gen z

Cover image for What gamers really think about gen AI in games

What gamers really think about gen AI in games
Apathy, not outrage

Rhys Elliott

23 Dec 2024

Audience Insight

Game development budgets have spiralled out of control, leading game executives to cut costs and streamline their game development processes. It is no secret that generative AI (gen AI) is the tech industry’s current buzzword, but its potential is still disputed despite the hype.

Music is losing a generation of young men

Kriss Thakrar

31 Mar 2025

Music Social media Entertainment

Key insights from this blog: Netflix’s hit Adolescence has renewed conversation around the radicalisation of young men, particularly in online spaces MIDiA’s research highlights that all entertainment is becoming increasingly gendered, with social media platforms displaying a growing gender gap ...

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Gen AI music platforms are niche among consumers — is being too easy the problem?

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Jun 2024

artificial intelligence Generative AI udio

We all know how hype cycles work: a new technological advancement arrives, and industries rush to apply it to anything and everything. In these situations, it is useful to ask: What problem or need is this technology actually addressing? Usually, the answer is where the real opportunity lies (or, de...

Cover image for Gen AI music platforms are niche among consumers — is being *too* easy the problem?

The ARIA Awards 2025: Why can’t we all just get along?

Laura Fisher

20 May 2025

Cultural trends Audio Podcasts

As someone with both a professional and personal obsession with all things audio, since the ceremony on the 14th of May, my LinkedIn feed has been unsurprisingly saturated with content about the ARIAs.

Cover image for The ARIA Awards 2025: Why can’t we all just get along?

The paradox of scale and success: What music can learn from gin distilleries

Hanna Kahlert

14 May 2025

Business Strategy Music Marketing

The digital world is becoming less reliable. Platforms are flooded with AI content ranging from banal, to amusing, to concerningly incorrect . Advertising crowds the feed alongside creators desperately trying to sell something: themselves, a lifestyle, products, businesses.

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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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Calling all audio creators: Shape the future of the industry and get a chance to win $100!

Laura Fisher

27 Aug 2025

Audience Insight Audio survey

Take the MIDiA research 2025 Audio Creator survey and have your voice heard. MIDiA Research has long been known for its music creator surveys – and even its video creator surveys. But this year, for the first time ever, we’re turning the spotlight on audio creators with our brand-new 2025 Audio ...

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Cover image for Gamers' time

Gamers' time
Where it is and how to get it

Karol Severin

16 Apr 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’...

How big can music merch get? MIDiA’s latest report charts the course to $16B by 2030

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Oct 2024

music merchandise monetising fandom Superfans

Over the weekend, Billie Eilish launched a pop-up merchandise shop in SoHo, New York, where fans could choose from items like a $20 pair of shoelaces, $30 belt, $30 necktie, and $60 necklace. Partnered with American Express , the experience, which previously opened in Tokyo, also included a photoboo...

Cover image for How big can music merch get? MIDiA’s latest report charts the course to $16B by 2030

Cover image for Social as the home of online scenes

Social as the home of online scenes
Going beyond viral moments

Hanna Kahlert

14 Aug 2025

Creators Creators France

In a fragmented digital environment, scenes are becoming important tools for connecting with and mobilising fans. Social platforms can be useful for finding, understanding, and engaging with scenes. However, not all social moments are created equal. This report reveals how social is only part of the bigger picture, and dives deep to show that the c...

Spotify and Emma Chamberlain kick off new era of gen Z podcasts

Annie Langston

30 Nov 2022

Spotify Gen Z Podcasts

Spotify has already begun its pursuit of gen Z on the music side, and now is doing the same for podcasts. Emma Chamberlain, the 21-year-old YouTuber and coffee company owner, has signed an exclusive podcast deal with Spotify.

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The digital generation wants to go offline: the roots of an analogue revival

Hanna Kahlert

17 Sep 2024

analogue Vinyl Social

In March of 2020, the world went largely virtual. With no way to go out and live normal day-to-day lives in the physical sense, the digital world took over – from Zoom calls with family members to social storms around Netflix shows, replacing the workplace ‘watercooler moment’.

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Cover image for Creators and the creator economy

Creators and the creator economy
Defining the undefinable

Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert and Ben Woods

24 Jan 2025

Creators Cultural trends Creator economy

20 years since the launch of YouTube, the creator economy is not new – but it lacks a single clear definition. Different interest groups who interact with it all have their perspectives, but this lack of consistency can result in misunderstandings at best and strategic missteps at worst.

We need ‘real’ artists for the return to reality

Kriss Thakrar

1 May 2024

Algorithms TikTok Gen Z

The big theme of MIDiA’s 2024 predictions is that ‘ the algorithm is not listening ’. A third of the way into the year, we are seeing more and more evidence that this is the case. The past few years have seen social media feeds become hyper-personalised to the point where algorithms now know u...

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Spotify’s Q2 podcast financials: Things may get worse before they get better

Annie Langston

2 Aug 2023

Spotify Podcasts Exclusive

Spotify’s Q2 earnings are a mixed bag for its podcast business. On one hand, monthly active users (MAUs) grew to 551 million, with 10 million new premium subscribers (bringing that total to 220 million), while podcast advertising revenue rose by 30% year-over-year.

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Paramount’s marketing for the new Mean Girls movie was totally fetch, but like, did it pay off?

Ashleigh Millar

18 Jan 2024

musicals Mean Girls TikTok

It’s official: the Mean Girls 2024 movie is the new Regina George of cinema (for now), topping last weekend’s US box office by bringing in $28 million, raising to $32 million on Martin Luther King Jr.

Cover image for Paramount’s marketing for the new Mean Girls movie was totally fetch, but like, did it pay off?

Cutting through the clutter: why an analogue revival is inevitable

Hanna Kahlert

9 May 2024

AI Digital analogue

The jury is very much still out on generative AI and its copyright obligations. Yet the Pandora’s box of AI-generated content has already been opened, and there is no going back. For a world which has become almost entirely reliant on digital content– be it song mp3s or job applications – the ...

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Spotify is courting gen Z, but is it enough?

Tatiana Cirisano

13 Jul 2022

Music streaming Spotify Fandom

Spotify just made its first games acquisition by snapping up Heardle , a popular online game where players compete to guess a song by its opening notes. Heardle will remain a standalone website for now, although Spotify says it plans to integrate Heardle “more fully” into its app.

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Why the AI boom will boost non-Western markets

Hanna Kahlert

22 Jul 2025

Cultural trends AI gen AI

AI is now intertwined with all the internet has to offer – be it generated memes, AI music, or (somewhat) helpful chatbots. Seemingly, no proposition can go free of generative embellishment. Yet as Gen AI proliferates, something is becoming increasingly clear: content written with AI assistance of...

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Cover image for International success for local language artists

International success for local language artists
A strategic playbook

Laura Fisher

24 Jun 2025

UK France Spotify

The music industry is undergoing a paradigm shift. Success once required artists to fit the traditional industry model where anglicisation and relocation to traditional hubs like Los Angeles, New York, or London were prerequisites. Streaming platforms have democratised access, enabling artists to achieve international fame while remaining culturall...

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