Audio’s entertainment value
Examining audio listeners’ cross-entertainment lives

Rutger Rosenborg

February 2025

music industry

Music streaming

Content

Typically, the marketing team for a games company or TV show would not be thinking of audiobooks and podcast listeners as a key consumer segment to address. Yet, podcast and audiobook listeners are digitally sophisticated and spend more time and money than the consumer average on most forms of entertainment – including games, music, and video.

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Nintendo’s earnings highlight Mario's unfaltering popularity, despite the Switch running out of steam

Rhys Elliott

6 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Games

super mario

Nintendo released its nine-month earnings ending December 31, 2024. Its revenues were $6.1 billion, dropping 31.4% year on year, with: Nintendo’s dedicated platforms (hardware, software, subscriptions, and accessories) accounting for 94.

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MIDiA’s analysts answer questions on their 2025 predictions

Karol Severin

5 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Music

Games

We are delighted by the overwhelmingly positive response and discussions sparked during our 2025 predictions webinar. We are grateful for all the engaging questions you asked during the session. Though we were unable to get through all of the excellent questions in the one-hour window, we certainly ...

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Meta-podcasts are coming for the news, not the podcast industry

Rutger Rosenborg

5 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

YouTube

Google

Although Google has arguably cornered the podcast market through YouTube already, by employing AI, the company may be making it even harder for competitors to catch up.In October 2024, MIDiA covered the development of NotebookLM and its ability to disrupt the informational and educational podcast sp...

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AI is reshaping the music creator economy, and that change will reshape the music business

Mark Mulligan

3 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Music

Creator economy

MIDiA is pleased to announce the release of not one but two new music creator economy reports. These are our latest " State of the music creator economy "and " Music creator tools forecasts "reports. These annual deliverables have quickly become industry benchmarks, and if you operate in the music c...

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The games market will grow by 4.6% in 2025 – in line with the global inflation rate

Rhys Elliott

31 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Fandom

Games

We just published our flagship games report MIDiA Research’s Global Games Forecasts 2025–2031 and its accompanying dataset. What you need to know: The games market is mature , so double-digit growth is a fantasy and the industry will only see slight growth going forward The global number of game...

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The case for anti-scale

Tatiana Cirisano

30 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

YouTube

TikTok

Go big or go home. More is more. All or nothing. Move fast and break things. Such adages have been the foundations of Western entertainment business for decades, and understandably so, because these models have always relied on hits.

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MIDiA Research global games forecasts 2025–2031
The market is mature, so double-digit growth is a fantasy

Perry Gresham, Mark Qi and Rhys Elliott

January 2025

US

Global

Gaming

Interested in ' MIDiA Research global games forecasts 2025–2031' ? Access the free version here . Recent years have been tough for the games market. Like many industries, gaming overextended itself following the black swan event that was the COVID-19 pandemic.

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DeepSeek and Rednote signal the dawning era of APAC

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Netflix

TikTok

The AI race is a tense one. Billions of dollars have been poured into the likes of OpenAI. Meanwhile, the US and UK governments, among others, have pledged to invest heavily in AI development, suggesting that they feel it is of critical importance to “win” the new space race.

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

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...

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Background music is a short-term win for DSPs – but it could be a long-term problem

Olivia Jones

23 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Spotify

Streaming

Note: Following the publication of this piece, Spotify released a statement regarding Pelly's article, which is reproduced in full at the bottom of this page. In this month’s issue of Harper’s Magazine , Liz Pelly published “ The Ghosts in the Machine ”.

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State of the music creator economy
AI’s growing reach

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).

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Are console platforms about to push smartphone-style subscription plans?

Rhys Elliott

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Games

assassin’s creed

Diminishing returns on console generations, cash-strapped consumers, and increasing console prices might just open up a new pricing model for consoles – one in which consoles look increasingly like smartphones.

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Are creators wise to sell their offcuts to AI companies?

Ben Woods

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Creators

AI

Most will be familiar with the adage: ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’. Despite being a cliché, the saying lives on as it cuts to the heart of how individuals and companies perceive value.

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What got you here won’t get you there: how Spotify built a new business

Mark Mulligan

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Spotify

Streaming

Since its inception, Spotify has been, and continues to be, the streaming music market’s lightning rod. This is due to its continued ability to maintain leading market share and the fact it is the only leading global DSP that is independent and therefore has to focus place more focus on commercial...

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Meta pushes for “free speech” as TikTok falls short: a dramatic cultural shift for social

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Facebook

TikTok

The news cycle leaves no room to draw breath as strategic pivots and Supreme Court hearings come thick and fast. Changes are afoot – and they paint a very different picture of the digital landscape of the future.

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Creators versus creation
Tackling headwinds and bifurcation

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...

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Q3 2024 music metrics
Maturation effect

Mark Mulligan

December 2024

Business Strategy

This report presents MIDiA consumer data for key music consumer behaviours and company financials for Q3 2024.Consumer data covered includes, streaming app usage, music behaviour and streaming activities. Company financials covers record labels, music publishers, DSPs, and live music companies.

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Will audio have a seat at the creator economy table?

Rutger Rosenborg

18 Dec 2024

Amazon Music

Spotify

Podcasts

As 2024 comes to a close, it is worth reflecting on this year’s audio trends and where we expect things to head in 2025. Per our recent report, ‘ MIDiA’s 2025 predictions: It’s social’s stage now ’, social platforms will continue to take centre stage on the heels of the creator economy r...

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Audio is incidental: Why Spotify wants to become a creator ecosystem

Rutger Rosenborg

11 Dec 2024

Spotify

Spotify Wrapped

Podcasts

First there were artists, and then there were podcasters. Now, there are artists, creators, and authors on Spotify. As we covered at the end of November, Spotify has officially renamed its Spotify for Podcasters hub to Spotify for Creators as the company looks to unlock the power of video in podcast...

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