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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 music publishers are driving a full stack revolution

Mark Mulligan

14 Oct 2019

full stack music Music publishing Music

Music publishing catalogues are gaining momentum fast as an asset class for institutional investments, with transactions ranging from large catalogue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) through to investment vehicles for songwriters’ shares such as the Hipgnosis Fund and Royalty Exchange.

3 min read

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Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) October 14th 2019

Mark Mulligan

14 Oct 2019

Take Five Business Strategy

Fortnite black hole: In what may be the most audacious global games marketing stunt ever, Epic Games killed off Fortnite in Sunday’s end-of-season event , which one million people viewed live on Twitch.

2 min read

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Why the D2C era is about to begin in earnest

Tim Mulligan

11 Oct 2019

d2c direct-to-consumer Strategy

Next month Apple TV+ and Disney+ will launch, followed by Warner Media’s HBO Max in Q1 2020 and NBCUniversal’s Peacock in April – making the next six months pivotal in the evolution of direct-to-consumer (D2C) video adoption both in the US and beyond.

5 min read

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Indonesia’s Gojek rivals Netflix with new streaming service GoPlay

Amanda Stears

8 Oct 2019

Gojek GoPlay Indonesia

Indonesia’s leading mobile payment platform and tech unicorn Gojek launched its video-on-demand (VOD) service on 26 September. This comes shortly after its extension into the gaming industry with its gaming platform GoGames.

3 min read

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Abbey Road 50 years on: The two worlds of music listening

Mark Mulligan

7 Oct 2019

abbey road midia index niche is the new mainstream

Half a century after it first after it first topped the charts, The Beatles’ Abbey Road is back at the summit of the UK charts (per the BBC ).With the anniversary editions of the album retailing for between $20 and $100, the impact on Universal Music’s revenue will be even more pronounced than t...

5 min read

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Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) October 7th 2019

Mark Mulligan

7 Oct 2019

Take Five Business Strategy

Streaming pricing, emerging questions: Music Business Worldwide raised the question of why streaming is discounted in emerging markets when BMWs and Amazon Echoes are not. There are many layers to this, but the key one is – who is going to pay? High income urban elites can afford Western prices; t...

2 min read

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Vice Media acquires Refinery29 as digital media reaches its consolidation phase

Zach Fuller

4 Oct 2019

Vice Social Business Strategy

It does not feel like long ago that Vice was the darling of digital media, attracting investment from Walt Disney, 21st Century Fox and TPG with valuations reaching as high as $5.7 billion. As the financial lust wore-off, investments were written down, staff cut and long-standing management removed.

3 min read

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Is Apple preparing for its first Oscar?

Tim Mulligan

3 Oct 2019

Apple TV Oscars Strategy

Last week’sstory that Apple is getting into the movie business to bolster its premium video positioning – if officially confirmed – would follow on the well-trodden path established by the current direct-to-consumer (D2C) leaders: Netflix and Amazon.

4 min read

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Why PlayStation Now’s price cut alone is not enough to compete

Karol Severin

2 Oct 2019

Gaming playstation now Sony

Despite a price cut, PlayStation remains the most expensive gaming experience PlayStation hasannounced a 50% price cut to its games streaming service, PlayStation Now. Though slicing a streaming service price point in half is a bold move which will attract a lot of media attention, the reality is th...

4 min read

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Five trends changing music marketing

Keith Jopling

2 Oct 2019

Marketing Strategy Music

Marketing music has never been straightforward. That’s why back in the day, label executives would use the single as the shortcut to finding an audience on which to propel the artist, and even more importantly, their latest album.

5 min read

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Why short-form content resonates with younger generations

Amanda Stears

2 Oct 2019

digital natives Gen Z Mobile content

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.

4 min read

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Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) September 27th 2019

Mark Mulligan

30 Sep 2019

Take Five Cultural trends

Music licensing hubs: Monokrome launched its Rights Hub, contractual rights and file management platform for rightsholders, while Soundfeed put its label sub-licensing platform into open beta .Fragmented fandom sees streams more widely shared among middle class artists which means more small rightsh...

2 min read

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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...

5 min read

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Does the financialisaton of music assets help raise songwriter revenue?

Zach Fuller

27 Sep 2019

music assets music investment Music publishing

MIDiA’s coverage of music publishing has addressed some of the implications of financial entities becoming involved in the music space. Whether this is investment vehicles or micro-financing start-ups, they both point towards an epochal shift in music copyright ownership and who benefits from an a...

3 min read

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Welcome to the post-peak Emmys

Tim Mulligan

27 Sep 2019

Digital audiences Emmys Video

Sunday night saw the 71stEmmy Awards broadcast live on Fox. Traditionally the Emmys have been the cornerstone of TV production credibility alongside the BAFTAs. However, the Oscars of the TV industry is facing two existential challenges which threaten its relevance: plummeting ratings, and the ongoi...

3 min read

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Knock on: Rights holders cannot chance latency?

Alistair Taylor

26 Sep 2019

Sports Video Sports TV

The IRB Rugby World Cup (RWC) commenced last Friday with hosts Japan producing a fine victory over second-time qualifiers Russia, 30-10. The first RWC to be held in Asia provides Australasian countries with a much more sociable tournament in terms of kick-off times.

5 min read

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Three things you need to know about ASMR videos

Amanda Stears

24 Sep 2019

ASMR ASMR videos Marketing

What is ASMR? ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, a sensory phenomenon that is increasingly known to induce relaxation and counteract anxiety. ASMR is known to induce a tingling sensation which usually spreads across the scalp and back of the neck when triggered by audio and visual...

3 min read

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Could a recession change the tide for sports rights allocation?

Alistair Taylor

24 Sep 2019

live sports Pay TV Sports

Revenue remains rights holder’s priority qualifier for allocating rights. However, with an impending recession, we are likely nearing an inflection point whereby rights holders may start to look towards prioritising reach over revenue.

5 min read

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Amazon launches HD streaming: Is quality still enough to escape commodification?

Zach Fuller

23 Sep 2019

Streaming Music Music Amazon

This week, Amazon will launch Amazon Music HD in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, offering 50 million lossless HD songs with a sample rate of 44.1kHz described by Amazon as ‘CD quality’. It is an interesting move for the company and arguably the first to meaningfully push HD music streaming back ...

3 min read

How Fender riffed on trends to drive its future forward

Keith Jopling

23 Sep 2019

Music Fender Business Strategy

By now everyone connected with business, music or both, knows the cautionary tale of Gibson Guitars. Rescued from insolvency in 2018, Gibson had been taken to the brink by a series of calamitous decisions, from transforming into a music lifestyle business loosely modelled on ‘what Nike is to sport...

7 min read

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