Reports: Creator Economy

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.

The new Hollywood
Tactics for YouTube’s TV takeover

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Ben Woods

August 2025

Creators

Streaming

YouTube

YouTube is consolidating its takeover of the living room TV set. What began in the US is now becoming a global phenomenon. With younger audiences increasingly spending more time watching social video on the TV, broadcasters and streaming TV services must find a way to respond.

The future of creator apps
Fuelling engagement with fandom

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Ben Woods

July 2025

Creators

Spotify

Artists

The AI boom has unleashed a wave of creator tools, but some are struggling to make the transition from interesting and experimental to compulsive and essential. Fandom offers a solution by tying creation to a consumer’s personal passion, appetite for community engagement and a desire to have a stake in the entertainment they love.

Beyond the hype
AI music creation in 2025

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Ben Woods

July 2025

Creators

France

Australia

Generative AI tools are forging a new type of creator and shifting music creator workflows. While creators and consumers alike are interested in AI tools as they emerge, converting users is still an evident challenge. Music fandom has its foot in the door to increasing AI-assisted consumer creation and could pave the way for niche AI tools.

The fandom eclipse
How fan content is competing with IP

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Tatiana Cirisano and Ben Woods

June 2025

superfan

YouTube

Netflix

Fan-made content is evolving from a support act to a fully-fledged competitor to entertainment IP. This is creating tension between IP holders and the fan community. Both parties want the IP they love to thrive in a saturated entertainment landscape. This report will unpack whether entertainment IP holders should view fan content creation as an opp...

AI chatbots
The new conductors of entertainment

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Ben Woods

March 2025

Creators

Digital

Entertainment

AI chatbots are intersecting our entertainment lives as the tech majors transform consumer devices into digital companions. Such moves are building upon the foundations laid by smart speakers and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to elevate chatbot engagement towards the mainstream.

The audio creator opportunity
Audio creator behaviours and monetisation potential

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Rutger Rosenborg

March 2025

Creators

Subscriptions

Spotify

Historically, YouTubers and TikTok influencers have received the lion’s share of mainstream attention as a creator class – but audio creators are increasingly active on the same digital platforms and operating within the same formats. As a result, the audio creator has become a jack of all trades, moving between copyediting, audio editing, and ...

MIDiA Research 2025–2031 music creator tools forecasts
AI comes to town

Cover image for MIDiA Research 2025–2031 music creator tools forecasts

Mark Mulligan

January 2025

subscribers

AI

Business Strategy

This music creator tools forecasts report acts as a companion piece to MIDiA’s report “State of music creator economy: AI’s growing reach ” . This report provides analysis, market sizing, and forecasts for users and revenues for music creator tools revenues across the following categories: Software and services DAWs Music software (plug-ins...

Creators and the creator economy
Defining the undefinable

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Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert and Ben Woods

January 2025

Creators

Cultural trends

Creator economy

20 years since the launch of YouTube, the creator economy is not new – but it lacks a single clear definition. Different interest groups who interact with it all have their perspectives, but this lack of consistency can result in misunderstandings at best and strategic missteps at worst.

Splice x MIDiA Sounds of 2025

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Kriss Thakrar, Tatiana Cirisano, Samuel Griffin, Mark Qi and Olivia Jones

January 2025

Splice

Audience Insight

Splice is an engine powering producers across the world. With one ofthe largest, most sonically-diverse catalogues of sounds and samples, itprovides the music that makes the music for some of the most popularartists on the planet. Sabrina Carpenter’s hit “Espresso”, produced byJulian Bunetta, is a key recent example, with a sound pack by infl...

State of the music creator economy
AI’s growing reach

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Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

January 2025

Innovation

Creators

revenue

Still recovering from post-pandemic aftershocks, the music creator economy now faces unprecedented disruption from generative AI. More people are creating than ever before (both as creators and consumers) and sounds, services, and software revenue is growing well (the latter boosted by generative AI).

Creators versus creation
Tackling headwinds and bifurcation

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Ben Woods

December 2024

Creators

Music creators

Business Strategy

Headwinds are threatening the creator economy’s potential. Audience growth, social platform monetisation, and content saturation are creating friction that is leaving creators frustrated. Now, the red lights are flashing on the dashboard: the average weekly time consumers spend creating and producing content has fallen for the first time since 20...

The future of creator software
Maximising AI’s engagement opportunity

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Ben Woods

November 2024

Product Strategy

Artificial intelligence is revolutionising creator software to make it easier for those with little or no skill to produce high-quality content. These innovations are proving highly disruptive to existing workflows meaning traditional creator tools will struggle unless they adapt and evolve.

The future of creator hardware
AI’s new creative lane

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Ben Woods

October 2024

Twitch

Sony

Microsoft

AI tools pose a risk to the hardware funnel by becoming the go-to toolkit for beginners and a substitute for recorded footage. With AI providing solutions at every stage of the video creator workflow, hardware must fight to justify its need. Especially because AI makes it easier for all creators to produce professional-grade content.

Video creator tools
Hardware user profile

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Ben Woods

September 2024

Product Strategy

The democratisation of video creation has created an unprecedented opportunity for hardware tools companies. However, converting casual creators and beginners into high spenders is difficult given the financial and educational barriers creators must overcome.

Music creator survey
Recalibration

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Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

September 2024

Audience Insight

The music creator economy has been slowly developing but was thrust into the spotlight by a surge of new creators during the Covid lockdowns. As with any bubble, it eventually burst; many creator tools companies saw the ensuing surge flatten post-lockdown.

Video creator tools
Software user profile

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Ben Woods

August 2024

Product Strategy

Creator economy

The video creator software market is evolving fast. AI tools are carving out new workflows, and the democratisation of video creation is increasing demand from social video creators and professional videographers. Editing software and plugins remain key to monetisation, but challenges are emerging from subscription-adverse creators and users brough...

The state of the video creator economy
Creativity in a streamlined world

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Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Ben Woods

July 2024

Business Strategy

Creator economy

The video creator tools industry is primed for turbo-charged growth as artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates the consumerisation of creation. While the opportunity is significant, a considered approach is needed to ensure AI elevates the creator economy’s success at turning passive consumers into monetisable creators.

Virtual influencers
The opportunity for brands and creative agencies

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Ben Woods

March 2024

Business Strategy

Creator economy

Brands and creative agencies can claim a larger slice of the creative economy as adoption of virtual influencer content accelerates. Cheaper to run, with higher productivity rates and more monetisation options, virtual influencers provide an opportunity for brands to secure a greater return on their marketing investment.

MIDiA Research Panel Creator Survey
2023

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Kazia Rothwell

March 2024

Audience Insight

Key data and insights included in this report: Analysis of MIDIA Research’s creator panel, including age, gender, and region Type of creative content produced by panel creators Time, money, and, earnings of creators Analysis of drivers and major inhibitors...

State of the music creator economy
The consumer era

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Mark Mulligan

December 2023

Product Strategy

The pandemic triggered a surge in the music creator economy, which brought with it an influx of external interest and investment. 2022 saw growth moderate, but the long-term outlook is not only strong, it will also be supercharged by the consumerization of creation.

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