Blog: Uncategorised

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.

Spotify Q1 2020: Choppy Waters Ahead

Mark Mulligan

29 Apr 2020

Spotify’s first quarter earnings were a mixed bag, with a largely positive picture for Q1 but some warning signs for the remainder of the year: Subscribers: Spotify’s Q1 earnings may not have matched Netflix’s for over-performance but subscriptions did show over performance, reaching 130 million, one million above MIDiA’s pre-COVID forecasts.

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Independents Grew Fastest on Spotify in 2019, But There’s a Twist

Cover image for Independents Grew Fastest on Spotify in 2019, But There’s a Twist

Mark Mulligan

28 Apr 2020

Independent artists

Independent labels

Tomorrow (Wednesday 29 th April) Spotify announces its Q1 2020 results, at which point we will find out whether it had a COVID-bounce like Netflix did ( adding 15.8 million subscribers in Q1 ) or whether growth slowed.

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The Gaming Boom Is Driven by Different Genders In Different Age Groups

Cover image for The Gaming Boom Is Driven by Different Genders In Different Age Groups

Karol Severin

16 Apr 2020

covid-19 impact

gamer demographihcs

We know that we are experiencing a spike in games engagement during this crisis. 21% of adult consumers in the US say they’ve spent more time playing games online ‘in the last two weeks’ (fielded in the 3rd week of March) .

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What the Recorded Music Industry Can Learn from the Whaling Industry of the 19th Century

Zach Fuller

15 Sep 2019

A high-risk industry with large upfront costs and no guarantee of return. No, this is not the recorded music industry, nor is it venture capital (VC) – this is the whaling industry of the 19th century.

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Is Pay-TV killing off Niche Sports?

Cover image for Is Pay-TV killing off Niche Sports?

Alistair Taylor

4 Jul 2019

With both the ICC Cricket World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup approaching their climaxes, the stark difference in audience engagement raises the question, is pay-TV killing off niche sports? Deciding the medium through which to distribute live sports has never been more crucial.

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Libra: A Reckoning for Crypto… or for Facebook?

Hanna Kahlert

25 Jun 2019

emerging markets

Last week Facebook and its network of partners, including Spotify, MasterCard and Uber, announced the development of a new cryptocurrency, Libra , planned to go live next year. As the first tech major backed and (ideally) stable cryptocurrency, the implications are as numerous as they are extensive – should, of course, the latest in a long line of SomethingCoins manage to be meaningfully adopted at all.

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Quick Take: Spotify, Stories and Music – the Social Media Divide

Zach Fuller

16 May 2019

The story of a song’s creation is one of the great mysteries of music. Regularly are we regaled with anecdotes of a song emerging fully formed in a 15-minute flurry of creative genius. However, while less seductive, the reality is that more often than not a composition goes through many iterations before it is released, or in the case of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah , even after it has been recorded.

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Skin in the Game: Prediction Markets and the Future of Media Discourse

Zach Fuller

13 May 2019

predictions markets

If talk was cheap before, then the laws of supply and demand mean the advent of big data drove that value to zero. So overwhelmed with opinions are we that it is hard to know who means what anymore. This is not entirely a bad thing.

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Is Sinclair About to Cause a Stir in US Streaming Sports Coverage?

Tim Mulligan

9 May 2019

Sinclair Broadcasting

This has been a busy week for Disney. As part of the regulatory approval terms for acquiring 21stCentury Fox’s non-US TV network businesses, it had to divest itself of the 22 regional sports networks (RSNs) which it finally acquired in March.

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Can PlayStation 5 Compete Successfully Amid the Coming Games-Streaming Disruption?

Karol Severin

2 May 2019

As Mark Cerny, the lead system architect of PlayStation, implied in an exclusive interview with Wired , PS5 is coming likely in fall 2020 – and it is not just meant to be a mere upgrade of the PS4. The key question remains, however, whether even a big upgrade to the hardware and gaming experience will be enough to compete in the increasingly platform- and device-agnostic gaming environment.

