Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

Audience Insight

The Gen Zalpha reset
Rewiring entertainment for the next generation

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Laura Fisher, Olivia Jones and Tatiana Cirisano

May 2026

Digital

Entertainment

platforms

Today’s teenagers inherited a digital-first world characterised by ubiquity, hyper-personalisation, and fragmentation. They now crave more balance. To win the crossover generation between Gen Z and Alpha, entertainment platforms and rightsholders must design for connection, identity, shared experiences, and in-person complements to digital life.

Audiobooks and the spoken-word experience
Beyond the books on tape

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Laura Fisher

May 2026

Content

mainstream

Niche

Audiobooks are moving from a niche format enjoyed by literary fans to a mainstream mode of spoken-word audio consumption. Major trends are not immediately visible in the data; they emerge in patterns of behaviour – what people choose, retain, and abandon.

IMS Electronic music business report 2025/26
An annual study of the electronic music industry

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Mark Mulligan

April 2026

music industry

Global

Digital

The IMS Electronic Music Business Report 2025/6 builds on the success of previous editions, presenting the definitive view of the current state of the global electronic music industry. Now in its twelfth edition, the report is authored by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan for the fourth year running.

The hunt for tomorrow’s platform
Are games the next generation of social?

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Hanna Kahlert and Brandon Sutton

April 2026

Netflix

Facebook

Social

Games environments now serve as important social hubs for younger audiences. Networks form around these shared worlds first and traditional channels second, creating communities that persist whether users are actively playing or not. Simultaneously, mainstream social platforms are becoming increasingly focused on passive entertainment, leaving a so...

2025 audio consumer profile
Habits, platforms, and personas

Laura Fisher

April 2026

France

Sweden

Australia

This report draws on a series of 2025 MIDiA Research consumer surveys to provide insight into today’s audio consumer. Where relevant, it also references 2024 data for year-on-year comparison. This report contains: Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q3 2025, and Q4 2025 MIDiA consumer survey data.

Music merchandise and ticket buyer survey
Raising the bar

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Tatiana Cirisano and Olivia Jones

March 2026

merchandise

Fandom

audience

This report analyses the results of MIDiA’s survey of 1,000 US merch, physical music, and / or ticket buyers conducted in Q3 2025. To qualify for the survey, respondents had to have purchased at least one of the following in the prior 12 months: concert ticket, music merchandise, physical music.

Device usage trends across social platform users
Drilling into the details

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Hanna Kahlert

February 2026

France

Australia

mexico

This report presents device usage data as it correlates to social media platforms alongside consumer behaviours, which include ad responsiveness (by platform and device) and content preferences. This data supports insight and strategic decision-making around product development, such as smart TV apps for social platforms.

Creator franchise profile
From social channels to entertainment ecosystems

Ben Woods

February 2026

Creators

live

merchandise

The creator economy is moving into a new phase where audience ownership, rather than audience reach alone, is the primary driver of growth. Social platforms remain critical for discovery and scale, but their revenue-share models and control over audience relationships limit how much value creators can capture.

AI and consumer creation
The superfan factor

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Mark Mulligan

January 2026

Fandom

Content creation

Recorded music market

This report presents data from two different MIDiA Research consumer surveys to explore consumer behaviours and attitudes in content creation, including their use of AI and its relation to fandom. This report is for anyone and everyone looking to better understand consumer AI usage, from specific creator tools to sophistication levels.

From fans to superfans | What’s missing from the games industry

Cover image for From fans to superfans | What’s missing from the games industry

Brandon Sutton

27 Jan 2026

Business Strategy

Audience Insight

The games industry is experiencing a moment of turbulence. A growing list of high-profile, high-budget titles, such as Mindseye and New World , have failed to meet commercial expectations. Increasingly, even investments in the hundreds of millions are no longer enough to guarantee a successful title.

min read

From fans to superfans
What’s missing from the games industry

Cover image for From fans to superfans

Brandon Sutton

January 2026

France

Australia

Gaming

Game development is a complex landscape, with rising costs, longer production cycles, and intensifying competition all shaping how industry stakeholders engage consumers. The increasing saturation of the games market makes it harder for titles to stand out from the crowd.

Splice x MIDiA Sounds of 2026
House on the rise

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

January 2026

Creators

Music fandom

edm

We zoom in on the trends and microtrends driven by the music industry’s biggest fans and most influential tastemakers: creators. Turn page after page of trends unfolding in real-time and see how Splice’s dataset is the barometer for the state of music today.

Audio creator survey 2025
Mastering a digital landscape

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Laura Fisher

January 2026

Digital

podcasters

Audience Insight

Audio creators are the backbone of an industry often defined by its listeners. They are rising to a unique moment of opportunity: mastering a digital landscape, translating professional-grade investment into exceptional sound, and pioneering sustainable careers that span diverse regions and communities.

Why ignoring creator wellbeing is a financial risk for the creator economy

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Ben Woods

20 Nov 2025

Audience Insight

Each day, millions of hours of video content are uploaded onto social video platforms. The stream of creative output is so vast that it can be easy to forget that behind each one of these videos there is often a creator putting in a significant amount of work.

min read

AI music creators: music’s superfans

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Mark Mulligan

13 Nov 2025

Audience Insight

Not a week seems to go by without some big news in the world of music AI. Hot on the heels of UMG’s Udio deal , GEMA just secured a favourable ruling against OpenAI (via Reuters ). Over the course of the year, however, court rulings have fallen roughly evenly for media companies and AI companies, ...

min read

Brands and social TV: The next big entertainment power move

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Ben Woods

5 Nov 2025

Business Strategy

Audience Insight

One question is often asked when traditional entertainment companies start exploring a social-first strategy: how do we make it pay? It’s a valid line of inquiry that does not come with a neat answer.

min read

The global appeal of radio
Why audiences are still listening

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Laura Fisher

October 2025

Radio

BBC

Global

Streaming may dominate headlines, but radio still commands huge daily audiences. Its strength lies in trust, habit, and the shared, live experiences. As investment shifts to on-demand audio, many underestimate radio’s resilience - risking a self-fulfilling prophecy of decline.

The new gaming economy: Why gamers are buying less but playing more

Cover image for The new gaming economy: Why gamers are buying less but playing more

Brandon Sutton

23 Oct 2025

Audience Insight

Consumer behaviour

A new reality is emerging in the gaming economy that is being obscured by projections of growth, and its long-term effects are only beginning to be felt. Despite more money being spent on games than ever before, most consumers are spending less on a smaller number of games.

min read

Beyond listening: What podcast libraries can tell us about consumer identity

Cover image for Beyond listening: What podcast libraries can tell us about consumer identity

Laura Fisher

22 Oct 2025

Audience Insight

Consumer behaviour

Podcast libraries have evolved beyond a simple log of listening habits, becoming a telling indicator of personal identity. Increasingly, the most revealing source of who someone is may not be their social media feed or viewing history, but the podcasts they choose to follow.

min read

Decoding the video creator economy’s potential at IBC2025, Amsterdam

Cover image for Decoding the video creator economy’s potential at IBC2025, Amsterdam

Ben Woods

9 Sep 2025

Audience Insight

Creator economy

The video industry is in the middle of a substantial shift. The days of traditional entertainment and the creator economy occupying separate lanes are ending. Creators are expanding beyond social platforms to produce more premium content on SVOD services.

min read

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