Blog: user-generated content

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.

Can subscriptions keep the lights on for social?

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Hanna Kahlert

19 Oct 2023

user-generated content

Digital advertising has long been the financial backbone of the digital world. It has underpinned the business models of the likes of Google and Meta, and its absence has been the value proposition of subscriptions, which now dominate digital entertainment.

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A new era of music fluidity is here

Cover image for A new era of music fluidity is here

Tatiana Cirisano

23 May 2023

user-generated content

What do AI Drake, adaptive music, and TikTok open-verse challenges have in common? All reflect a major shift of music consumption from a passive, static, and uni-directional experience to an active, dynamic, multi-directional one.

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Live streams won’t steal ticket sales, but social just might

Cover image for Live streams won’t steal ticket sales, but social just might

Tatiana Cirisano

18 Apr 2023

music festivals

Frank Ocean’s headlining Coachella set on Sunday night was one of the most-anticipated sets ever, not least because the elusive singer has not performed publicly since 2017, but also because the performance was a holdover from 2020’s cancelled festival.

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The record labels’ TikTok opportunity cost

Cover image for The record labels’ TikTok opportunity cost

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Nov 2022

Music streaming

With their short-term music licensing agreements soon to expire, record labels are reportedly pressuring TikTok to sign an ad revenue share agreement, which would see TikTok pay a share of advertising revenue to music rightsholders.

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YouTube's secret weapon for overtaking Spotify

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Tatiana Cirisano

22 Sep 2022

Creator economy

YouTube has not been quiet about its ambitions to overtake Spotify as the music industry’s top revenue driver by 2025. The clock is ticking, and although YouTube is the most popular platform for music listening globally (55% of consumers watch music videos on YouTube, compared to 24% who listen to Spotify), it still has a significant way to go towards translating that dominance to revenue.

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With Meta’s revenue share program, can rights holders and platforms finally agree?

Cover image for With Meta’s revenue share program, can rights holders and platforms finally agree?

Tatiana Cirisano

28 Jul 2022

Streaming Music

user-generated content

Content Creators

Over the last week, Meta made headlines three times in relation to music on its platforms (Instagram and Facebook). First, royalty-free music provider Epidemic Sound sued Meta for allegedly allowing users to incorporate its music without the proper licenses.

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Meta leans in to the creator economy

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Hanna Kahlert

21 Jun 2022

Creator economy

MIDiA has written much on the premise of the emerging ‘creator economy’ ; a dual-sided concept that highlights both the increasing opportunity for creators who already exist, from music to video to social content, as well as the emerging trend of the consumer-as-creator.

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The future of entertainment innovation lies in exclusive experiences, not content

Cover image for The future of entertainment innovation lies in exclusive experiences, not content

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jun 2022

Media and Marketing

In the age before digital engagement went mainstream, entertainment had clear access channels and multiple price points. Video was able to rely on movie tickets, (expensive) TV sets, and the individual purchases of cable subscriptions, video tapes, DVDs, Blu-rays, and their associated equipment; the closest equivalent to subscriptions were Blockbuster or Netflix DVD rental memberships.

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Quick take: Overwolf hints that UGC is the future of entertainment

Cover image for Quick take: Overwolf hints that UGC is the future of entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

18 Nov 2021

Media and Marketing

The gap between creation and consumption is closing. Entertainment behaviours no longer follow simple dynamics of viewing or listening. Increasingly, they comprise a variety of activities from sharing with friends, to using basic creator tools to interact with and create new aspects within other entertainment formats.

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Why making memes with creator tools is the new music industry

Cover image for Why making memes with creator tools is the new music industry

Kriss Thakrar

25 Oct 2021

user-generated content

music production

The creator tools business has been one of the biggest winners of the pandemic, as people turned to music-making in record numbers. Second-hand gear marketplace, Reverb.com, provided some insight into the products driving the creator boom – and two, in particular, stand out: the MPC One and OP-1 samplers.

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The opportunity behind the Roblox lawsuit

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Kriss Thakrar

14 Jun 2021

Three months ago, MIDiA reported on the role of the Boombox in Roblox and the potential of the unique (and unlicensed) behaviour that was emerging around it. Subsequently, the National Music Publishers Association has filed a $200 million lawsuit against the platform, directly citing the copyright infringement facilitated by the in-game product.

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Roblox, piracy and the future of music in UGC 2.0

Cover image for Roblox, piracy and the future of music in UGC 2.0

Kriss Thakrar

19 Mar 2021

user-generated content

A community of Roblox users are losing a battle against moderation as the platform cracks down on music piracy, due to the platform’s newly public status bringing with it a new level of responsibility.

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Turning fandom into revenue: Why UGC is the next big revenue maker for the content industries

Cover image for Turning fandom into revenue: Why UGC is the next big revenue maker for the content industries

Keith Jopling

28 Oct 2020

In our recent report The Rising Power of UGC , in association with Audible Magic we identified that the music industry could unlock as much as $6 billion in revenues from UGC by 2022. Such an outcome would see UGC contributing around 10% of music industry revenues, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

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UGC is the next music industry growth driver and the short-term opportunity is worth $6 billion

Cover image for UGC is the next music industry growth driver and the short-term opportunity is worth $6 billion

Dara Jegede

26 Oct 2020

user-generated content

User-generated content will contribute a significant proportion of the growth in music consumption over the next two years in an opportunity that is worth circa. $6 billion to the music industry value chain.

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Why Short Form Content Resonates with Younger Generations

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Amanda Stears

2 Oct 2019

digital natives

Digital natives – be they classified as millennials or generation Z – have always had the term “instant gratification” associated with them. This is a reflection of the way technology has shaped and moulded every aspect of their daily lives and interactions.

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Facebook Might Just Have Done YouTube a Massive Favour

Mark Mulligan

13 Apr 2018

The word on the street is that the deals labels have struck with Facebook for its forthcoming music service have been done on a blanket license basis (i.e. a flat fee) with no reporting. This was reported by Music Business Worldwide and has been confirmed to me by various well-placed third parties: “One controversial element of these agreements is, we hear, that these are ‘blind’ checks: effectively, advances that are not tied to any kind of usage reports from Facebook.

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How A Month With Spectacles Changed My Outlook On Snap’s Future

Karol Severin

7 Jul 2017

When the SnapBot finally popped up in Berlin, I eagerly trekked to the location to see whether the product would change my existing opinions about the company’s future. It did. I made my way to the SnapBot on a sunny Friday afternoon.

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Vine Gets Creative For Non Creatives

Tim Mulligan

19 Nov 2015

Content Creators

Yesterday’s announcement by 6 second video platform Vine that it is has launched a new feature for audio remixing of videos highlights two new contradictory trends in short form video. Firstly most people cannot produce short form videos that people want to watch in any great number.

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