Blog: tech

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.

20:25 vision: Meta Connect looks to the post-smartphone future

Hanna Kahlert

23 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Social Meta

Meta Connect 2025 (September 17-18) went all out on glasses and AI, outlining an idealistic future –although brought down to earth throughout by bugs and “WIFI troubles” (per TechCrunch ). To align with the public announcements of upgrades, pricing, and new features, Meta has also been pushing...

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Who asked for AI? Why its future is more boring than you think

Hanna Kahlert

2 Jul 2024

AI ChatGPT Sora

Henry Ford famously once said, “ If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse” . This quote is often trotted out by ‘innovators’ when defending a new piece of technology; consumers do not know that they want it, because they don’t have it yet.

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The techification of entertainment (and why it needs to reverse)

Hanna Kahlert

10 Apr 2024

Entertainment art studio

Entertainment today is almost inseparable from streaming – for better and for worse. The tech infrastructure that underpins today’s entertainment industry has had a huge impact not only on how content is delivered, but who consumes it, how, and why.

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Why TikTok and the future of social is now on trial

Hanna Kahlert

5 Apr 2023

TikTok Social Twitter

The last two weeks have seen social platforms, especially TikTok, abuzz with clips of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s hearing before the US congress, answering lawmakers’ questions about the social media app’s data protections for users and its relationship with China.

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The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Hanna Kahlert

14 Dec 2022

metaverse NFTs VR

As entertainment companies start planning their next big steps for the coming year, the success and failure of their strategic decisions will hinge on one big, and perhaps surprising, existential question : is this it for the tech industry? Planning for 2023 seems to mean planning for disruption, an...

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Tumult at Twitter shines a light on a deflating tech bubble

Hanna Kahlert

17 Nov 2022

tech Meta Twitter

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has had a rocky start. A lack of a clear corporate and product strategy has alienated advertisers and users alike. Twitter’s brush with profitability is now being replaced by serious concerns over the platform’s long-term future direction.

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If the cultural ‘in’ cycle is speeding up, what will sustain entertainment?

Hanna Kahlert

19 Aug 2022

Entertainment Cultural trends attention recession

When the first season of Stranger Things entered the zeitgeist in 2016, its set, soundtrack, and all-around vibes fit perfectly with the 80’s cultural revival of the time. Americana ‘hipster’ was out, and retro was in; neon clothes took over the streets and House beats dominated the airwaves.

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Reflections on the music industry at NFT.NYC

Tatiana Cirisano

23 Jun 2022

cryptocurrency NFT Record labels

At the fourth annual NFT.NYC conference in New York, the sentiment fell somewhere between faint excitement and “so this is still a thing, right?” Unlike this time last year, when the music industry was hooked on crypto, this year’s event arrives at a time when the crypto market, like much of t...

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Quick take: What the Apple event’s creator focus means for lean-in entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

21 Oct 2021

creator tools apple event mainstream

The October 18th Apple event –for all its usual showmanship – did not have anything hugely innovative to unveil. New colours of the Apple HomePod, a new tier of AirPods, and the return of MagSafe charging, distinctive input ports, and actual keys instead of a touchpad on the upgraded MacBook Pro...

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Creator tools will drive the (equal opportunity) future of music

Hanna Kahlert

17 Sep 2021

women in music creator tools synth

The last two years under a pandemic have driven more music creators in a DIY direction. Equipment and instrument sales reported record-breaking growth over lockdown – Sweetwater, for example, had its best year ever, breaking over a billion in sales .

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Facebook faces anti-trust lawsuits, sounding a warning to big tech

Hanna Kahlert

16 Dec 2020

ads data Facebook

Last Wednesday, 48 US State attorneys general and the US Federal Trade Commission filed lawsuits against Facebook, echoing the hearings before Congress earlier this year in declaring that the company’s practices violate fair competition laws.

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Have we reached peak tech?

Mark Mulligan

27 Sep 2019

investment tech tech investments

In last week’s Take Five I highlighted a Vox story which reported that over the last year the number of companies using terms like ‘tech’ or technology’ in their documents is down 12%.This is an early indicator of a much more fundamental concept – we may have already reached peak in the te...

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Prosus – The Prometheus Rising of the tech major era

Tim Mulligan

17 Sep 2019

Naspers Prometheus Rising Prosus

Post-war western alternative culture was distilled in Robert Anton Wilson’s cult classic Prometheus Rising . First published in 1983, it was considered a guidebook of “how to get from here to there” and described by its author as an “owner’s manual for the human brain”.

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How technology is radically reshaping politics

Mark Mulligan

6 Sep 2019

Media News politics

As I write this, the UK is in the midst of a potential constitutional crisis following the UK government’s proposed changes to political norms in order to push through Brexit. In some ways this is what you get when a country only has a part-written constitution and never quite got round to phasing...

Battle of the Docuseries: Who Mirrored Who?

Alistair Taylor

13 Jun 2019

addressable audience All or Nothing Capital

Leeds United are set to become the latest soccer club to feature in an original documentary series, with tech major Amazon securing a deal for a behind-the-scenes look at Argentinian manager Marcelo Bielsa’s dramatic first season in charge of the English Championship side, according to the Daily M...

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The Meta Trends that Will Shape 2019

Mark Mulligan

16 Nov 2018

2019 forecast 2019 tech and media predictions AI

MIDiA has just published its annual predictions report . Here are a few highlights. 2018 was another year of change, disruption and transformation across media and technology. Although hyped technologies – VR, blockchain, AI music – failed to meet inflated expectations, concepts such as privacy,...

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Slush 2017 – All To Play For

Tim Mulligan

1 Dec 2017

Eco Wave Power finland Generation Investment Management

In case you haven’t heard, this week, mainland Europe’s northernmost capital Helsinki is ground zero for tech and media. It all kicked off on Tuesday November 28 with the two-day Slush Music 2017; the main Slush event, which opened yesterday, concludes today.

Quick Take: Big Tech’s Q3 Earnings Have Big Implications for Media

Zach Fuller

3 Nov 2017

advertising Alphabet Amazon

With US listed public companies’ quarterly earnings currently being drip-fed to Wall Street, here are two of the implications for Media and Advertising entities from Tech’s Big Four Q3 earnings: Amazon’s Media Presence is Continuing to Grow: While Amazon did not break out its specific numbers ...

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