch sales demonstrates…

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The music industry’s gaming experience is growing beyond traditional sync and licensing

Blog post by Srishti Das

13 Aug 2021

virtual concert

gaming

virtual events

The pandemic didn’t give rise to live streaming concerts. However, it played a key role in their rapid adoption over the last 18 months. Virtual events were kickstarted with 327 million streams of online…

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Can Spotify break out of its lane?

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

13 Aug 2021

Spotify

TikTok

YouTube

After years of relative stability, music consumption is shifting, with the DSP streaming model beginning to lose some ground as illustrated by the major labels growing streaming revenue by 33% in Q2 2021…

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Facebook just got into social music; the industry should take note

Blog post by Hanna Kahlert

12 Aug 2021

social music

social music app

facebook

Facebook has just rolled out a new option to share clips of music videos to its Stories , which will be fully available to users by August 16th. The move has two main sets of implications. On the music…

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Why Spotify’s creator strategy needs to pay more attention to fans

Blog post by Kriss Thakrar

10 Aug 2021

Spotify

streaming

fandom

Spotify’s shift towards becoming an audio platform encompasses a push to become a creator-first business, with a vision of 50 million creators supplying content to a billion users. However, the company’s…

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