HYBE 2.0 diverges from the major-label blueprint in 4 key ways — will it work?

Tatiana Cirisano

8 Aug 2024

Record labels

music industry

HYBE

HYBE kicked off the month with new leadership and a new plan to bring the Korean entertainment company into its next era of growth. In a letter to shareholders , outgoing CEO Jiwon Park and new chief Jason Jaesang Lee were refreshingly open about HYBE’s past weaknesses as they laid out a plan to p...

min read

Read more …

What Audible’s new royalty model means for its audiobook battle with Spotify

Rutger Rosenborg

1 Aug 2024

Audio

Business Strategy

Audiobooks

In early July, Audible’s blog broke the news that the company was introducing a new royalty model for audiobooks. Previously, according to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman , Audible would do a “buyout”, paying a publisher an upfront fee to have their book on the service rather than distributing roy...

min read

Read more …

Songwriters take the stage
A new playbook for a new era

Tatiana Cirisano and Fernanda Balzaretti

July 2024

Streaming

Spotify

music industry

The streaming era upended the already-fraught business of being a songwriter, pushing songwriters to secure new revenue streams and better deal terms. While the recorded music industry has responded to similar shifts with a flourishing artist services market, the same is not true for songwriters.

Read more …

Songwriters take the stage: a new playbook for a new era

Tatiana Cirisano

31 Jul 2024

songwriters

songwriting income

Music publishing

In the 2021 report, “ Rebalancing the song economy ”, MIDiA introduced the idea of songs as mini industries. In the streaming era, songs are constantly revived and reimagined — and so long as you own the publishing, it does not matter if the version that becomes popular is the original, a cove...

min read

Read more …

MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global music publishing forecasts
Managed change

Mark Mulligan

July 2024

Business Strategy

Thus far, the 2020s has been a good decade for the music publishing industry. Revenues have continued to grow, streaming royalty rates have improved – spurred by favourable royalty rates board rulings in the US – and institutional investment has flowed into publishing catalogues, even after rising interest rates.

Read more …

Gamers aren’t finishing games, and that’s a problem

Rhys Elliott

24 Jul 2024

RPGs

Assassin's Creed

PlayStation

Every segment in the games market is facing challenges. While some experts remain optimistic about gaming’s growth pace returning in the near future, the truth is that many arguments for this never-ending growth are shaky.

min read

Read more …

Social is the new entertainment; enter MIDiA’s new social vertical

Hanna Kahlert

24 Jul 2024

Social

Audience behaviour

AI

Social platforms are now inextricable from the digital world and every aspect of entertainment. Fans and A&Rs alike discover new music on social platforms. Marketing strategies for artists and concerts are dependent on ads side-by-side with user stories.

min read

Read more …

Game Pass’ updates mark a new era for Xbox

Rhys Elliott

19 Jul 2024

Xbox

Microsoft

Games

Xbox recently announced significant changes to its subscription offering ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hitting the service. In September 2024, Xbox is: Increasing prices for Game Pass Ultimate from $16.

min read

Read more …

Why comments on Spotify podcasts are more about YouTube than community

Rutger Rosenborg

17 Jul 2024

Spotify

YouTube

youtube podcasts

In September 2021, Spotify launched the Q&A and polls features for podcasts on the platform. The impetus, according to Spotify’s For the Record blog, was to make podcasts more of a two-way street and “community-building medium.

min read

Read more …

The case for shorter games

Karol Severin

11 Jul 2024

AA games

Attention economy

Games

Following the post-pandemic slowdown of global games revenue growth, cost-cutting measures are now in full force. However, games continue to grow in scope and length, with budgets often exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars.

min read

Read more …

MIDiA launches video creator economy vertical as AI delivers transformative growth

Ben Woods

11 Jul 2024

Social video

Video

Business Strategy

Keeping step with AI’s impact on the video creation industry can be a daunting prospect. Ways of working that have existed for decades are being reorientated around generative AI tools. With these changes comes opportunities, risks and plenty of questions: AI is poised to open the gates to more en...

min read

Read more …

Audio advertising: What podcasts can learn from radio

Rutger Rosenborg

11 Jul 2024

Audio

Business Strategy

Radio

Radio has been the dominant audio format for a century — and arguably, it still is. According to MIDiA’s Q1 2024 Consumer Survey , 49% of respondents in all tracked markets (excluding China) say they listen to radio weekly.

min read

Read more …

Platoon just quietly raised the bar for songwriter services

Tatiana Cirisano

11 Jul 2024

songwriting

Music

Business Strategy

Over the past few months, singer-songwriter RAYE has been using her spotlight to campaign for fairer pay for songwriters — advocating for them to receive royalty points on master recordings, per diems for studio time, and more.

min read

Read more …

The state of the video creator economy
Creativity in a streamlined world

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Ben Woods

July 2024

Business Strategy

Creator economy

The video creator tools industry is primed for turbo-charged growth as artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates the consumerisation of creation. While the opportunity is significant, a considered approach is needed to ensure AI elevates the creator economy’s success at turning passive consumers into monetisable creators.

Read more …

Bigger is not always better
Premium gaming’s AA opportunity

Rhys Elliott

July 2024

Business Strategy

Following the post-pandemic slowdown of global games revenue growth, cost-cutting measures are now in full force. However, games continue to grow in scope and length with budgets often exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars, while growth and profitability are increasingly challenging to achieve.

Read more …

Hardware’s AI moment will help video creators do more with less

Ben Woods

3 Jul 2024

Video creator tools

Social video

video production

It has been a tumultuous time for hardware companies working in video creation. Revenues have been impacted by two forces: a tough macroeconomic climate and industrial action. High inflation has knocked consumer confidence, while the Hollywood Strikes have either delayed major TV and movie productio...

min read

Read more …

From X to Instagram, the line between social video and podcasts is blurring

Rutger Rosenborg

3 Jul 2024

Podcasts

Social media

Social video

As the podcast industry wakes up to the fact that video podcasts are growing –– and fast –– MIDiA’s 2024-2030 podcast forecasts confirm the source of much of that growth: YouTube. YouTube video market share is already the largest among all platforms where podcasts are available, having sho...

min read

Read more …

The end of the debate: Why streaming TV and politics no longer mix

Tim Mulligan

2 Jul 2024

Online video

Video

Audience Insight

The “entertainmentisation” of Western politics has successfully re-energised political discourse after decades of consensus politics and has resulted in policy making that has negatively impacted voters, both economically and environmentally.

min read

Read more …

How DistroKid can leverage its podcast partnership to help artists tell their stories

Rutger Rosenborg

27 Jun 2024

Podcasts

DistroKid

music distribution

On the heels of MIDiA’s report “ Defining podcast taste: The universal appeal of music, news, and comedy ”, podcast network Evergreen Podcasts and independent music distributor DistroKid announced a sponsorship deal.

min read

Read more …

The state of music AI
The consumer opportunity lies in modification, not generation

Tatiana Cirisano and Hanna Kahlert

June 2024

Consumer behaviour

music industry

Music publishing

MIDiA previously predicted that generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) would accelerate music’s “Instagram moment”, where consumers could create and remix music as easily and often as they post photos and videos on social media. However, just because everyone can do these things does not mean everyone will want to.

Read more …