Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

Business Strategy

Why audience ownership is the driving force behind creator IP expansions

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Ben Woods

10 Dec 2025

Business Strategy

Distribution is the tie that binds all creators together. Most successful creators use social media platforms as a springboard for turning their creative idea into a career. Social platforms have enabled creators to forge deep connections with audiences, while mastering the nuances of algorithmic di...

min read

NewJeans never die: What the year-long scandal means for K-pop’s global expansion

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Olivia Jones

4 Dec 2025

Business Strategy

The biggest scandal in modern K-pop turned one year old last Friday – and may have officially reached a resolution. To recap: on November 28, 2024, K-pop girl group NewJeans announced they were terminating their exclusive contract with ADOR, citing a breach of trust and failure to meet requests fo...

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The AI-social media dilemma: Can TikTok, Meta, and diVine curb low-quality content without hurting creators?

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Ben Woods

3 Dec 2025

Business Strategy

Social platforms are grappling with a difficult balancing act. Generative AI can deliver a revolutionary engagement opportunity by turning even more consumers into creators. However, low-quality AI content also poses a threat to the user experience of social platforms.

min read

Creator wellbeing
Optimising time and battling burnout

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Ben Woods

November 2025

UGC

Business Strategy

lean back consumption

If the creator economy is to reach its growth potential, creator wellbeing must be prioritised. Growing and maintaining audiences is becoming more challenging, leading to unsustainable pressure for new and long-standing creators. Many creators are reducing the time they spend creating content.

ARC Raiders is disrupting the games industry: What developers can learn from its success

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Brandon Sutton

27 Nov 2025

Business Strategy

ARC Raiders has quickly become one of 2025’s standout releases. Developed by Embark Studios, founded by former EA-owned studio DICE leaders, the game has quickly exceeded commercial and critical expectations for smaller developers.

min read

Cross-platform success
Using social platforms to build audience and fandom

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Hanna Kahlert

November 2025

Creators

merchandise

Discovery

The shifting social landscape leaves a lot to unpack, with parallel trends of consolidation and fragmentation. Social platforms are now largely about entertainment first and connecting with friends second. Many major platforms reinforce this dynamic by pushing a few-to-many distribution model.

Valve announces new Steam Hardware: What the launch means for gaming

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Brandon Sutton

21 Nov 2025

Business Strategy

In true Valve fashion, the company unveiled a surprise suite of new devices aimed at consumers last week – consisting of a PC-console hybrid, a new virtual reality headset, and a controller (via Valve ).

min read

The future of record labels: Shifting sands

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Tatiana Cirisano

20 Nov 2025

Business Strategy

Music streaming

The question of whether artists still need record labels never seems to fade from industry discussion. It has invariably surfaced in conference panels, think pieces, and behind-closed-doors conversations for years.

min read

(di)Vine is back: Is there space for another short-form video app?

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Hanna Kahlert

19 Nov 2025

Business Strategy

Long before we had TikTok, Reels, or Shorts, we had Vine. An app arguably well before its time, the original short-form platform for 6-second video clips was a huge moment for millennial culture. Compilations of archived content still rack up millions of views on YouTube, indicating its longevity, p...

min read

Amazon winding down New World may signal the end of Western-developed MMORPGs

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Brandon Sutton

13 Nov 2025

Business Strategy

Amazon’s announcement that it will wind down support for its flagship title, New World , raises major questions about the future of Western-developed Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) and about Amazon’s own role in the gaming industry (via Amazon Game Studios ).

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The future of labels
Shifting sands

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Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

November 2025

Labels

Business Strategy

This report presents MIDiA’s vision for the long-term future of record labels and music companies providing similar services. This follows our Future of streaming report. Because of streaming’s dominant role in most record labels’ revenue mix, some of those dynamics are developed further here from the labels’ perspective.

Online radio and community building: A closer look at NTS’ Don’t Assume Day

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Laura Fisher

6 Nov 2025

Business Strategy

By any measure, streaming defines today’s music landscape. It’s a period in which digital platforms determine how audiences access, discover, and share music. Yet as algorithmic playlists saturate the experience, a counter current has emerged: listeners are seeking context and connection, not ju...

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 end of the Console Wars? What Xbox’s shift means for the future of gaming

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Brandon Sutton

30 Oct 2025

Business Strategy

With the remake of Halo: Combat Evolved , once the definitive Xbox exclusive, coming to PlayStation 5 in 2026, many are proclaiming that the ‘console wars’ may finally be over. For decades, these ‘console wars’ – a colloquialism for competition among major gaming platforms – were defined...

min read

Shifting headwinds for AI
Transitioning from disruptor to status quo

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Hanna Kahlert

October 2025

Business Strategy

As consumer adoption of AI reaches its peak, it poses opportunities and challenges to key stakeholders across the digital value chain: Discovery, Creation, Ideation, and Administration. This report showcases proprietary MIDiA consumer and music creator...

The State of the Video Creator Economy
The road to one billion creators

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Ben Woods and Mark Qi

October 2025

Creators

Content

advertising

The video creator economy is entering a new stage of its development. Time spent creating content has plateaued, and key drivers behind the pandemic’s content creation boom are weakening. Growth now depends on AI tools to bring more first-time creators into the funnel and alleviate pain points blocking video creator progression.

Forget catalogue; creators are the new valuable IP

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Hanna Kahlert

16 Oct 2025

Business Strategy

The value of entertainment catalogue and content has shifted over the last decade. Licensing usage and distribution used to underpin the system, but challenges arose as digital consumption became the default.

min read

The future of music streaming: Change or be changed

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Mark Mulligan

13 Oct 2025

Business Strategy

Music streaming

The music business, entertainment as a whole – even the world – are at turning points. The future may be unknown, but there is always one certainty: things are going to be different. The change that got us here was paradoxically both fast and slow.

min read

The future of music streaming
Change or be changed

Cover image for The future of music streaming

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

October 2025

Streaming

Music streaming

Business Strategy

This report presents MIDiA’s vision for the long-term future of music streaming. While there are clearly pressing, near-term priorities, these are sustaining innovations aimed at optimising the existing model. In this report, we shift perspectives to the long view, identifying the challenges of today that must be met in order to secure a vibrant ...

The ‘TikTok of AI’ – why OpenAI’s Sora 2 will disrupt social media

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Ben Woods

9 Oct 2025

Business Strategy

Shortly after its release last week, OpenAI’s new AI video generator app – Sora 2 – topped US download charts. Dubbed the ‘TikTok of AI’, the app introduced a range of new features that could redefine AI’s relationship with consumers, social platforms, and entertainment IP.

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