Blog: Streaming - Page 2

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.

How streaming platforms are adapting in the race for affordable content

Rutger Rosenborg

19 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Spotify YouTube

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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Craft versus character: the equation the music industry needs to fix

Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2025

Fandom TikTok Streaming

I recently wrote about the unflattening of music :how creativity, craft, and fandom can – if done right – counter the growing commodification of music. Not surprisingly, I focused on the music side of the equation, but in doing so I missed the other big flattening challenge music faces.

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Why Spotify only hit profitability now (but will do so again)

Mark Mulligan

13 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Spotify finally registered its first profitable year in 2024. It has hit net profit in individual quarters before – most recently in Q3 2023 – but this is the first year it was profitable throughout the year.

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Bringing fandom to life: the rise of IRL superfan experiences

Olivia Jones

12 Feb 2025

Fandom Spotify Streaming

Much of the recent discussion around music superfan monetisation has focused on online superfans, especially as more superstars join fan platforms like Weverse. These monetisation strategies capitalise on fans’ growing desire for artist-fan interaction but often rely on artists’ active participa...

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Bootlegging is the scourge of many industries. Could it be music’s greatest strength?

Tatiana Cirisano

7 Feb 2025

Fandom Streaming Music

The word “bootleg” has long left a bad taste in brands’ mouths. Quite literally defined as “illicit goods,” these unauthorised versions or replications of clothes, handbags, concert tees, and other items have long plagued brands.

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The unflattening of music

Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2025

Cultural trends Spotify TikTok

[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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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 ”.

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

What got you here won’t get you there: how Spotify built a new business

Mark Mulligan

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Since its inception, Spotify has been, and continues to be, the streaming music market’s lightning rod. This is due to its continued ability to maintain leading market share and the fact it is the only leading global DSP that is independent and therefore has to focus place more focus on commercial...

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Meta pushes for “free speech” as TikTok falls short: a dramatic cultural shift for social

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Facebook TikTok

The news cycle leaves no room to draw breath as strategic pivots and Supreme Court hearings come thick and fast. Changes are afoot – and they paint a very different picture of the digital landscape of the future.

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Will the TikTok ban happen? What you need to know

Hanna Kahlert

10 Dec 2024

tiktok ban Donald Trump Social media

It has been a rollercoaster of a news year for TikTok since April, when President Biden signed a law that would ban the platform unless it found new owners. The January 19th deadline is approaching quickly, and the heat is up as of December 6th, when the Federal Appeals court upheld the ban.

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Hold or twist? The music industry’s innovation dilemma

Mark Mulligan

20 Nov 2024

Innovation Streaming 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 – insu...

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AI and ad exchanges are helping podcast advertising grow — but who benefits most?

Rutger Rosenborg

30 Oct 2024

Spotify Streaming Podcasts

Podcast advertising has existed for more than a decade, but it is only just beginning to evolve. For much of its existence, it has resembled radio advertising more than other digital ad formats. A lack of scale has kept podcast advertising out of its digital prime.

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Music in podcasts: Engaging superfans with a new album campaign strategy

Rutger Rosenborg

23 Oct 2024

Podcasts Streaming music podcasts

MIDiA has covered music’s big podcasting opportunity extensively. Per our June 2024 report, “ Defining podcast taste: The universal appeal of music, news, and comedy ”, music is one of the top podcast topics in the world; however, podcasting’s role in music marketing has yet to fully materia...

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TikTok may be shutting down its music service, but it will still compete with streaming

Hanna Kahlert

24 Sep 2024

Social Streaming TikTok

TikTok has announced that it plans to shut down its music streaming service, TikTok Music, at the end of November (per Bloomberg ). The company has cautioned users that they should migrate all their playlists to other streaming platforms.

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Q2 2024 music market metrics: bifurcation is here

Mark Mulligan

19 Sep 2024

Music streaming Streaming Bifurcation

There are so many music industry metrics and financial results flying around these days that it can be difficult to keep up with them all. Don’t worry, we’ve got you. MIDiA has just published the first edition of a brand-new report series: quarterly music metrics.

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

Hanna Kahlert

24 Jul 2024

Social Audience behaviour AI

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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The make-or-break of live in 2024

Hanna Kahlert

9 Jul 2024

Fandom Superfans Digital

The music industry has a culture problem. An overabundance of data –– from streaming services and social platforms alike ––has fostered a dependence on digital performance that does not reliably translate into fandom and cultural value.

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Another Fake Drake? AI is decoupling artists and their voices (and there’s no coming back)

Hanna Kahlert

12 Jun 2024

AI Drake heart on my sleeve

Drake has had perhaps one of the most publicly up-and-down relationships with generative AI. There was the AI Drake music generator, which he was dead set against. Then there was ‘Heart on My Sleeve’, the AI-generated mix using the voices of Drake and The Weeknd by a creator known as ghostwriter...

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The state of the attention economy: why don’t fan-first platforms work?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Jun 2024

Fandom Taylor Swift Fans

The music industry is increasingly looking to fan-first solutions to drive its next era of growth (and solve artists’ financial woes), with all eyes towards the Taylor Swift model of fan frenzy. At the heart of this quest is a tension inherent in the ‘everything everywhere all the time’ model.

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Songs as cultural moments (and why TikTok trends are so appealing)

Hanna Kahlert

31 May 2024

TikTok A&R Streaming

The music industry is racing in two different directions at once. On the one side is the push for more music to be made by more people for less money – underpinning the $500 million valuation of Suno , the generative AI music platform.

Cover image for Songs as cultural moments (and why TikTok trends are so appealing)

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