Blog: Record labels

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.

20 years ago, labels targeted fandom. Will it work the second time around?

Cover image for 20 years ago, labels targeted fandom. Will it work the second time around?

Tatiana Cirisano

27 May 2025

Business Strategy

Music streaming

The New York Times headline “ The New Deal: Band As Brand ” would not look out of place in today’s pages. In the article, the writer explores how record labels are responding to a need to diversify revenue streams by seeking to monetise fandom, via expanded rights deals.

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Has music reached peak fragmentation?

Cover image for Has music reached peak fragmentation?

Tatiana Cirisano

2 May 2025

Audience Insight

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 the “hits” are dominating less.

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Hold or twist? The music industry’s innovation dilemma

Cover image for Hold or twist? The music industry’s innovation dilemma

Mark Mulligan

20 Nov 2024

streaming growth

As Clayton Christensen identified in The Innovator’s Dilemma, there are two types of innovation: sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. Sustaining innovation is what companies do to enhance existing business models, while disruptive innovation is typically driven by new entrants – insurgents looking to make markets by turning established ones upside down.

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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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Welcome to the post-feature world

Cover image for Welcome to the post-feature world

Tatiana Cirisano

26 Sep 2024

artist services

music distribution

During the first two decades of the 21st century, companies in most industries competed on features and user interface. Snapchat was once the only social app with Stories, and the iPhone used to sit alongside the Motorola Razr and T-Mobile Sidekick.

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What Drake got wrong — and right — with 100 Gigs

Cover image for What Drake got wrong — and right — with 100 Gigs

Tatiana Cirisano

15 Aug 2024

fragmented fandom

Bifurcation theory

On August 6th , with no prior announcement, Drake unloaded 100 gigabytes’ worth of content, including songs and video clips, to a personal website and directed fans there via his Instagram burner account.

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HYBE 2.0 diverges from the major-label blueprint in 4 key ways — will it work?

Cover image for HYBE 2.0 diverges from the major-label blueprint in 4 key ways — will it work?

Tatiana Cirisano

8 Aug 2024

HYBE kicked off the month with new leadership and a new plan to bring the Korean entertainment company into its next era of growth. In a letter to shareholders , outgoing CEO Jiwon Park and new chief Jason Jaesang Lee were refreshingly open about HYBE’s past weaknesses as they laid out a plan to prepare for market shifts and bring the “K-pop system” to new genres and regions.

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TikTok’s music master plan is coming into focus

Cover image for TikTok’s music master plan is coming into focus

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Jun 2024

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 prioritise its owned content in the algorithm, and do what music executives have been tearing their hair out trying to for years: reverse-engineer viral moments.

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Did Charli XCX go mainstream, or did the mainstream just go niche?

Cover image for Did Charli XCX go mainstream, or did the mainstream just go niche?

Tatiana Cirisano

13 Jun 2024

fragmented fandom

Consumer behaviour

“ I’m famous, but not quite ,” Charli XCX sings on ‘I might say something stupid’, a moment of honest insecurity amidst the brash club anthems that make up her new album Brat . It is a familiar refrain for the artist, who has spent her decade-plus career wavering between the mainstream and counterculture.

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In generative AI and music, will nice guys finish last?

Cover image for In generative AI and music, will nice guys finish last?

Tatiana Cirisano

22 May 2024

artificial intelligence

Generative AI music company Suno has raised $125 million, one of the biggest music-tech funding rounds in history . Founders say they want to ring in “a future where anyone can make music”, but questions remain over whether Suno and its rival, Udio, have trained their models on copyrighted music without licensing deals.

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Fan economy: expanded rights are worth $3.5 billion, now what?

Cover image for Fan economy: expanded rights are worth $3.5 billion, now what?

Mark Mulligan

3 Apr 2024

expanded rights

MIDiA recently, and exclusively, revealed that expanded rights now represent 10% of the recorded music market with revenues of $3.5 billion. These revenues, derived principally from monetising the brand of the artist (merch, sponsorships, branding, live, etc.

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Global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023

Cover image for Global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2024

recorded music 2023

recorded music revenues

Growth is back! After a slower 2022, global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023 to reach $35.1 billion, compared to 7.1% in 2022, which means that the market is now more than double (124.5%) the size it was in 2015.

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MIDiA independent label and distributor survey

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Mark Mulligan

14 Mar 2024

Independent labels

MIDiA is fielding its annual independent label and distributor survey . This is the chance for the independent sector to have its voice heard. Given all of the changes that are taking place in the streaming economy, there has perhaps never been a more important time for this.

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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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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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How live music will change in the next decade

Cover image for How live music will change in the next decade

Tatiana Cirisano

20 Jul 2023

The pandemic sent shock waves through the live music industry — a historic, catastrophic disruption to a decades-old business. But just because touring is back, does not mean that we are in the clear.

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Right place, right time: Taylor Swift's track to the first $1 billion tour

Cover image for Right place, right time: Taylor Swift's track to the first $1 billion tour

Tatiana Cirisano

29 Jun 2023

music marketing

Another day, another record for Taylor Swift. As Wall Street Journal broke down this week, the superstar is now on track to achieve the first $1 billion tour in music history. A billion factors and decisions led up to this moment, with Swift’s songwriting artistry and business savvy high among them.

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Who tomorrow's music business is being built for

Cover image for Who tomorrow's music business is being built for

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Jun 2023

Product Strategy

The creator tools industry, meaning the market for music-making hardware and software, has historically served as the funnel to the recorded music industry. At the centre of that industry are big record labels, which trade on career artists.

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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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UMG, Endel, and the case for labels in the AI space

Cover image for UMG, Endel, and the case for labels in the AI space

Tatiana Cirisano

1 Jun 2023

Universal Music Group

Warner Music Group

The flood of new music created using artificial intelligence (AI) will further erode major label market share, and some label executives’ recent comments about the value of human-made music seem to put those fears in plain sight.

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