Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

The creator economy’s post-lockdown growth

Mark Mulligan

6 Oct 2022

The Covid pandemic created a unique catalyst for the music creator economy. More time on hands and more cash in pockets gave novices and veterans alike the opportunity to spend both more time and money making music.

min read

How can entertainment reintroduce scarcity in a time of attention over-saturation?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Oct 2022

scarcity

Entertainment

Music

Spoiler alert, to the disappointment of some: it is not going to be NFTs. Scarcity, real or artificial, is what drives value. The diamond industry is perhaps the most obvious example of managed scarcity driving high-margin revenues .

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The shift indoors
Entertainment audiences’ search for the affordable and the meaningful

Hanna Kahlert

September 2022

Apple TV

Netflix

Disney

The Covid-19 entertainment boom is over; we are now in a highly competitive attention recession characterised largely by the attention inflation driven from accelerating rates of multitasking. This is compounded by serious global events and a cost-of-living crisis which will reduce the money audiences have available to spend on digital entertainment.

State of the music creator economy
Post-lockdown growth

Cover image for State of the music creator economy

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

September 2022

Apple

Spotify

live

The Covid pandemic created a unique catalyst for the music creator economy. More time on hands and more cash in pockets gave novices and veterans alike the opportunity to spend both more time and money making music. Though the pandemic was a peak, it also marked the start of a new era for the music creator economy across every one of its aspects, from revenue to creation to remuneration.

Time to jump off the algorithm highway

Mark Mulligan

30 Sep 2022

Music

Cultural trends

Marketing Strategy

Life is perpetual change, so it is perhaps overdoing it to suggest that the music business is at a cultural pivot point. Yet, what comes next has the potential to be looked at, years from now, as a dividing line between before and after.

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Games’ cultural role in the 2020s

Karol Severin

September 2022

Epic Games

Cultural trends

Over time, games have carved out their role from the cultural fringes, through tobecoming a firmly established part of digital-consumer culture. Now, they have the opportunity to become theepicentreof digital culture. To do so, gaming needs (and has already started) to evolve from a standalone pastime towards a destination for all other forms of entertainment.

What happens when the “relentless toll” of the music industry meets the creator economy in a cost-of-living crisis?

Hanna Kahlert

29 Sep 2022

underground

cost-of-living

Music

The music industry is in a cultural crisis. It is more demanding than ever to be a successful artist, with the work required to meet the demands of social algorithms and to cut through the clutter being more competitive than ever, in addition to touring being hit hugely by the pandemic lockdown and now by a cost-of-living crisis limiting fans’ ability to attend real-life concerts.

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The cost-of-living crisis will give rise to a new and powerful underground scene

Hanna Kahlert

21 Sep 2022

underground

recession

cost-of-living crisis

At this point, everyone – in entertainment and beyond – should be planning for a difficult financial winter. According to the Financial Times , an emergency government scheme capping energy bills has just been launched in the UK, which ministers “hope will prevent a wave of corporate collapse”.

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WMG is moving beyond superstars – and that is a good thing

Mark Mulligan

16 Sep 2022

Fandom

fragmented fandom

Streaming

Warner Music Group’s ( WMG’s) Steve Cooper recently stated that the major is no longer financially dependent on superstars – which is, of course, quite a different thing from not being culturally dependent on them, but we’ll get to that.

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What Gamescom and PAX West tell us about games’ cultural relevance in the 2020s

Karol Severin

15 Sep 2022

conference

events

cultural insight

Over the last few weeks, I had the opportunity to present at both Gamescom in Cologne, and PAX West in Seattle. It has been a few years since I visited Gamescom. Back then, I wrote about how gaming has fully established itself as a cultural phenomenon and was edging towards the mainstream.

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Games-video crossovers are coming of age

Samuel Griffin

8 Sep 2022

games video

Entertainment

Music discovery

Video and games crossover content is becoming mainstream. The Emmy winning Arcane, a live action remake of The Last of Us, indicated that games-inspired video is trailblazing at the core of entertainment fandom.

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"The meme made me do it": Why consumption often has nothing to do with what is being consumed

Hanna Kahlert

7 Sep 2022

meme

morbius

gentleminions

The powerhouse cast and director of Don’t Worry Darling gathered for the film’s premier this week in Venice, enjoying a five-minute standing ovation and critically acclaimed reviews. In the words of lead actor Harry Styles himself , “like, it feels like a movie.

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The cost-of-living crisis is here; it just has not hit entertainment yet

Hanna Kahlert

31 Aug 2022

recession

cost-of-living

Entertainment

The attention crunch in the wake of ended lockdowns and resumption of ‘in real life’ (IRL) activities has not been as pronounced as feared. Hints of it have been visible in the drop in Netflix subscriptions in Q1 of this year, which was also attributed to the war in Ukraine and banning of Russian accounts.

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Andrew Tate, the manosphere and social media platform responsibility

Ashleigh Millar

30 Aug 2022

andrew tate

hunter moore

manosphere

Millennials among us may remember Hunter Moore, a man that Rolling Stone aptly named “the most hated man on the internet” , and who is now the subject of Netflix’s recent documentary series of the same title.

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This is not a blip

Mark Mulligan

26 Aug 2022

attention recession

recession

recession impact

When change happens it often takes the perspective of looking back years, or even decades, later to appreciate just how meaningful that change was. Other times, it happens so fast that it can be difficult to appreciate its magnitude because people become desensitised to the perpetual torrent of bad news.

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Hate-watching: The rise of contextual consumption

Hanna Kahlert

24 Aug 2022

binge -viewing

hate watching

Netflix

In the over-saturated entertainment ecosystem , attention is the name of the game. All propositions are competing for the most focused attention, striving for more dynamic engagement , and trying to find and monetise superfans for all that they are worth.

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If the cultural ‘in’ cycle is speeding up, what will sustain entertainment?

Hanna Kahlert

19 Aug 2022

Entertainment

Cultural trends

attention recession

When the first season of Stranger Things entered the zeitgeist in 2016, its set, soundtrack, and all-around vibes fit perfectly with the 80’s cultural revival of the time. Americana ‘hipster’ was out, and retro was in; neon clothes took over the streets and House beats dominated the airwaves.

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Re-creating the creator economy

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston and Richard Broadhurst

August 2022

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Streaming first democratised the means of consumption, then distribution, and now production. Though the promise of the long tail may not have materialised quite as expected, long-tail and mid-tail creators are now a central component of the digital-entertainment economy.

Re-creating the creator economy

Mark Mulligan

18 Aug 2022

Creator economy

Creators

creator economics

Everyone is a creator! Or so goes the dismissive put down of many a traditional media executive when talking about the creator economy. But regardless of what your perspective on the creator economy might be, there is no denying its meteoric rise.

min read

Has the NFT and crypto hype met its match in an IRL cost-of-living crisis?

Hanna Kahlert

10 Aug 2022

crypto

etherium

NFT

Where have all the NFTs gone? Nine months ago, you could not go twenty minutes in the industry without hearing the term. The concept was intriguing, nebulous – a potential answer to the disquiet of a digital-entertainment industry seeking new clarity on the concepts of ownership and value in a streaming-first market, with audiences prioritising access over ownership.

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