Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

The industry’s narrative is not always the same as the artist's narrative: Redefining success for independent artists

Keith Jopling

6 Mar 2023

Last weekend, there was a fascinating quote from Maseo of hip hop legends De La Soul in the UK Guardian: “On our second album, we learned the importance of controlling the narrative. I learned early...

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The way AI isn’t used will have a bigger impact on music than how it is used

Kriss Thakrar

2 Mar 2023

artificial intelligence

creator tools

Fandom

One of the most immediate disruptions of ChatGPT has been in the SEO world. Writing content for Google rankings can be a largely formulaic process of finding and incorporating the right keywords. With...

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Podcasts and radio
How radio can play by its own rules

Annie Langston

March 2023

Spotify

live

Radio

Radio set the stage for music streaming and podcasts, only to watch them take portions of its audience. However, there is a clear opportunity for radio companies to assert themselves in the podcast market,...

Is the quality of games going down?

Perry Gresham

24 Feb 2023

trueachievements

xbox

gamer behavior

“Things aren’t like they used to be”, a common refrain of anyone over the age of about 25, is a sentiment especially prevalent amongst gamers today. Is this blind nostalgia, or have games really...

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Peak talent is here for streaming TV

Tim Mulligan

2 Feb 2023

Online video

acting talent

streaming TV talent

Last week, MIDiA covered the HBO phenomenon The Last of Us . Following in the footsteps of other successful games crossovers such as the Netflix Original The Witcher , The Last of Us is HBOs’ pitch at...

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Kill the campaign
Music marketing needs branding, not direct response

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

February 2023

Streaming

Spotify

Marketing

The debate over a new streaming royalties regime is capturing attention, but economics will not fix the underlying paradigm shifts that are the true cause for streaming’s problems: there is not enough...

The metaverse transition: Fortnite

Sam Griffin

19 Jan 2023

Fortnite

gaming

Unreal Engine

The metaverse transition: Fortnite Unreal Engine has been at the bleeding edge of digital development since its release, being fundamental to the development of household titles such as The Witcher ,...

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What comes next in the music streaming model makeover

Tatiana Cirisano

17 Jan 2023

Music Streaming

Major labels

independent artists

The independent music community has been rallying for change to the streaming payment model for years. Now, major labels are joining the chorus. Why? The pro-rata model has long benefited bigger record...

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YouTube’s one-stop shop offers a salvation to creator burn-out

Ben Woods

12 Jan 2023

Creator Economy

social video

YouTube

A popular YouTube channel offering tips for fledgling creators made a surprising admission recently. After amassing nearly 200,000 YouTube subscribers around its “how-to guides” for live streamers,...

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Music discovery in 2023 is about the journey, not the moment

Tatiana Cirisano

12 Jan 2023

Music Streaming

Spotify

TikTok

Oversaturation was among the hottest music industry topics of 2022. By now, we have all read — and maybe gasped at — the recent estimate that more than 100,000 new songs hit streaming services daily....

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Why TV is at risk of losing its cultural value

Hanna Kahlert

21 Dec 2022

Fandom

tv shows

Warner Bros Discovery

Humans have been telling stories since they first looked at the sky and decided that clusters of stars resembled scorpions and centaurs. Storytelling is intrinsic to culture. It builds relationships, religions,...

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Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Ben Woods

20 Dec 2022

Twitch

live streaming

Fandom

When Twitch influencer Freckled Science wanted to puncture the falsehoods surrounding the beauty industry, she patched in Dr. Michelle Wong for a live interview . The co-stream, incorporating the feeds...

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Party in the front, business in the back: Why Apple Music Sing is so savvy

Tatiana Cirisano

13 Dec 2022

karaoke

Fandom

Music Streaming

Streaming services are increasingly taking steps to diversify their offerings , and the latest example came last week from Apple Music. Just in time for holiday sing-a-longs, the service introduced a new,...

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Welcome to the Metaverse, where audience fragmentation reigns

Ben Woods

8 Dec 2022

metaverse

SVOD Services

social video

In Ernest Cline’s dystopian novel Ready Player One , the metaverse unfurls as a virtual universe where choice over identity and experience are boundless. Such is the seamless experience of Cline’s...

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How touring pits artists against their own fans

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Dec 2022

live music

touring

pandemic

The live music industry is now facing the reckoning we predicted last spring, as it is increasingly clear that touring is not financially sustainable for most artists, while superstars are facing backlash...

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What Elon's Twitter means for music

Tatiana Cirisano

29 Nov 2022

social media

twitter

Content Creators

When we wrote about Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter back in April, the idea that it would actually happen seemed far-fetched. Now, of course, Musk really is in charge, and the fate of the social platform,...

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Why the launch of Artists’ Equity and the return of Bob Iger are both driven by fandom

Tim Mulligan

24 Nov 2022

Artists’ Equity

Ben Affleck

Matt Damon

On Sunday, the New York Times broke the story that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are launching a new production company called Artists’ Equity. The production venture is backed by RedBird Capital Partners...

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Can esports organisations allocate resources more effectively to unlock growth?

Sam Griffin

4 Nov 2022

esports

esports audiences

Esports organisations

Esports events bring thousands of viewers from around the world into a shared space. Despite being major spectacles, these events are often a high-risk high-reward opportunity for esports organisations....

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The cost of music streaming just went up — here is what must come next

Tatiana Cirisano

3 Nov 2022

Music Streaming

music industry

apple music

It is finally happening. Apple Music raised its music streaming subscription price for the first time ever, following price rises from the likes of YouTube and Deezer, and Spotify indicates that it will...

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Meghan Trainor vs. Sam Smith: Newsflash, authentic(ish) marketing is ‘in’

Ashleigh Millar

2 Nov 2022

Music

Media and Marketing

Meghan Trainor

If you have found yourself of TikTok over the last month, you will have most likely been inundated with Sam Smith ‘Unholy’ and Meghan Trainor ‘Made You Look’ content. The two artists made TikTok...

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