Blog: streaming services

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.

What Western DSPs can learn from Tencent Music’s SVIP Tier

Cover image for What Western DSPs can learn from Tencent Music’s SVIP Tier

Olivia Jones

29 May 2025

Business Strategy

Music streaming

Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) has had a lucrative Q1 2025, with Super VIP (SVIP) subscriptions driving revenue growth. According to the company’s earnings report, music subscription revenue grew 16.

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The music industry wants solutions. But do listeners see problems?

Cover image for The music industry wants solutions. But do listeners see problems?

Tatiana Cirisano

17 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

Music streaming

Key takeways from this blog: The music industry’s next phase of growth depends on solving real problems faced by multiple stakeholders – not just one group in isolation Areas like live music demand, fan engagement, and discovery offer clues about where meaningful overlaps might exist MIDiA spotlights potential solutions that could create value for artists, listeners, labels, and platforms alike History is full of examples of products that failed because they were "solutions without a problem”.

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We pinpointed the right price for Super Premium. Here is how

Cover image for We pinpointed the right price for Super Premium. Here is how

Tatiana Cirisano

8 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

Music streaming

There is broad consensus across the music industry that it is time to introduce new tiers for streaming, including one with extra benefits that is often nicknamed “Super Premium”, or “Supremium” for short.

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Live and direct: lessons for streamers from the appeal of online radio

Cover image for Live and direct: lessons for streamers from the appeal of online radio

Laura Fisher

20 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

Key insights from this blog: Online radio has a growing audience, with further opportunity to capitalise on what is missing from music streaming We explore why online radio is gaining popularity – covering the elements of loyalty, dynamism, and humanity – and explain how this connects to MIDiA's theory of bifurcation across entertainment In an era defined by the proliferation of algorithmic playlists and on-demand streaming, online music radio has quietly carved itself a future-proofed space in the audio ecosystem.

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Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Cover image for Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Feb 2025

Audience Insight

In the battle of music streaming versus social, the major (at least Western) music streaming services have never fully committed to implementing social features. Spotify has come the closest: an early version offered direct messaging, and the company even acquired a handful of social media-related startups in 2016.

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How streaming platforms are adapting in the race for affordable content

Cover image for How streaming platforms are adapting in the race for affordable content

Rutger Rosenborg

19 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Music is expensive – not for consumers, but for companies who have to license music copyrights from rightsholders. It is a large reason Spotify did not have a full year of profitability until 2024 . What helped the company get there? Podcasting.

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The unflattening of music

Cover image for The unflattening of music

Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2025

Cultural trends

[This post builds on two other recent MIDiA posts: Background music and What got you here ] At the half way point of the decade it is a good time to reflect on how the business of music is reshaping the culture of music – and where this is heading.

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Streaming’s growth plan in the connection economy

Cover image for Streaming’s growth plan in the connection economy

Kriss Thakrar

18 Sep 2024

Music streaming

Streaming clubs

During Universal’s Capital Markets Day, Universal Music Group (UMG) chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge cited some “fundamental facts” of the music business (per Music Business Worldwide ). These include the promise that “streaming will continue to propel many years of industry growth”.

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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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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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Party in the front, business in the back: Why Apple Music Sing is so savvy

Cover image for Party in the front, business in the back: Why Apple Music Sing is so savvy

Tatiana Cirisano

13 Dec 2022

Music streaming

Streaming services are increasingly taking steps to diversify their offerings , and the latest example came last week from Apple Music. Just in time for holiday sing-a-longs, the service introduced a new, subscriber-only karaoke feature called Sing, where users can sing along to “tens of millions” of songs with beat-by-beat lyrics.

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The record labels’ TikTok opportunity cost

Cover image for The record labels’ TikTok opportunity cost

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Nov 2022

Music streaming

With their short-term music licensing agreements soon to expire, record labels are reportedly pressuring TikTok to sign an ad revenue share agreement, which would see TikTok pay a share of advertising revenue to music rightsholders.

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Music industry earnings 2021: Riding the wave

Cover image for Music industry earnings 2021: Riding the wave

Mark Mulligan

6 May 2022

Streaming Music

Universal music’s Q1 2022 earnings showed continued growth but a noticeable slowdown in streaming growth, with streaming revenues up 12% year-on-year (YoY) in USD term compared to a growth of 35% one year earlier.

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Fans come first in the attention recession

Cover image for Fans come first in the attention recession

Hanna Kahlert

2 Mar 2021

Media and Marketing

As vaccine rollouts gain momentum, the clock is ticking on the attention boom enabled by lockdowns over the last 12 months. The 12% of additional time spent on entertainment is going to contract sharply as consumers are freed to spend time outside of their homes on pre-pandemic activities and compelled to take back up the commute.

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Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

Cover image for Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

Mark Mulligan

12 Aug 2020

The #brokenrecord debate continues to build momentum and new models such as user-centric are getting increased attention, including at governmental level in the UK. But as Mat Dryhurst correctly observes , there is a risk of the market falling into streaming fatalism; that the obsession with trying to fix a model that might not be fixable distracts us from focusing on trying to build alternative futures.

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Self-Isolation: DAZN Concedes to COVID-19

Alistair Taylor

6 Apr 2020

additive services

all-encompassing offering

Sports streaming insurgent DAZN has announced last week it plans to inform rights holders of its intent to defer its payments of rights fees for any content not yet delivered (i.e. postponed / cancelled games) during this pandemic-enforced freeze on live sports.

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Olympics Postponement: The Sports Media Landscape of COVID-19

Cover image for Olympics Postponement: The Sports Media Landscape of COVID-19

Alistair Taylor

26 Mar 2020

Advertising Revenue

The global COVID-19 pandemic is increasing pressure on the viability of emerging and legacy media business models, and is already having an unprecedented impact on the sports industry. An unprecedented swathe of cancelled sports events has left rights holders unable to monetise their existing broadcasting of rights within tightly-scheduled windows.

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NFL Adding Music to Its Playbook

Cover image for NFL Adding Music to Its Playbook

Alistair Taylor

4 Nov 2019

archived footage

curated playlists

The NFL continues expanding its reach with the news that it is providing both video and audio content to global streaming services Spotify and Tidal. This follows the NFL’s recently- announced partnerships with social platforms TikTok, Reddit, Facebook and YouTube.

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Streaming in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Opportunities for International Competitors

Amanda Stears

10 Sep 2019

With a combined population of 371.7 million and a combined GDP of $2.9 trillion, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia represent sizeable and fast-growing markets for streaming services. The largest players by subscriptions are Netflix, iflix and Viu, with each competing and differentiating through their own unique selling points.

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Is Cricket the New ‘Greatest Show on Turf’?

Alistair Taylor

19 Jun 2019

21st Century Fox

addressable audience

Even before the St. Louis (now LA) Rams were setting records in the NFL during the 1999-2001 seasons, earning the nickname ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’, the Super Bowl was viewed as an unrivalled opportunity to advertise brands, products, and movie trailers to the masses that tune in (or increasingly stream) to watch the showpiece for the world’s most valuable league .

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