Reports: Music

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.

Soundcloud User Profile
Male Dominated Music Sophisticates

Mark Mulligan

17 Nov 2016

Streaming Streaming Music SoundCloud

SoundCloud is in many respects the odd one out in the audio streaming landscape. While the market is dominated by major label orientated subscription services like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Napster, SoundCloud has plotted a different path – one centred around independent content, creator uploads and free access.

Cover image for Streaming Music Health Check

Streaming Music Health Check
Streaming’s Watershed Moment

Mark Mulligan

22 Oct 2016

Subscriptions Streaming Streaming Music

Q2 2016 emerged as a watershed moment for streaming music, with label streaming revenue growing strongly enough to lift overall revenues for all three major labels. Meanwhile Spotify and Apple registered record growth, soon followed by streaming announcements from Amazon, Pandora and iHeart Media.

Cover image for Music in Virtual Reality

Music in Virtual Reality
An Opportunity To Fill The Content Void

Zach Fuller

30 Sep 2016

music industry music videos virtual reality

A transformational technology in need of a meaningful content offering meets a wounded industry looking to new revenue streams. Despite their obvious differences, music (as one of the first and most vigorously disrupted mediums by the internet), and Virtual Reality (as a poster-child of technology’s brave new world), could yet prove natural allie...

Cover image for Music Messaging Apps Vendor Landscape

Music Messaging Apps Vendor Landscape
Music Consumption Will Never Quite Be The Same Again

Mark Mulligan

29 Aug 2016

music apps youth generation edge

Music messaging apps are one of the most exciting and disruptive music consumer behaviours to emerge since file sharing first raised its head in the late 1990s. Apps like Musical.ly and Dubsmash have catalyzed entirely new ways for young music fans to engage with music, blurring the lines between creator and audience.

Cover image for VR Vendor Landscape

VR Vendor Landscape
Virtual Reality’s Path to Mainstream Entertainment

Zach Fuller

31 Jul 2016

technology adoption VR VR gaming

VR’s renaissance has an edge on other technologies: romance. Experiences in virtual reality are being evangelised less as entertainment than as a new era of humanity, giving users previously inconceivable levels of exploration in a safe and inconsequential environment.

Cover image for Music Consumer Segmentation 2016

Music Consumer Segmentation 2016
Subscriptions Swell Aficionado Numbers

Mark Mulligan

26 Jul 2016

Music consumers Subscriptions Streaming

Midway through the streaming transition, consumer segmentation is more complex and nuanced than ever before. The traditional methods of segmenting by spending behaviour retain a core value, while those based on attitudes are most valuable for understanding streaming consumers.

Cover image for State Of The YouTube Music Economy

State Of The YouTube Music Economy
Growing Tensions As Worldviews Collide

Mark Mulligan

11 Jul 2016

Streaming Streaming Music YouTube

YouTube is the music platform of choice for Millennials and Gen Z and is by far the most widely used streaming service on the planet. But YouTube and music rights holders have never been the closest of partners and intensive lobbying and counter lobbying in 2016 turned up the heat.

Cover image for Brexit Implications

Brexit Implications
How the UK's EU Exit Could Impact Media and Tech

Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

28 Jun 2016

Streaming Music UK Streaming video

The UK’s vote to leave the European Union sent shockwaves that will continue to reverberate across the globe for years to come. While the potential geopolitical permutations may prove to be era defining, the implications for media and tech companies could also be dramatic.

Cover image for Decoding The Live Event Consumer

Decoding The Live Event Consumer
How Social Media and Smartphones Are Redefining Live Experiences

Mark Mulligan

31 May 2016

live music concert goers gigs

The prolonged decline of the recorded music business is a mirror opposite of the dynamic growth in the live music sector, which itself is just one part of a booming live event marketplace. In the age of content abundance, consumers increasingly value the scarcity of live experiences.

Cover image for Cross Border Listening

Cross Border Listening
Borderless Hits And Curated Playlists

Mark Mulligan

31 May 2016

Streaming Streaming Music curation

The US and the UK have long dominated the global music industry, thanks in no small part to the benefit of having that most exportable of languages English as their mother tongue. A heritage of decade after decade of stellar artists and music scenes of course also helps, but the first signs are emerging of smaller music markets being able to make t...