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Creator Support: A New Take on User Centric Licensing

Cover image for Creator Support: A New Take on User Centric Licensing

Mark Mulligan

26 Apr 2019

artist streaming income

User-centric licensing (i.e. stream pay-outs based on sharing the royalty income of an individual user split across the music they listen to) has stimulated a lot of debate. I first explored the concept of user-centric licensing back in 2015 and stirred up a hornet nest, with a lot of very mixed feedback.

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Free Streaming Goes to Voice: Should Radio Companies Be Worried?

Zach Fuller

25 Apr 2019

amazon streaming strategy

radio disruption

History doesn’t repeat itself. It does, however, rhyme. Amazon have followed up the announcement of its free music streaming service by elaborating on its integration into Alexa and its Echo device. Not coincidentally, Google swiftly followed suit by announcing a similar service.

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Amazon’s Ad Supported Strategy Goes Way Beyond Music

Cover image for Amazon’s Ad Supported Strategy Goes Way Beyond Music

Mark Mulligan

17 Apr 2019

ad supported strategy

ad supported streaming

Amazon is reportedly close to launching an ad supported streaming music offering . Spotify’s stock price took an instant tumble. But the real story here is much bigger than the knee-jerk reactions of Spotify investors.

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Four Principles for Marketeers to Achieve Business Growth

Cover image for Four Principles for Marketeers to Achieve Business Growth

Georgia Meyer

16 Apr 2019

business growth

Digital economy

The ascent of the digital content economy has wrought radical change to marketing principles, the consequences of which have not yet been sufficiently internalised in marketing strategy and tactics. MIDiA Research has published a report detailing four principles that will equip marketeers with the mindset and tools to achieve business growth via successful marketing in the rapidly evolving digital economy.

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Quick Take: Spotify’s Throwback Hub and the Future of the Album

Zach Fuller

4 Apr 2019

Music streaming

Throwback Thursday, one of Spotify’s most popular features, has been expanded into a new Throwback hub. Launching initially with 30 playlists and described by Austin Daboh, Head of Music Culture & Editorial at Spotify, as being “a permanent home for our main nostalgia brand”, the announcement is a subtle yet defiant statement against the format playlists are set to usurp: the album.

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We're Hiring A Video Analyst

Dara Jegede

2 Apr 2019

midia research jobs

We are looking for a Video Analyst to join our fast-growing team. You will either currently work in a strategy, commercial or marketing role with a TV or video company, or you will be an experienced industry analyst with a track record of delivering high-quality research and consulting.

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Business Development Manager Opportunity

Dara Jegede

2 Apr 2019

midia research jobs

We are looking for a client-obsessed individual to join MIDiA’s sales team as a Business Development Manager, to focus on the TV, Video and Media sectors. The successful candidate will report directly to MIDiA’s head of commercial.

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Downtown Acquires AVL: Value Chains in a Post-direct Distribution Era

Zach Fuller

28 Mar 2019

cd baby music distribution

When Spotify announced that it was going to launch direct distribution on its platform, it was clear the various digital distributors that emerged in the post-Napster wave of online music (Tunecore, CD Baby, Ditto etc) would have to do something to counter the impact.

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Apple Joins The Games Subscription Race With Arcade

Karol Severin

26 Mar 2019

Apple has announced that it will launch a games subscription service called Arcade. For a monthly payment (price point to be determined), the service will feature over 100 original games which users will be able to play across iPhones, iPads and Apple TV and pick up wherever they left off.

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SXSW 2019: Streaming, Radio and the Unevenly Distributed Future

Zach Fuller

18 Mar 2019

‘The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed’. In many ways, this quote by science fiction writer William Gibson surmises the work we do at MIDiA: cautiously observing new tech developments and remaining aware of the hype cycle that characterises the adoption curve.

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