Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

Video Creators: Tell us how you create for a chance to win $500

Ben Woods

30 Apr 2024

MIDiA is building a new research stream focused on video creators and the tools they use to create. We are striving to understand the unique workflows and creative processes that underpin the art of making engaging video content.

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State of the music video economy
Balancing act

Cover image for State of the music video economy

Tatiana Cirisano and Fernanda Balzaretti

April 2024

Consumer behaviour

music industry

Music publishing

The rise of short-form video, and the resulting shift in value from music videos to music in videos, have upended the music video space. This report unpacks the growth of short-form, the resulting decline in YouTube weekly active user penetration, and the impact on both artist marketing and advertising revenue.

Net Neutrality 2.0 - Back to the future or is this something different?

Tim Mulligan

30 Apr 2024

net neutrality

FCC

broadband

The decision taken last Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to restore the regulated status of open access to the internet has re-ignited the net neutrality wars in the US. In it its official press release , the FCC stated that it had “voted to restore a national standard to ensure the internet is fast, open, and fair.

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Spotify’s publisher dilemma: Audiobook bundling makes music publishers mad — is all-in-one audio sustainable?

Rutger Rosenborg

25 Apr 2024

Audiobooks

Music streaming

Spotify

Try as you might, you cannot make everyone happy. Spotify is learning that the hard way as the company tries to make the case for audiobooks to users, shareholders, and the book publishing industry — all while trying to maintain its complex relationship with the music industry.

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Why Netflix will no longer publicly report subscribers

Tim Mulligan

23 Apr 2024

Netflix

Churn

svod churn

Netflix’s Q1 2024 numbers are impressive: revenues are up 15% Year on Year (YoY), operating income is up 54%, and operating margin increased by seven percentage points to 28%. The numbers were so impressive, in fact, that Netflix stated in its shareholder letter that it was now re-positioning itself to “better reflect our investment grade status.

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Inverse incentives: the implications of Spotify’s Substack integration for podcasts

Rutger Rosenborg

19 Apr 2024

Audio

Podcasts

Spotify

As platform decay seeps into major tech platforms and microcultures proliferate across the internet, feature development becomes less about building native tools and more about third-party integrations .

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How will AI change the video creator tools’ value chain?

Ben Woods

18 Apr 2024

creator tools

Video creators

Twitch

When it comes to selling software and hardware, the creatoreconomy resembles other types of hobby. Take sports: there are plenty of cheapfootballs and tennis rackets out there for consumers who want to start playing.

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Bifurcation theory
How today’s music business will become two

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

April 2024

Business Strategy

The music business is bifurcating, with streaming emerging as the place for mainstream music and lean-back consumption, and social as the spiritual home of fandom and the creator economy. In this report we will explore how today’s music business challenges are setting in motion a new, bifurcated business.

Bifurcation theory | How today’s music business will become two

Mark Mulligan

18 Apr 2024

Bifurcation

Bifurcation theory

future of music

One of things we pride ourselves on at MIDiA is helping the marketplace peer over the horizon with disruptive, forward-looking ideas and vision. We have a long track record of doing this (you can find a list of report links at the bottom of this post).

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Litigation versus innovation-treading the IP tightrope in the AI era

Tim Mulligan

17 Apr 2024

OpenAI

AI

New York times

The year so far has been largely shaped by AI and perception of just how much it is poised to transform consumer lives. The primary focus has been on the technology and how it may be applied. However, the emerging legal framework around which the AI ecosystem will operate is equally important.

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Gamers' time
Where it is and how to get it

Karol Severin

April 2024

Business Strategy

Product Strategy

With the attention economy saturated, there is next to no incremental entertainment time up for grabs. This comes precisely at a time when more games depend on growing time spent. As games are only the fifth most consumed entertainment activity among PC and console gamers, the path for games to meaningfully grow time spent is to absorb consumers’ time spent on other entertainment formats.

What podcast slowdown? 1.2 billion people will be listening by 2030

Rutger Rosenborg

11 Apr 2024

Podcasts

spotify podcasts

Spotify

Is podcasting slowing or growing? Both, as it turns out. With marketing and advertising budget cuts contributing to layoffs and cancellations at major podcasting players like Spotify and NPR, 2023 was an uncertain time for the podcast industry.

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Ideas are king in the land of AI video creation

Ben Woods

11 Apr 2024

Video creator tools

Creator economy

Social video

Those with doubts about the impact of AI on video creation should watch Air Head . The surrealist short film about a man with a balloon for a head was pieced together using OpenAI’s Sora , the text-to-video tool that is fuelling fear and curiosity across Hollywood.

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Mainstreaming the metaverse
The Apple Vision Pro and entertainment’s opportunity

Cover image for Mainstreaming the metaverse

Tim Mulligan

April 2024

Business Strategy

The Q1 2024 US launch of the Apple Vision Pro virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR) device has reignited interest in the metaverse, a bus that has so far stubbornly refused to arrive. Apple’s intent is to deliver at-home immersive VR and AR experiences for affluent but mainstream consumers.

The rise of the IP bank

Tim Mulligan

10 Apr 2024

IP Bank

IP)

metaverse

Post-lockdown saw the rise of media fusion into mainstream media formats, with games titles such as The Last of Us being made into episodic TV series. This followed the metaverse V1 experiences of live streamed music concerts from the likes of Travis Scott and Marshmello in Epic Game’s Fortnite .

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Steam is the unlikely winner of the modern console wars – for now

Rhys Elliott

4 Apr 2024

Xbox

playstation 5

Sony

Thanks to console manufacturers and third-party publishers moving content to Steam, Valve now boasts one of the most diverse AAA offerings on the market, benefitting from new strategies adopted by Xbox and PlayStation.

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Spotify wants to make podcasts a marketing driver for music

Rutger Rosenborg

4 Apr 2024

Podcasts

Music streaming

music industry

Last summer, Variety published an article about the effect Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast has on boosting the streams of her musician guests . According to Spotify, Anitta’s streams increased by 155%, Madison Beer’s by 130%, John Legend’s by 200%, and John Mayer’s by 350% after each artist appeared on Cooper’s show.

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Disney’s IP bank is its ultimate superpower which it needs to double down on investing in hybrid IRL success

Tim Mulligan

4 Apr 2024

Disney

ar

VR

Disney’s annual shareholder meeting has confirmed that its management team, led by streaming and IP visionary Bob Iger, remains firmly in control of the media major’s destiny by thwarting Nelson Peltz’s push to acquire a board seat.

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Take-Two acquires Gearbox as cross entertainment synergies ramp up

Karol Severin

28 Mar 2024

take two interactive

gearbox

embracer

We have barely made it to the end of the first calendar quarter of 2024 and MIDiA’s prediction about a $100 million+ acquisition in the games industry has panned out. Take-Two Interactive (Take-Two) is acquiring The Gearbox Entertainment Company from Embracer for $460 million, paid with common stock.

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AI could enable a golden age of audio piracy

Rutger Rosenborg

28 Mar 2024

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Spotify

Everyone knows the story: In the early 2000s, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing platforms like Napster, Kazaa, and LimeWire helped digital music piracy proliferate, ultimately decimating recorded music revenue for years.

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