Blog: Music 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.

Music discovery is not dead, just evolving – the industry needs to evolve with it

Cover image for Music discovery is not dead, just evolving – the industry needs to evolve with it

Olivia Jones

9 May 2025

Audience Insight

Music streaming

Music streaming algorithms have changed the way we listen to music – for better and for worse. While the radio used to be the main way to find new music, streaming and social algorithms now drive discovery as listeners crave (and have come to expect) more personalised recommendations.

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How economic volatility will impact US labels’ fandom monetisation push

Cover image for How economic volatility will impact US labels’ fandom monetisation push

Olivia Jones

25 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

It has been an eventful few weeks for the global economy, to put it mildly. Since President Trump’s initial announcement calling for a universal baseline tariff on foreign imports to the US at the beginning of this month, global financial markets have been in flux, affecting nearly every sector from car manufacturing to electronics.

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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

9 Apr 2025

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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What happens to music when fan-made content eclipses the original IP?

Cover image for What happens to music when fan-made content eclipses the original IP?

Tatiana Cirisano

5 Dec 2024

Last week, MIDiA’s Ben Woods delivered a message to the entertainment industry: nurture fandom or risk losing control of your IP . For years, the way in which consumers engage with their favourite artists, movies, TV shows, and games has become ever more about participation.

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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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Two future paths for the vinyl revival

Cover image for Two future paths for the vinyl revival

Tatiana Cirisano

31 Oct 2024

monetising fandom

The vinyl resurgence is among the top music industry narratives of the past few years, especially given the recent focus on monetising fandom. The elephant in the room is the question of how long this resurgence will last.

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‘Brat’ summer and the dilemmas of going mainstream

Cover image for ‘Brat’ summer and the dilemmas of going mainstream

Tatiana Cirisano

29 Aug 2024

music marketing

It has become a rule of thumb that the moment corporate America begins capitalising on a trend, that trend begins to die. Cultural fragmentation has helped niches and scenes flourish, but it has also left large corporations that depend on mainstream products hungry for relevance — and willing to do anything to tap into the zeitgeist, including wringing cultural moments dry.

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‘Song of the summer’ may be dead, but 2024 was the summer of song

Cover image for ‘Song of the summer’ may be dead, but 2024 was the summer of song

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Aug 2024

fragmented fandom

Music streaming

Over the past few years, MIDiA has often remarked at the lack of a “song of the summer” . There was once a singular undeniable hit each summer, one that everyone could agree on, like ‘One Dance’ was to 2016 or ‘Despacito’ to 2017.

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Kendrick vs. Drake is a rare ‘mainstream’ moment — and streaming is on the sidelines

Cover image for Kendrick vs. Drake is a rare ‘mainstream’ moment — and streaming is on the sidelines

Tatiana Cirisano

9 May 2024

Bifurcation theory

Over the last week, it has been hard to go anywhere, or speak to anyone, without some mention of the epic diss track battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. When is the last time we could say that about a pop culture moment? The domination of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is arguably the only bit of music news in the last year that managed to cut across every niche and break into “mainstream” conversation.

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The cultural pendulum swing is coming back around

Cover image for The cultural pendulum swing is coming back around

Tatiana Cirisano

11 Apr 2024

Music streaming

Across culture, there is an eerie sense of things coming full circle. After spending the past decade building an industry around ad-free streaming TV, Netflix has ads and feels increasingly like cable .

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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 crumbling of music media is a disaster for the music industry

Cover image for The crumbling of music media is a disaster for the music industry

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Jan 2024

music journalism

As a former music journalist, I can say that layoffs are somewhat to be expected when you work in media. Nobody gets into this industry looking for stability. But the past 12 months have felt especially grim, with a growing list of mass layoffs and complete shutdowns that includes Bandcamp Daily , MTV News , NPR , Vox Media, and Los Angeles Times , to name just a few.

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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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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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Can Swift and Beyoncé save the economy? What the data says about music tourism

Cover image for Can Swift and Beyoncé save the economy? What the data says about music tourism

Tatiana Cirisano

10 Aug 2023

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have more accolades than most artists in history. Now they can add “saving the economy” to the list — well, sort of. Governing bodies in cities from Chicago to Philadelphia to Stockholm have credited the duo’s respective concerts for boosting local tourism (and temporarily inflating prices).

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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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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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What ‘Barbie’, ‘The Idol’, and more say about the future of artists in film

Cover image for What ‘Barbie’, ‘The Idol’, and more say about the future of artists in film

Tatiana Cirisano

8 Jun 2023

Music publishing

2023 is already shaping up to be another big year for music artists in Hollywood. Late last month, Jack Harlow made his acting debut in a Hulu remake of 1992 basketball comedy White Men Can’t Jump . The Weeknd (who is now going by Abel Tesfaye) stars in Max’s controversial new series, The Idol , in which BLACKPINK's Jennie also makes her acting debut.

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A new era of music fluidity is here

Cover image for A new era of music fluidity is here

Tatiana Cirisano

23 May 2023

user-generated content

What do AI Drake, adaptive music, and TikTok open-verse challenges have in common? All reflect a major shift of music consumption from a passive, static, and uni-directional experience to an active, dynamic, multi-directional one.

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