Blog: Music creators

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.

Songwriters, we want to hear from you! Raise your voice in MIDiA’s new survey

Cover image for Songwriters, we want to hear from you! Raise your voice in MIDiA’s new survey

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

Last year, MIDiA’s inaugural songwriter survey uncovered an alarming statistic: 67% of songwriters name “lack of meaningful streaming income” as their biggest challenge. More alarming yet is the fact that this remained the most common challenge for songwriters in our survey across income levels and tenure, even as other challenges – such as breaking through the noise – diminished.

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AI is reshaping the music creator economy, and that change will reshape the music business

Cover image for AI is reshaping the music creator economy, and that change will reshape the music business

Mark Mulligan

3 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Creator economy

MIDiA is pleased to announce the release of not one but two new music creator economy reports. These are our latest " State of the music creator economy "and " Music creator tools forecasts "reports. These annual deliverables have quickly become industry benchmarks, and if you operate in the music creator economy, they are must-reads.

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The unflattening of music

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Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2025

Cultural trends

[This post builds on two other recent MIDiA posts: Background music and What got you here ] At the half way point of the decade it is a good time to reflect on how the business of music is reshaping the culture of music – and where this is heading.

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AI’s creator economy revolution will accelerate if it can join the dots

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Ben Woods

11 Oct 2024

Creator economy

While generative artificial intelligence (AI) is in its infancy, many people are optimistic about the technology’s potential. Organisations are deploying AI to improve productivity – and creators and general consumers are following suit.

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Music creator economy: recalibration

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Mark Mulligan

26 Sep 2024

Creator economy

Music creator tools

The music creator economy has been long in the making but was thrust into the wider music industry’s limelight with the Covid lockdowns triggering a surge in new creators. As with any bubble, many creator tools companies saw their ensuing surge flatten post-lockdown.

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Songwriters take the stage: a new playbook for a new era

Cover image for Songwriters take the stage: a new playbook for a new era

Tatiana Cirisano

31 Jul 2024

songwriting income

Music publishing

In the 2021 report, “ Rebalancing the song economy ”, MIDiA introduced the idea of songs as mini industries. In the streaming era, songs are constantly revived and reimagined — and so long as you own the publishing, it does not matter if the version that becomes popular is the original, a cover, or an interpolation.

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Platoon just quietly raised the bar for songwriter services

Cover image for Platoon just quietly raised the bar for songwriter services

Tatiana Cirisano

11 Jul 2024

Business Strategy

Over the past few months, singer-songwriter RAYE has been using her spotlight to campaign for fairer pay for songwriters — advocating for them to receive royalty points on master recordings, per diems for studio time, and more.

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Songwriters, we want to hear from you – take our survey!

Cover image for Songwriters, we want to hear from you – take our survey!

Fernanda Balzaretti

13 May 2024

Music publishing

Songwriters are the backbone of the music industry; however, they are rarely in the spotlight. As with the rest of the industry, songwriters have seen their workflows and income sources turned upside down in the streaming and social media eras.

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Can’t cross the moat? Walk around it

Cover image for Can’t cross the moat? Walk around it

Mark Mulligan

12 Apr 2024

Creator economy

consumer creation

The music business is bifurcating. On one side, a new AI, fandom, and creation centred business is coalescing. On the other, the traditional business is pulling the draw bridge over its moat by pushing up streaming royalty thresholds to ensure the soon-to-explode long tail knows it is not welcome.

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What is at stake in the TikTok-UMG showdown

Cover image for What is at stake in the TikTok-UMG showdown

Tatiana Cirisano

1 Feb 2024

Music streaming

Universal Music Group

Music’s biggest on-again, off-again relationship just took a turn for the ugly, as Universal Music Group is pulling its music off TikTok. We have seen this movie before: Every time the music industry negotiates licenses with social platforms, the battle boils down to a question of who needs the other more.

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Despite its hyper-futurism, 2023 was a return to the past

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Tatiana Cirisano

21 Dec 2023

From politics to tech to entertainment, the past few years can best be described as unprecedented. In 2023, daily life felt especially futuristic and surreal, with artificial intelligence dominating the discourse.

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Artists are speaking out about the content treadmill — is it too late to slow down?

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Tatiana Cirisano

14 Dec 2023

If you were on the music industry bubble of X this week, you probably caught wind of Bethany Cosentino’s honest reflection of her solo album release. For the uninitiated, the frontwoman of cult California rock duo Best Coast released her first solo album, Natural Disaster , in July, but it did not go as she planned.

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State of the music creator economy – The consumer era

Cover image for State of the music creator economy – The consumer era

Mark Mulligan

14 Dec 2023

Music creator tools

Creator economy

MIDiA is excited to announce the publication of the latest edition of its annual ‘State of the music creator economy’ report. Based on months of research, MIDiA creator and consumer surveys, market sizes and forecasts, this report is the definitive assessment of the music creator tools industry.

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

Cover image for Overanalysing our Spotify Wrapped: what MIDiA’s stats say about the industry

Tatiana Cirisano

4 Dec 2023

Music streaming

It would not be the holidays without Spotify Wrapped, the ubiquitous marketing scheme that involves Spotify repackaging the vast amount of data it collects about users into fun personalised insights ready for social media.

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

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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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How Spotify’s new model could accelerate a forking of music

Cover image for How Spotify’s new model could accelerate a forking of music

Tatiana Cirisano

2 Nov 2023

Music streaming

Spotify’s new royalty model is the latest attempt to try to bring streaming royalties in line with the dynamics of todays’ streaming market. It has many laudable objectives and intentions, but there is no escaping the threat perceived by artists and companies that operate in the long tail.

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What music could gain from social platform subscriptions

Cover image for What music could gain from social platform subscriptions

Tatiana Cirisano

17 Oct 2023

Last week, Epic Games’ comments about “low margins” in the creator economy prompted a burning question : What happens when consumer creations become more popular than the core content they draw from? Consumers increasingly express their fandom through creation, and we believe this will be one of the music industry’s next growth drivers.

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Music has become a ‘just-in-time’ economy

Cover image for Music has become a ‘just-in-time’ economy

Mark Mulligan

16 Oct 2023

The modern day economy is built upon ‘just-in-time’ supply chains. This framework has enabled the benefits of consumerism that we have come to enjoy, such as next day delivery, out of season foods on our shelves, and the digital devices we live our lives through.

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Misaligned incentives make the music business a zero-sum game

Cover image for Misaligned incentives make the music business a zero-sum game

Tatiana Cirisano

17 Aug 2023

streaming services

“Pop Stars Aren’t Popping Like They Used To”, Billboard ’s Elias Leight writes in a recent article, in which record label executives stress over the struggle to break new artists. The article (or at least, the headline) stirred up a storm on Twitter — ahem, X — last week, where many users took the opportunity to slam record labels’ misguided focus on virality.

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Will ByteDance build the first cultural graph for music recommendations?

Cover image for Will ByteDance build the first cultural graph for music recommendations?

Tatiana Cirisano

11 Jul 2023

Music streaming

ByteDance’s long-awaited new subscription streaming app, TikTok Music, is here, with an initial launch in Indonesia and Brazil. The news overshadowed the US beta launch of ByteDance’s new music creation app, Ripple, which is likely to make waves.

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