Blog: Streaming

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 subscriber market shares Q4 2025: The chess board is set

Tatiana Cirisano

15 Jun 2026

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Global music streaming subscribers grew 10.1% to reach 921.6 million in 2025, according to MIDiA’s just-published music subscriber market shares report . While growth slowed compared to 2024, it remained in the double digits, with the 1 billion subscriber landmark now firmly in sight.

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Atomised concentration: How streaming ensures the house always wins

Mark Mulligan

12 Jun 2026

Clients only

Business Strategy Streaming Artists

There is an apparent paradox in today’s streaming-dominated music market: major labels are losing share (on a distribution basis) yet long-tail indies are finding it ever harder to achieve scale. So, is the trend fragmentation or concentration? The perplexing answer is that it is both.

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Vertical TV is more than streaming’s TikTok moment

Ben Woods

10 Jun 2026

Product Strategy TikTok Streaming

Streaming TV services are entering a new phase of smartphone competition. For years, their strategic focus has been on content depth: exclusive shows, premium originals, and sports rights. Yet on mobile, the battle for engagement is increasingly shaped by experience as much as content.

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K-pop fans are not “one size fits all”: Comparing fans in US and South Korea

Olivia Jones

4 Jun 2026

Clients only

Fandom Business Strategy Streaming

K-pop has had a banner year, with the genre earning multiple Grammy nominations,along with the massive success of Kpop Demon Hunters . As K-pop’s dedicated fans dominate the global stage, they are often seen as the definition of “superfans”, with artists and labels chasing similar levels of fa...

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The creative generation wants its own soundtrack

Kriss Thakrar

21 May 2026

Clients only

Business Strategy Streaming Fandom

Most music fans are musically creative. This doesn’t necessarily mean they aspire to be artists or producers, but simply that they are engaged in at least one of the musical creativity behaviours tracked by MIDiA, such as producing music, learning or playing an instrument, writing music, performin...

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The three challenges YouTube must overcome to become TV

Ben Woods

13 May 2026

Business Strategy YouTube Streaming

YouTube’s case to be classed as TV in the eyes of advertisers is not bulletproof. TV advertising does not just buy reach and premium content. It buys into a regulated ecosystem built around measurement standards, brand safety, discoverability rules, and public-service obligations.

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Answering questions from MIDiA’s "The State of AI and Music" webinar

Olivia Jones

7 May 2026

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Last week, MIDiA’s public webinar “The State of AI and Music” explored AI’s role in reshaping consumption, creation, and value in the music industry. For those who were unable to attend, a recording of the webinar is available here .

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Multi-dimensionality in music isn’t new – but it’s overdue for a comeback

Olivia Jones

23 Apr 2026

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Multi-dimensionality in music – that is, engaging in ways beyond simply listening to a song – has existed for decades. In the vinyl era, fans could read liner notes and look at album artwork while listening.

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How the creator economy is changing traditional entertainment's discovery, distribution, and supply

Ben Woods

15 Apr 2026

Business Strategy Streaming Creators

The creator economy used to be an adjacent entertainment ecosystem to traditional entertainment. Those days are numbered – if not over already. Creators are now a foundational component in how traditional entertainment produces and distributes content at scale.

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Beyond the song: Why artists need transmedia storytelling

Olivia Jones

2 Apr 2026

Fandom Marketing Strategy Streaming

In today’s fragmented marketing world, artists have to promote more than just their music – they have to build dedicated fandom. To achieve this, more artists are implementing transmedia elements – that is, adapting a brand story across multiple platforms – into their marketing strategies.

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The Sidemen formula: Why TV formats belong on creator channels

Ben Woods

25 Feb 2026

Business Strategy Streaming Creators

Broadcasters and streamers keep asking how to work more closely with creators. Their standard approach is to commission a creator-led show, cast them in a film, or license their back catalogue for a streaming service.

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The music industry’s boiling frog moment

Mark Mulligan

12 Feb 2026

Business Strategy Streaming Social media

Throw a frog in a pot of boiling water and it will instantly jump out, terrified (and very hot). But put it in a pot of cool water and slowly increase the heat to boiling and it will stay there until it dies.

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The problem with the “AI versus human” music narrative

Tatiana Cirisano

5 Feb 2026

Cultural trends Streaming Music

While attending the NAMM conference and Grammys week events over the last fortnight, AI was, of course, a dominant topic. AI-assisted gadgets shared space with traditional physical instruments at NAMM; at the Grammys, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason reaffirmed that “ only human creators ” are...

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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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Online radio and community building: A closer look at NTS’ Don’t Assume Day

Laura Fisher

6 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Music

By any measure, streaming defines today’s music landscape. It’s a period in which digital platforms determine how audiences access, discover, and share music. Yet as algorithmic playlists saturate the experience, a counter current has emerged: listeners are seeking context and connection, not ju...

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Forget catalogue; creators are the new valuable IP

Hanna Kahlert

16 Oct 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Fandom

The value of entertainment catalogue and content has shifted over the last decade. Licensing usage and distribution used to underpin the system, but challenges arose as digital consumption became the default.

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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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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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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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Netflix ramps up games spending: A strategic bet on the future of streaming

Brandon Sutton

7 Aug 2025

Business Strategy Netflix Streaming

During its Q2 FY2025 earnings call, Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters announced plans to increase investment into its gaming division (via GameSpot ). At first glance, this move may seem surprising, given the company’s rocky experience in the gaming space so far.

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