Blog: Scenes

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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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 m...

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Cultural forecasting: how socio-economic moods can predict trends

Cover image for Cultural forecasting: how socio-economic moods can predict trends

Laura Fisher

26 Mar 2025

Cultural trends

The entertainment industry is at a pivot point. For decades success relied on spotting emerging trends and amplifying them. This reactive model worked when cultural movements developed slowly through physical spaces and regional scenes.

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Scenes 2.0 | MIDiA’s updated entertainment playbook

Cover image for Scenes 2.0 | MIDiA’s updated entertainment playbook

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Mar 2025

In 2022, MIDiA introduced scenes as a new playbook for music marketing . As entertainment consumption fragments, what was once a singular “mainstream” is being replaced by hundreds of thousands of smaller scenes, or subcultures – like gorpcore, hyperpop fans, or retro gamers.

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The future is podcast scenes: What podcasters can learn from history podcast success

Cover image for The future is podcast scenes: What podcasters can learn from history podcast success

Rutger Rosenborg

15 Jan 2025

Cultural trends

Whether the result of eschatological anxiety caused by shifting global political alignments or the decline in humanities students in academic institutions, the business of history – especially in audio – is booming.

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Anti-algorithm, anti-perfection - the rise of a music counter-culture

Mark Mulligan

20 Dec 2024

Today’s music landscape is one defined by abundance and immediacy. In today’s chronically-online world, everything is over-ground, immediately. Scenes have to work really hard to be underground and even then, some eagle-eyed A+R or marketing person is going to see the buzz and try to bottle its ...

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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 d...

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Social is the new entertainment; enter MIDiA’s new social vertical

Cover image for Social is the new entertainment; enter MIDiA’s new social vertical

Hanna Kahlert

24 Jul 2024

Audience behaviour

Social platforms are now inextricable from the digital world and every aspect of entertainment. Fans and A&Rs alike discover new music on social platforms. Marketing strategies for artists and concerts are dependent on ads side-by-side with user stories.

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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...

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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 , M...

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Identity and culture have killed genre in a scenes-driven industry

Cover image for Identity and culture have killed genre in a scenes-driven industry

Kriss Thakrar

31 Oct 2023

This year has seen a renaissance for jazz in popular culture, with artists like Laufey, DOMi and JD Beck, and Ezra Collective succeeding on commercial and critical levels. However, their successes also demonstrate one of the key dynamics driving the modern music industry: identity and culture are mo...

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Why AI music may make fandom even more important

Cover image for Why AI music may make fandom even more important

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Mar 2023

artificial intelligence

fragmented fandom

Artificial intelligence (AI) was as hot a topic as ever at last week’s SXSW conference, where debate swirled around how human artists will compete with AI-generated music. As more parts of music-making involve AI assistance, this distinction between “AI” and “human” music may soon become a...

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Spotify’s vertical feed could change music discovery, but not for the reason you think

Cover image for Spotify’s vertical feed could change music discovery, but not for the reason you think

Tatiana Cirisano

9 Mar 2023

Music streaming

Just a few years ago, Spotify’s Rap Caviar playlist was a harbinger for culture. But a lot has changed. Artists want (and need) to build deeper relationships with fans, and gen Z consumers want more active content experiences.

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Emerging market music cultures are shaping the global music industry

Cover image for Emerging market music cultures are shaping the global music industry

Srishti Das

13 Jan 2023

cultural insight

emerging markets

The music industry's focus has slowly but steadily moved towards emerging markets in order to find the next billion music consumers. The first phase of this move saw major labels consciously pushing their music into new markets in the pursuit of creating new cultural moments.

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Midnights: modern-day music marketing 101

Cover image for Midnights: modern-day music marketing 101

Ashleigh Millar

27 Oct 2022

online communities

Are we surprised that Taylor Swift has broken records (yet again) after dropping her new album, Midnights (and Midnights (3am Edition) )? In the first five days of release, Midnights earned more than an equivalent of 1.

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What happens when the “relentless toll” of the music industry meets the creator economy in a cost-of-living crisis?

Cover image for What happens when the “relentless toll” of the music industry meets the creator economy in a cost-of-living crisis?

Hanna Kahlert

29 Sep 2022

The music industry is in a cultural crisis. It is more demanding than ever to be a successful artist, with the work required to meet the demands of social algorithms and to cut through the clutter being more competitive than ever, in addition to touring being hit hugely by the pandemic lockdown and ...

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WMG is moving beyond superstars – and that is a good thing

Cover image for WMG is moving beyond superstars – and that is a good thing

Mark Mulligan

16 Sep 2022

fragmented fandom

Warner Music Group’s ( WMG’s) Steve Cooper recently stated that the major is no longer financially dependent on superstars – which is, of course, quite a different thing from not being culturally dependent on them, but we’ll get to that.

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