merch

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Beyond the screen
How and why gaming merch and collectibles fuel fandom

Brandon Sutton

3 Sep 2025

Marketing Digital Fandom

The physical gaming merchandise and collectibles market is a multibillion-dollar industry that serves as both organic marketing and a way to strengthen community engagement. However, the space has grown increasingly complex due to a surge in fan-made merch, a crowded field of game properties, and economic pressures like the rising cost of living.

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...

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Data Explorer

Sony Music Entertainment - Merch and other revenue

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Music merchandise demand
Who, what, and where

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Oct 2024

Consumer behaviour cds Spotify

The music merchandise market has transformed, with significantly more artists selling merch and more product variety than ever before. The traditional line between “hard” and “soft” merch is blurring as new generations buy vinyl as a collectible keepsake, rather than a consumption format.

Cover image for The state and future of music fandom

The state and future of music fandom
Unleashing fan creativity

Tatiana Cirisano

21 Aug 2023

Spotify YouTube SoundCloud

Streaming is buckling under the weight of new music being released every day, listenership is fragmenting, and artificial intelligence is poised to intensify these challenges. The music industry’s next era of growth lies in monetising fandom, not consumption.

Recorded music market 2024: $36.2 billion, up 6.5%

Mark Mulligan

13 Mar 2025

Music Recorded music Business Strategy

MIDiA has just released its annual recorded music market shares report. Clients can access the full report and the accompanying massive (!) data set here . For the rest of you, here are some highlights from the report.

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Are we reaching peak fandom?

Mark Mulligan

1 May 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Music

With streaming revenue growth slowing to 6.2% in 2024, the recorded music industry’s attention is firmly fixed on superfans as the ‘get out of jail free’ card. The growing sophistication of artist merch has reached the stage where fans can buy Taylor Swift fashion bags and shop her jewelry ran...

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Global Merchandise Market to Hit $16.3 Billion by 2030 — But Annual Growth Slows to 1.6%

Tsion Tadesse

24 Oct 2024

Music

London - Oct. 24, 2024 — The global merchandise market, encompassing both digital and physical merchandise as well as physical music, is forecasted to grow to $16.3 billion by 2030, according to a new study by MIDiA Research titled “Music merchandise demand” .

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The music business is splitting in two. Here’s why songwriters are reinventing their role

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Jul 2025

Business Strategy music industry songwriters

When systems fail, there are two options: try to fix what is broken, or build something new. In our ’s landmark ‘bifurcation theory’ report , MIDiA pinpointed a new class of music creators taking the latter path.

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How economic volatility will impact US labels’ fandom monetisation push

Olivia Jones

25 Apr 2025

Business Strategy Music US

It has been an eventful few weeks for the global economy, to put it mildly. Since President Trump’s initial announcement calling for a universal baseline tariff on foreign imports to the US at the beginning of this month, global financial markets have been in flux, affecting nearly every sector fr...

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Leveraging anime
A nuanced scene not a genre

Ben Woods

30 Apr 2025

Netflix Content Entertainment

Engaging younger audiences remains the entertainment industry’s biggest challenge. However, Japanese anime is achieving this by growing penetration with each new generation of consumers. Key to this success is its ability to dovetail with the fragmented nature of modern entertainment consumption to reach consumers in their scenes.

RIIZE: When listening to superfans goes too far

Olivia Jones

19 Dec 2024

Music Fandom SM Entertainment

Many record labels have spent 2024 trying to capitalise on the power of superfans , inspired by the global success of Korean entertainment companies. However, the recent scandal involving Seunghan, a member of the K-pop group RIIZE, and their label SM Entertainment, prompts questions about whether c...

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Fandom as a multi-layered experience

Laura Fisher

6 Aug 2025

Fandom Engagement Attention

In today’s hyper-connected digital landscape, fandom is often misunderstood as a static identity, a label adopted after buying a concert ticket or streaming an album. This passive view misses the essence of what makes fandom so compelling.

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Cover image for Music discovery snapshot Q4 2024

Music discovery snapshot Q4 2024
Breaking through the noise

Olivia Jones

20 Mar 2025

Streaming Marketing Artists

Breaking through the noise is more important than ever for artists. As passive listening grows, facilitating active discovery has become a challenge. On top of this, the way consumers discover music is changing (and fragmenting) as streaming plays a weaker role in music discovery, overshadowed by YouTube and social media for younger consumers.

Cover image for The superfans of music superstars

The superfans of music superstars
Identity and cut-through

Olivia Jones

17 Feb 2025

Labels US Artists

Fandom is becoming the music industry’s golden goose, with labels focusing on building and monetising superfan bases for their top artists. However, superfan behaviours are changing in response to oversaturation and hyper-fragmentation. What once worked for measuring and monetising fandom will not work the same in the future.

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Pixels to playlists
Music preferences and behaviours of gamers

Rhys Elliott

28 Mar 2025

Innovation Labels US

The global games industry is a $236.9 billion behemoth. It now rivals film, television, and music combined in terms of revenues and is a cultural driver. Yet, for music companies, labels, and platforms, gaming represents more than a parallel market: it is agateway to the world’s most engaged, tech-savvy, and monetisable audience.

Why fandom’s ‘more is more’ era could backfire

Olivia Jones

9 Jul 2025

Marketing Strategy Fandom Social media

‘Less is more’ has long been a pillar of entertainment marketing strategy, promoting the importance of quality over quantity. However, in the past decade, the new phrase has effectively become “more is more” as all forms of entertainment push to release as much content as possible, as often ...

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Karra, bifurcation, and YouTube’s gain

Mark Mulligan

8 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Streaming Music

A couple of weeks ago, electronic music artist Karra posted a video on YouTube about why she took her album down from streaming (one that she spent $100,000 making). She is now going to focus her efforts on YouTube (“an incredible platform for [her] artistry”), as well as selling content to musi...

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Bootlegging is the scourge of many industries. Could it be music’s greatest strength?

Tatiana Cirisano

7 Feb 2025

Fandom Streaming Music

The word “bootleg” has long left a bad taste in brands’ mouths. Quite literally defined as “illicit goods,” these unauthorised versions or replications of clothes, handbags, concert tees, and other items have long plagued brands.

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Nintendo’s earnings highlight Mario's unfaltering popularity, despite the Switch running out of steam

Rhys Elliott

6 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Games super mario

Nintendo released its nine-month earnings ending December 31, 2024. Its revenues were $6.1 billion, dropping 31.4% year on year, with: Nintendo’s dedicated platforms (hardware, software, subscriptions, and accessories) accounting for 94.

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