Blog: Superfans

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.

Superfandom in an anti-social media world

Kriss Thakrar

19 Jun 2026

Clients only

Fandom Streaming Social media

For the past five years, TikTok and digital reach have largely dictated music marketing. For many artists, success has meant being an influencer first and an artist second. The idea of “ 1000 true fans ” shifted from cultivating a dedicated audience willing to buy tickets for your shows to focus...

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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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From fans to superfans | What’s missing from the games industry

Brandon Sutton

27 Jan 2026

Business Strategy Audience Insight Gaming

The games industry is experiencing a moment of turbulence. A growing list of high-profile, high-budget titles, such as Mindseye and New World , have failed to meet commercial expectations. Increasingly, even investments in the hundreds of millions are no longer enough to guarantee a successful title.

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AI music creators: music’s superfans

Mark Mulligan

13 Nov 2025

Audience Insight Fandom Creators

Not a week seems to go by without some big news in the world of music AI. Hot on the heels of UMG’s Udio deal , GEMA just secured a favourable ruling against OpenAI (via Reuters ). Over the course of the year, however, court rulings have fallen roughly evenly for media companies and AI companies, ...

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Beyond the anecdote: The need for a data-driven superfan definition

Laura Fisher

10 Sep 2025

Fandom Entertainment Engagement

Whether you work in the entertainment industry or not, you have almost certainly used the term superfan . It’s a ubiquitous label we apply to the most ardent audiences. It’s the fans who camp out for new releases, who own every variant of a vinyl, who drive viral moments, and whose identities ar...

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Building fandom is about the journey, not the destination

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jul 2025

Fandom Entertainment Media

“Superfans” remain the headline topic for the entertainment industries , in music and beyond. They are the biggest cheerleaders amongst their peers, the most engaged on social media and streaming, and the highest spenders across the board.

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Why fandom’s ‘more is more’ era could backfire

Olivia Jones

9 Jul 2025

Marketing Strategy Fandom Social media

‘Less is more’ has long been a pillar of entertainment marketing strategy, promoting the importance of quality over quantity. However, in the past decade, the new phrase has effectively become “more is more” as all forms of entertainment push to release as much content as possible, as often ...

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Unintended consequences – the year ahead for streaming

Mark Mulligan

8 May 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Subscriptions

Streaming may be maturing from a revenue perspective but with two-tier (‘artist centric’) licensing and supremium, 2025 is set to be a year of transformative change in both product and business terms.

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Are we reaching peak fandom?

Mark Mulligan

1 May 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Music

With streaming revenue growth slowing to 6.2% in 2024, the recorded music industry’s attention is firmly fixed on superfans as the ‘get out of jail free’ card. The growing sophistication of artist merch has reached the stage where fans can buy Taylor Swift fashion bags and shop her jewelry ran...

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Everyone wants to monetise fandom – but we must fix fan data first

Olivia Jones

4 Apr 2025

Fandom Streaming SoundCloud

Key takeaways from this blog: Fandom monetisation is booming, with MIDiA data showing how expanded rights is growing, driving labels to prioritise direct control over fan data instead of relying on third-party platforms.

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Is it too soon to be talking about podcast superfans?

Rutger Rosenborg

28 Mar 2025

Fandom Business Strategy Social media

Key insights from this blog: Podcasting faces challenges on its way to becoming a mainstream format on the level of radio, music, and TV While the medium excels at creating a sense of community and personal connection, discovery and accessibility hurdles have so far held podcasts back Supported by o...

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A model for a new music streaming industry

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2025

Business Strategy Spotify YouTube

The music industry is approaching a pivot point. On the one hand, things look positive: we have UMG’s Streaming 2.0 , artist centric licensing, the impending launch of supremium and expanded rights revenue hitting $4.

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Mining fandom: Music’s Drive to Survive moment

Ben Woods

28 Feb 2025

Marketing Strategy Netflix Music

Netflix’s Drive to Survive did more than introduce a new entertainment layer for sports fans. The F1 docuseries provided a framework for re-igniting and nurturing fandom. Before then, sports documentaries would have been considered ‘spin-off’ content.

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How to build a strong fanbase using identity resonance

Olivia Jones

27 Feb 2025

Fandom Streaming Music

As entertainment consumption fragments, superstars dominate less, with fans gravitating towards ever-multiplying niches. This trend, alongside the maturation of streaming subscription growth, is driving record labels’ renewed focus on nurturing – and monetising – core bases of superfans.

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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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How PlayStation broke its hardware and active user records in Q4

Rhys Elliott

13 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Netflix TikTok

Sony released its financial results for calendar Q4 2024. Here are the high-level results: Sony generated revenues of $27.9 billion As always, its Game & Network Services (G&NS) Segment – PlayStation – was the biggest segment (38%) Sony Music accounted for 11% and Sony Pictures for 9% of...

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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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What HYBE and UMG’s Q3 earnings tell us about superfans

Olivia Jones

3 Dec 2024

Music fandom HYBE Universal Music Group

“Superfan” has been this year’s buzzword in the music industry. From Universal Music Group (UMG) setting its superfan agenda at the start of the year to Warner Music Group announcing its plans for a superfan platform, much of the Western music industry has shifted its focus to monetising fando...

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Two future paths for the vinyl revival

Tatiana Cirisano

31 Oct 2024

Music fandom Superfans 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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