Blog: music consumption

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, audio and social.

Music as a cultural infrastructure business

Kriss Thakrar

20 Aug 2026

Suno is introducing deliberate friction to pump the brakes on the AI-powered superabundance it helped create. By implementing download caps (per Variety ), the company is putting guardrails around how much music users can output.

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Are music fans ditching digital or embracing it? Both – welcome to the "cultural multiverse"

Olivia Jones

13 Aug 2026

Clients only

Fandom Music Superfans

The analogue revival is not a novel concept – MIDiA first explored the idea that consumers are embracing analogue or ‘old’ technology in response to digital fatigue in 2024’s analogue revival report .

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Why have we yet to hear an AI-generated hit?

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Aug 2026

Cultural trends Streaming Artists

The biggest fears AI stokes are most often rooted in displacement. Generative AI music models are trained on vast quantities of existing music and capable of producing songs that are catchy, enjoyable, and even beautiful.

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The Chicken Nugget Theory of AI music consumption

Adham Nazir

19 Feb 2026

Cultural trends Music consumer

Wisdom about human nature often presents itself as guidance from an elder sage. Every now and again, though, it comes in the form of chicken nuggets. Amidst the arguments about the extent to which generative AI in music is morally, creatively, or legally just, the music industry risks forgetting som...

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The 2026 Grammys and Bad Bunny’s cementation of the local language era

Laura Fisher

4 Feb 2026

Cultural trends Music Artists

The 68th Grammy Awards offered no shortage of significant moments, but perhaps none carried more cultural weight than when Bad Bunny’s seminal Debí Tirar Más Fotos made history. It’s crowning as Album of the Year – a first for a predominantly Spanish-language release – reflects a profound,...

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What is the value of a stream in 2025?

Olivia Jones

31 Jul 2025

Product Strategy Streaming Streaming Music

More parties than ever are becoming frustrated with streaming. For evenmany successful artists, streaming is a minority income stream, as fandom-related endeavours like live performances, merchandise, and brand deals prove to be more lucrative.

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Has music reached peak fragmentation?

Tatiana Cirisano

2 May 2025

Audience Insight Streaming Music

If you have read any of MIDiA’s work, you will know we keep a close eye on the fragmentation of music consumption. Thanks to both the internet’s democratising force and the rise of recommendation algorithms, consumers are spreading their listening across more songs and artists than ever, while t...

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Is streaming music's final form? And if not, what's next?

Tatiana Cirisano

3 Apr 2025

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Key takeaways from this blog: Music is not stuck – it is shifting. Fans now engage through remixes, memes, and behind-the-scenes content, not just through streaming Streaming is losing cultural ground.

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TikTok’s music master plan is coming into focus

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Jun 2024

TikTok Social media music consumption

Oh how the tables have turned. Just a few months removed from its very public clash with Universal Music Group over music licences, TikTok is reportedly looking to buy up music rights of its own. Not only would this ease TikTok’s reliance on licences, but it would also presumably allow TikTok to p...

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Drake's More Life is the New Normal in Streaming

Zach Fuller

23 Mar 2017

Apple Music compilation Drake

Released over the weekend after much delay, Drake’s More Life project is setting records across the board on streaming platforms. The Canadian artist described More Life as ‘a body of work bridging the gap between major releases’ and positioned the release as neither a mixtape nor an album, bu...

MIDiA Chart Of The Week: Listening Habits Of Streaming Music Consumers

Mark Mulligan

2 Nov 2015

albums Chart Of The Week Deezer

Although the relatively early stage of development of the streaming market means that most listening habits are not yet being changed, there are fundamental shifts emerging among streamers and subscribers that point to the future of music consumption: Subscribers are fickle listeners: 58% of subscri...

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