Reports: Digital

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.

Pixels to playlists
Music preferences and behaviours of gamers

Rhys Elliott

March 2025

Innovation

Labels

The global games industry is a $236.9 billion behemoth. It now rivals film, television, and music combined in terms of revenues and is a cultural driver. Yet, for music companies, labels, and platforms,...

AI chatbots
The new conductors of entertainment

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...

The audio creator opportunity
Audio creator behaviours and monetisation potential

Cover image for The audio creator opportunity

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...

The AI entertainment revolution
How artificial intelligence will reshape media consumption

Cover image for The AI entertainment revolution

Hanna Kahlert, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano and Annie Langston

March 2023

Innovation

Creators

YouTube

2023 has been jump-started by rapid progression in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). From the launch of ChatGPT to AI-powered DJs, this technology is revolutionising common practices, impacting...

Podcasts and radio
How radio can play by its own rules

Annie Langston

March 2023

Spotify

live

Radio

Radio set the stage for music streaming and podcasts, only to watch them take portions of its audience. However, there is a clear opportunity for radio companies to assert themselves in the podcast market,...

Attention recession impacts on D2C growth

Richard Broadhurst

July 2022

Subscriptions

Streaming

Spotify

Weekly active user (WAU) penetration for the top streaming services is now slowing with quarter-on-quarter growth effectively flat for the leading subscription video on demand (SVOD) services. Peak attention...

Social video
TikTok sets the pace

Richard Broadhurst

May 2022

Video

YouTube

digital natives

Social video is optimising lean-through engagement for digital natives, with simple editing features, filters, and music. Value for younger digital natives (those aged 16-19-years-old) lies in co-creation,...

From social media to creator tools
The evolution of UGC

Cover image for From social media to creator tools

Hanna Kahlert

September 2021

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Entertainment is suffering intense competition as audience attention time, already saturated before the pandemic, is hit by the gradual return of ‘in real life’ activities. A flurry of new propositions...

2021 Predictions
The Year of the Immersive Web

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Alistair Taylor and Hanna Kahlert

November 2020

Spotify

Discovery

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, brands, marketing, games and sports in 2021 and beyond. Key...

US and UK Sports Fans
Reaching Digital Natives

Alistair Taylor

December 2019

YouTube

Amazon

revenue

Sports as a product is feeling the squeeze of the peak attention economy. Sports fans in the traditional sense are ageing, and appealing to a younger digitally-native audience is a fundamental issue that...

Global Music Forecasts 2014 to 2019
The Shift To The Consumption Era

Cover image for Global Music Forecasts 2014 to 2019

Mark Mulligan

July 2014

Subscriptions

Music revenue

Streaming

2013 was the recorded music industry’s 14th successive year of revenue decline. The prolonged death rattle of the CD continues to drag the global market down with it and things just got worse with the...