Reports: Business Strategy

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.

Cover image for The Global Music Publishing Market

The Global Music Publishing Market
Streaming Shifts the Conversation

Zach Fuller

22 Aug 2019

Apple Spotify Spotify

The effects of music streaming having supplanted both the download and the CD as the mainstream format for recorded music (accounting for 50% of total recorded revenue in 2018) are being keenly felt across the music publishing industry. The DNA of streaming consumption (playlists, lower mechanical royalties, less revenue on average for superstar ca...

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State of the Podcast Nation

Mark Mulligan

23 Jul 2019

Apple Spotify Radio

Podcasts are an overnight success many years in the making. Podcasts were first added to Apple’s iTunes ecosystem in 2005, only to then spend a long time in the shadows. Now, however, they occupy the centre stage with radio companies, podcast vendors, streaming services and traditional media companies alike all trying to carve out roles.

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Independent Artists
The Music Industry Rewritten

Mark Mulligan

12 Jul 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.

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Sports and the Tech Majors
A Competitive Partnership

Alistair Taylor

5 Jul 2019

Free Report

Apple Amazon Apple TV

The big gap in streaming video’s content mix has historically been sports. This is now changing through a combination of disruptive challenger sports subscription video on demand (SVOD) services such as DAZN accelerating its rights and territory offerings alongside the increased interest being shown by the tech majors – notably Amazon and Faceb...

Cover image for State of the Music Publishing Nation

State of the Music Publishing Nation

Mark Mulligan and Zach Fuller

20 Jun 2019

Spotify Spotify Kobalt

This report, a first from MIDiA dedicated to the music publishing space, addresses the most important trends in the industry. With 2018 seeing revenues continue their accelerated growth and music publishing emerging as an asset class, now is opportune to reflect on one of the often misunderstood and hence undervalued aspects of the recorded music i...

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Spotify Q1 2019 Earnings

Mark Mulligan

31 May 2019

Subscriptions Streaming Streaming Music

Q1 2019 was a quarter of milestones for Spotify, hitting 100 million subscribers, launching in India and becoming a podcast company. However, it was also a quarter in which a number of metrics started to soften. With the exception of ad revenue, none of these subtle shifts are enough on their own to provoke any serious concern.

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State of the Streaming Nation 3.0
Multi-Paced Growth

Mark Mulligan

28 May 2019

Subscriptions Streaming Streaming Music

2018 was yet another strong year for streaming music growth, with the leading streaming services consolidating their market shares. Consumer adoption continues to grow but as leading markets mature, future growth will depend upon mid-tier markets and later on emerging markets.

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E-sports
An Alternative Future for Televised Sports?

Alistair Taylor, Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

1 Apr 2019

YouTube Amazon Google

E-sports continue to gain attention, with more brands seeking to enter the space populated as it is by a succession of new leagues, competitions and teams. But for all the hype, e-sports has not yet managed to deliver the scale of audience that the market activity warrants.

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SVOD Stacking
Direct to Consumer Services Set to Move the Needle

Tim Mulligan

25 Mar 2019

Streaming US UK

In the attention economy, everyone is your competitor – a point well made by Netflix’s Reed Hastings’ observation that the company is now vying for viewer time with the popular game Fortnite. Now that we are entering the post-peak phase of the attention economy, the focus for video is shifting to the overlap between subscription video on dema...

Cover image for Recorded Music Market 2018

Recorded Music Market 2018
Stream Engine

Mark Mulligan

7 Mar 2019

music sales Streaming Streaming Music

For the fourth consecutive year, recorded music revenues grew again in 2018 with streaming revenue the engine room of growth. For the first time, streaming became the majority of label revenue and its growth continues to outpace the decline of legacy formats.

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Games Streaming
Tech Major Disruption is Coming

Karol Severin

15 Feb 2019

tech majors Attention economy cross-platform gaming

Streaming is about to take the gaming world by storm. With new entrants including Google, Amazon, and Verizon, and others to come in the future, the traditionally siloed gaming model is becoming part of a wider cross-format, platform-agnostic play in the attention economy.

