Reports: Bandcamp

Browse all of our reports, featuring our analysts' expert insights and analysis of audience segmentation, emerging trends and technologies, value chains, market shares, predictions and more – backed by our proprietary survey data and bespoke models & forecasts. Become a subscriber to get new ones every month, or just pick one to get started.

Music merchandise demand
Who, what, and where

Cover image for Music merchandise demand

Tatiana Cirisano

October 2024

Consumer behaviour

cds

Spotify

The music merchandise market has transformed, with significantly more artists selling merch and more product variety than ever before. The traditional line between “hard” and “soft” merch is blurring as new generations buy vinyl as a collectible keepsake, rather than a consumption format.

The state and future of music fandom
Unleashing fan creativity

Cover image for The state and future of music fandom

Tatiana Cirisano

August 2023

Spotify

YouTube

SoundCloud

Streaming is buckling under the weight of new music being released every day, listenership is fragmenting, and artificial intelligence is poised to intensify these challenges. The music industry’s next era of growth lies in monetising fandom, not consumption.

Year of change
Themes that will shape entertainment in 2023

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Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin, Ben Woods and Srishti Das

February 2023

Spotify

YouTube

Amazon

This report deep dives into the themes identified in MIDiA’s 2023 predictions report. These themes will drive innovation in the digital entertainment landscape in 2023 across music, video, games, audio, cultural trends, and the creator economy. Expect 2023 to be a of period significant disruption and innovation forced upon the digital entertainme...

2023 MIDiA predictions
Pivot point

Cover image for 2023 MIDiA predictions

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin, Kazia Rothwell and Ben Woods

December 2022

Apple

YouTube

Amazon

In this report, MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, games, marketing, audio and cultural trends in 2023 and beyond. Themes for 2023: Cost-of-living crunch: Entertainment spending will weaken, but some formats will fare better than others Perceived value wil...

Streaming’s next growth phase
The necessity of differentiation

Cover image for Streaming’s next growth phase

Tatiana Cirisano

October 2022

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

DSPs have long been able to grow their subscriber bases despite all offering essentially the same experience. Yet the freemium model is reaching a saturation point, putting slow but steady pressure on DSPs to find new ways to grow subscribers and revenue.

Re-creating the creator economy

Cover image for Re-creating the creator economy

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston and Richard Broadhurst

August 2022

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Streaming first democratised the means of consumption, then distribution, and now production. Though the promise of the long tail may not have materialised quite as expected, long-tail and mid-tail creators are now a central component of the digital-entertainment economy.

The future of music
The rise of a counterculture industry

Cover image for The future of music

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

June 2022

Consumer behaviour

Spotify

Music creators

Music streaming and the attention recession have turned music into a background activity. Artists en masse are struggling to cut through the noise, realising that streaming is neither a place to build deeper relationships with fans nor to generate meaningful income.

Music creator survey, Q4 2021
Redefining success

Cover image for Music creator survey, Q4 2021

Tatiana Cirisano

May 2022

Creators

Spotify

artist income

As the barriers to music creation continue to lower, more creators enter the field, yet it is becoming harder than ever to earn a living through music, with a finite amount of revenue being split ever more ways. The majority of professional music creators do not earn meaningful income through their craft and must cobble together income from a diver...

Music creators
Slicing the funnel

Cover image for Music creators

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

February 2022

YouTube

SoundCloud

TuneCore

Streaming enabled the rise of the independent artist and then the rise of the music creator. The promise of the long tail finally appeared to be realised. But the pandemic’s disruption of live music catalysed an already growing realisation among long- and mid-tail artists that they lack the scale to benefit from streaming economics.

Music creator tools forecast
Moving towards a hybrid future

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Mark Mulligan

September 2021

Creators

Apple

Spotify

Once upon a time, music software and hardware were distinct market segments, but now they are increasingly fusing into a network of hybrid creator tools ecosystems. Standalone hardware still has a vibrant future, but the real momentum lies with software, sounds, services and the hardware that supports them.

Creator culture
The song becomes the feed

Cover image for Creator culture

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

April 2021

Creators

Spotify

Spotify

The creator tools marketplace is creating a revolution in the culture and business of music. The third decade of the millennium represents the opening of a new chapter for the music business, with the means of production and distribution fully democratised.

Creator culture
The song becomes the feed

Cover image for Creator culture

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

April 2021

Creators

Spotify

Spotify

The creator tools marketplace is creating a revolution in the culture and business of music. The third decade of the millennium represents the opening of a new chapter for the music business, with the means of production and distribution fully democratised.

Entertainment fandom
Monetise fandom, not attention

Cover image for Entertainment fandom

Mark Mulligan

March 2021

music fans

Fandom

Twitch

In the attention economy, entertainment consumption is intertwined and competition straddles formats and genres. The same applies to fandom. Entertainment fans are fans of not just multiple subgenres within one entertainment category, but instead across multiple entertainment formats.

Entertainment fandom
Monetise fandom, not attention

Cover image for Entertainment fandom

Mark Mulligan

March 2021

music fans

Fandom

Twitch

In the attention economy, entertainment consumption is intertwined and competition straddles formats and genres. The same applies to fandom. Entertainment fans are fans of not just multiple subgenres within one entertainment category, but instead across multiple entertainment formats.

Independent Artists
The Music Industry Rewritten

Cover image for Independent Artists

Mark Mulligan

July 2019

Creators

Labels

rhapsody

The rise of independent artists is one of the most important changes to happen to the modern recorded music business. While traditional label models still dominate, ever more artists are pursuing non-traditional alternatives, ranging from self-releasing through to joint-venture label service deals with majors.

Recorded Music Market 2017
Streaming Accelerating Growth

Cover image for Recorded Music Market 2017

Mark Mulligan

April 2018

music sales

Streaming

Streaming Music

Recorded music revenues are booming and the distribution end of the value chain is both vibrant and competitive. This has not been the case for many, many years. Streaming is on course to become the main revenue source, while the slowdown in legacy format decline is enabling that growth to lift the overall market at a greater rate.