Cover image for After The Album

After The Album
How Playlists Are Re-Defining Music Consumption

Mark Mulligan

30 Apr 2016

Subscriptions Streaming Music Subscriptions

Streaming hit a host of milestones in 2015, reaching 67.5 million subscribers and driving $2.9 billion of trade revenue, up 31% on 2014. While the competitive marketplace upped the ante, music services wielded curation to drive differentiation. Playlists have always been the core currency of streaming, but now more than ever they are becoming the b...

Music Market Region Profile: Latin America
Streaming Drives A Music Market Renaissance

Leo Morel

31 Mar 2016

Streaming Streaming Music mexico

Driven by the proliferation of smartphones, streaming is beginning to gain traction across Latin America, resulting in new forms of music consumption. Whereas interest in physical formats has been steadily falling, most Latin American countries have not developed music download markets, thus creating latent digital demand.

Cover image for The Steady Demise Of The CD Buyer

The Steady Demise Of The CD Buyer
How The Music Industry Is Sleepwalking Into A Revenue Collapse

Mark Mulligan

26 Feb 2016

cd revenue cd buyers Music buyers

The CD was the catalyst for the record labels’ apogee but now resembles a product strategy time bomb ticking away. With all the momentum of streaming it is tempting to discount CD buyers as an inconvenient legacy of the physical era, a format anomaly that will soon pass.

Cover image for State Of The Streaming Nation

State Of The Streaming Nation
A Comprehensive Assessment Of The Global Streaming Music Market

Mark Mulligan

29 Jan 2016

Subscriptions Streaming Music Music Subscriptions

2015 was the year streaming music came of age, with robust growth from market leader Spotify and the rapid ascent into second place of new entrant Apple Music. Though questions remain about the commercial viability of the model right across the value chain, there is no doubt that momentum is now with streaming.

Cover image for MIDiA Research Predictions, 2016

MIDiA Research Predictions, 2016
Video Eats The World

Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan and Tim Mulligan

15 Dec 2015

Streaming Music Streaming video digital music

This decade has been defined by accelerating innovation and disruption. With the majority of consumers now digitally connected in one way or another, new technologies have the ability to utterly transform existing models with a swiftness and totality not previously possible.

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Telco Music Strategy
Ironing Out The Strategic Kinks As Objectives Evolve

Mark Mulligan

25 Nov 2015

Subscriptions Streaming music bundles

In a few short years, telco music bundles have gone from a useful ancillary revenue stream to a core component of the streaming landscape. Despite long standing issues about how success can best be measured, telcos continue to invest heavily in music deals that are unlikely to ever deliver direct profit but that instead help drive metrics across th...

Cover image for Global Music Forecasts 2015-2020

Global Music Forecasts 2015-2020
Declining Legacy Formats Cancel Out Streaming Growth

Mark Mulligan

23 Oct 2015

Subscriptions music sales Music revenue

In a few short years streaming has gone from being an interesting sideshow to the most important component of the recorded music market in terms of impact, innovation and disruption, though not in revenue terms. Indeed streaming still only represents 16% of all recorded music revenue but its growth is directly impacting virtually every other aspect...

Music Market Country Profile: Mexico
How Streaming Is Unlocking Latent Opportunity

Leo Morel

21 Sep 2015

Streaming mexico Latin America

The Mexican music market is one with huge potential despite two consecutive years of recorded music revenue decline. With a population of 122 million and growing internet and smartphone penetration, Mexico has the foundations for becoming a key digital music market.

Cover image for Connected Home Audio Forecasts, 2015 to 2020

Connected Home Audio Forecasts, 2015 to 2020
The Reinvention Of Hi-Fi

Mark Mulligan

25 Aug 2015

Streaming Music Home audio connected home audio

While the home hi-fi market was fading into irrelevance Sonos quietly set about reimagining the whole concept of in-home audio. Now connected home audio is coming of age, with Sonos the dominant player in the multi-room audio segment. Consequently incumbents of all shapes and sizes are rising themselves from their slumbers and entering the market i...

Cover image for Streaming Music Discovery

Streaming Music Discovery
When The Journey Becomes The Destination

Mark Mulligan

31 Jul 2015

Streaming free Discovery

When YouTube first starting rising to prominence streaming music was still in its infancy. Thus even though royalty payments were far from setting the world alight, there was a clear case for YouTube views driving discovery which then led to sales. Fast forward to 2015 and digital sales are rapidly losing ground to streaming which in turn throws in...

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