Blog: Music Industry

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.

Sounds of 2026 | MIDiA and Splice name Afro house as the sound of the year

Adham Nazir

13 Jan 2026

Cultural trends Music Splice

MIDiA and Splice have teamed up once again to deliver a fresh round of insights and predictions for music in the coming year. In the Sounds of 2026 report we dive deep into the trends behind the music producers are creating, using the data of today to identify the sounds of tomorrow.

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Why predictions matter – and MIDiA’s take on 2026

Tatiana Cirisano

8 Jan 2026

Business Strategy predictions midia predictions

It’s never been easy to predict the future. It seems to have become even harder in the last few years. As technologies evolve faster than ever, so too does the consumer behaviour surrounding them – the most salient example, of course, being AI.

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K-pop’s global bifurcation: A genre at a crossroads

Olivia Jones

22 Dec 2025

Business Strategy Fandom Music

Billboard recently released two new weekly charts tracking Korean music – Billboard Korea Hot 100 and Billboard Korea Global K-Songs . While the Hot 100 ranks songs based on streaming and sales numbers within South Korea, the Global K-Songs chart focuses on global popularity, ranking the top songs...

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Overanalysing our 2025 Spotify Wrapped: what MIDiA’s stats say about the industry

Tatiana Cirisano

11 Dec 2025

Fandom Spotify Streaming

Nothing signifies the holiday season like snowy days, Christmas jingles – and for many of us, Spotify Wrapped. The streaming platform’s annual listenership stats are back, and so is MIDiA’s tradition of over-analysing them.

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NewJeans never die: What the year-long scandal means for K-pop’s global expansion

Olivia Jones

4 Dec 2025

Business Strategy Music Artists

The biggest scandal in modern K-pop turned one year old last Friday – and may have officially reached a resolution. To recap: on November 28, 2024, K-pop girl group NewJeans announced they were terminating their exclusive contract with ADOR, citing a breach of trust and failure to meet requests fo...

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The future of record labels: Shifting sands

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Music streaming Music

The question of whether artists still need record labels never seems to fade from industry discussion. It has invariably surfaced in conference panels, think pieces, and behind-closed-doors conversations for years.

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AI music creators: music’s superfans

Mark Mulligan

13 Nov 2025

Audience Insight Fandom Creators

Not a week seems to go by without some big news in the world of music AI. Hot on the heels of UMG’s Udio deal , GEMA just secured a favourable ruling against OpenAI (via Reuters ). Over the course of the year, however, court rulings have fallen roughly evenly for media companies and AI companies, ...

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The music industry remains divided on generative AI. Where will that leave us?

Olivia Jones

27 Oct 2025

Product Strategy Music Music creators

The past year has seen music industry discourse around generative AI shift from disruption to strategy. Yet the strategies being employed vary widely, and there is no one “industry perspective” on how to approach it.

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The future of music streaming: Change or be changed

Mark Mulligan

13 Oct 2025

Business Strategy Music streaming Fandom

The music business, entertainment as a whole – even the world – are at turning points. The future may be unknown, but there is always one certainty: things are going to be different. The change that got us here was paradoxically both fast and slow.

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Global recorded music revenues up 5.9% in H1 2025

Mark Mulligan

29 Sep 2025

Marketing Strategy Streaming Music

MIDiA is excited to announce our first ever mid-year recorded music model. Clients can access the data here , which is published as part of our H1 2025 music industry metrics report, containing more than 40 pages of market metrics, company financials, and consumer data.

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Gen Z social habits spell trouble for music discovery

Olivia Jones

23 Sep 2025

Fandom Business Strategy Music

Social media is king among Gen Z and may seem to act as a hotbed for viral hits. However, social media’s impact on music streams and fandom is not as strong as it appears. MIDiA’s new report All eyes, no ears | Why virality is not building fandom highlights where social media is lacking when it ...

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All eyes, no ears: New MIDiA data shows why virality is not building fandom

Tatiana Cirisano

16 Sep 2025

Business Strategy Fandom Music

Over the past five years, social video has crept its way into nearly every aspect of music, from talent scouting to new release marketing. But the buzz around these platforms often obscures a more complicated reality.

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Karra, bifurcation, and YouTube’s gain

Mark Mulligan

8 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Streaming Music

A couple of weeks ago, electronic music artist Karra posted a video on YouTube about why she took her album down from streaming (one that she spent $100,000 making). She is now going to focus her efforts on YouTube (“an incredible platform for [her] artistry”), as well as selling content to musi...

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MIDiA’s 2025 independent label survey

Mark Mulligan

28 Aug 2025

Business Strategy Fandom survey

It’s that time of year again, MIDiA’s independent label and distributor survey is now live and waiting for your contributions! Click here to take the survey. The annual survey is an opportunity for the global independent community to have its voice heard – and this year is one of the most impo...

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The unflattening of streaming

Mark Mulligan

21 Aug 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Fandom

This post builds on our January 2025 post ‘The unflattening of music’ which itself built on two previous pieces (you can find links to both in that post). Industries arrive at pivot points when an accumulation of fissures coalesce into one big crack.

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More than a lineup: The importance of bold curation

Laura Fisher

14 Aug 2025

Business Strategy Music Artists

Have you noticed how many festival lineups this summer feature the same handful of artists? I have, and, crucially, fans are noticing it too. Where festival billings once offered a window into a distinctive scene, today’s lineups are merging into a wave of homogenised big-name experiences.

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Some artists are leaving Spotify (again). Here’s what’s different now

Tatiana Cirisano

7 Aug 2025

Product Strategy Spotify Streaming

Over the past few weeks, a growing list of indie bands have decided to leave Spotify, the most prominent being Deerhoof and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (a partial list has been compiled by Fader ).

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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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Why Drake’s ‘Which One’ single is not a TikTok-first track

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jul 2025

Music Content Social

Drake’s new single ‘Which One’, featuring Central Cee dropped on July 25, 2025 –not abnormal. Less normal: he launched it with no warning halfway through a 41-minute episode of Iceman , a YouTube series he is streaming in advance of his album of the same name.

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The music business is splitting in two. Here’s why songwriters are reinventing their role

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Jul 2025

Business Strategy music industry songwriters

When systems fail, there are two options: try to fix what is broken, or build something new. In our ’s landmark ‘bifurcation theory’ report , MIDiA pinpointed a new class of music creators taking the latter path.

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