Cover image for Spotify Q4 2018 Earnings

Spotify Q4 2018 Earnings
Strong Subscriber Growth With a Hint of Profitability but Long-Term ARPU Deflation

Mark Mulligan

12 Feb 2019

Subscriptions Streaming Streaming Music

Spotify finished 2018 strongly, over performing in both subscriber and ad-supported MAU additions. This was accompanied by Spotify’s first ever profitable quarter and two major podcast acquisitions early in 2019, hinting at a positive year ahead. However, at the same time, premium ARPU continues a long-term decline.

Cover image for Music Publishing Acquisitions

Music Publishing Acquisitions
Bubble Business or Sustainable Market?

Zach Fuller

4 Feb 2019

Apple Spotify Warner Chappel

Music publishing mergers and acquisitions have boomed in recent years, invigorated by streaming’s user growth and the multitude of revenue options becoming available outside of music sales, such as micro syncs afford by user generated content (UGC) on YouTube and the steep growth of podcasts.

Cover image for MIDiA Research Music Forecasts 2018–2026

MIDiA Research Music Forecasts 2018–2026

Mark Mulligan

1 Feb 2019

Business Strategy

This report presents the key figures, trends and drivers of MIDiA’s music forecast model. The figures presented in this report are retail values and in billions of US dollars unless otherwise stated. Retail values refer to total revenues generated, including retailer margin, music publishing royalties and sales tax.

Cover image for Africa and Asia Music Repertoire Shares

Africa and Asia Music Repertoire Shares

Mark Mulligan

14 Jan 2019

iTunes Spotify YouTube

This report provides repertoire splits across streaming music services in a number of sub-Saharan African and Asian markets. Also presented are details on the key labels, artists and genres for each of the countries covered. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Apple Music, Avex, AWA Music, Boomplay, Cashtime, Chocolate City, Deezer, D-Hi...

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Global Video Forecast 2018–2025

Tim Mulligan

6 Dec 2018

YouTube Amazon Streaming video

2018–2025 will represent an epoch-defining era for video as streaming supplants analogue as the main technology for delivering content to TV audiences. In 2018 streaming video subscriptions already reached parity with pay-TV subscriptions in leading markets.

Cover image for MIDiA Research Predictions 2019

MIDiA Research Predictions 2019

Alistair Taylor, Georgia Meyer, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

8 Nov 2018

Apple Spotify YouTube

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech, across music, video, media, brands, marketing, games and sports in 2019. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: ABC, Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, Apple, Apple Music, AT&T, BBC, BT, BT Sports, BT T...

Cover image for Spotify Q3 2018 Earnings

Spotify Q3 2018 Earnings
Metrics on Track But Investors Not Convinced

Mark Mulligan

6 Nov 2018

Subscriptions Streaming Streaming Music

Spotify’s Q3 2018 earnings once again showed continued solid progress across most of its performance metrics, with strong progress in many areas. However, weakening investor confidence across US tech stocks as a whole, coupled perhaps unrealistic investor expectations saw Spotify’s share price fall again.

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Headphones Market Shares
Apple Takes the Lead

Mark Mulligan

15 Oct 2018

Subscriptions Streaming Music Subscriptions

Headphones are the physical manifestation of streaming music. With the focus of listening shifted from home speakers to smartphones, headphones have become ubiquitous. But, whereas convenience was unchallenged in the early years, consumers have started to place more importance on quality.

Cover image for Video Streaming Subscription Services Market Metrics

Video Streaming Subscription Services Market Metrics

Tim Mulligan

27 Sep 2018

Netflix hulu SVOD

This report includes the key findings of MIDiA’s Global Streaming Video Subscriber Market Share Model, in which we present the subscribers, revenues and market shares of video streaming services in 31 different countries. This report contains charts and analysis for 10 countries, including consumer survey data, while the complete excel model is p...

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