Blog: music listening

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.

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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The music industry’s personalisation paradox

Tatiana Cirisano

28 May 2026

music industry Music Music fandom

Music streaming, like most other digital entertainment types, has never been more personal. Every listener is now super-served their own algorithmically-generated world of personalised playlists, AI DJs, and hyper-specific recommendations.

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Teens are skipping release week – here’s why the music industry can’t ignore it

Tatiana Cirisano

30 Apr 2026

Clients only

Business Strategy Music music industry

The persistent growth of “catalogue” music listening is a familiar topic to the industry. In this context, the results of MIDiA’s Q4 2025 consumer survey may not seem so surprising. Just 24% of all consumers report listening to new music the week it is released, on at least a monthly basis, as...

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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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Peter Doig’s ‘House of Music’ and the importance of audio as a shared experience

Laura Fisher

9 Dec 2025

Music Audio Community

The Sound Service at Peter Doig’s House of Music exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery has been open since early October. While the exhibition itself explores themes of music and collective gathering, it is this live element that fully activates its central premise.

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Background music is a short-term win for DSPs – but it could be a long-term problem

Olivia Jones

23 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Note: Following the publication of this piece, Spotify released a statement regarding Pelly's article, which is reproduced in full at the bottom of this page. In this month’s issue of Harper’s Magazine , Liz Pelly published “ The Ghosts in the Machine ”.

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Spotify and music listening 10 years from now

Mark Mulligan

23 Jul 2021

Streaming music listening Spotify

July marks ten years since Spotify’s US launch. Although the tendency among some is to consider this ‘year zero’ for streaming (thus ignoring everything that had happened in prior years both within and outside of the US) it does present a useful opportunity to reflect on what the next decade m...

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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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