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Cover image for The State of the Video Creator Economy

The State of the Video Creator Economy
The road to one billion creators

Ben Woods and Mark Qi

21 Oct 2025

Creators Content advertising

The video creator economy is entering a new stage of its development. Time spent creating content has plateaued, and key drivers behind the pandemic’s content creation boom are weakening. Growth now depends on AI tools to bring more first-time creators into the funnel and alleviate pain points blocking video creator progression.

Cover image for Beyond the screen

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.

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The new Hollywood
Tactics for YouTube’s TV takeover

Ben Woods

26 Aug 2025

Creators Streaming YouTube

YouTube is consolidating its takeover of the living room TV set. What began in the US is now becoming a global phenomenon. With younger audiences increasingly spending more time watching social video on the TV, broadcasters and streaming TV services must find a way to respond.

Cover image for Beyond the hype

Beyond the hype
AI music creation in 2025

Ben Woods

3 Jul 2025

Creators France Australia

Generative AI tools are forging a new type of creator and shifting music creator workflows. While creators and consumers alike are interested in AI tools as they emerge, converting users is still an evident challenge. Music fandom has its foot in the door to increasing AI-assisted consumer creation and could pave the way for niche AI tools.

Cover image for The fandom eclipse

The fandom eclipse
How fan content is competing with IP

Tatiana Cirisano and Ben Woods

25 Jun 2025

superfan YouTube Netflix

Fan-made content is evolving from a support act to a fully-fledged competitor to entertainment IP. This is creating tension between IP holders and the fan community. Both parties want the IP they love to thrive in a saturated entertainment landscape. This report will unpack whether entertainment IP holders should view fan content creation as an opp...

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Flipping the script
Game IP transmedia needs to evolve

Rhys Elliott

9 May 2025

Amazon Netflix Xbox

The entertainment landscape is changing. As superhero fatigue sets in, game IP is now dominating screens, from HBO’s The Last of Us to the Minecraft movie. Unlike movie trends (Westerns, superhero movies), the game-to-movie trend is here to stay, as the games market is a cross-genre treasure trove of beloved IP and fandom, with new IP arriving fr...

Cover image for The audio creator opportunity

The audio creator opportunity
Audio creator behaviours and monetisation potential

Rutger Rosenborg

14 Mar 2025

Creators Subscriptions Spotify

Historically, YouTubers and TikTok influencers have received the lion’s share of mainstream attention as a creator class – but audio creators are increasingly active on the same digital platforms and operating within the same formats. As a result, the audio creator has become a jack of all trades, moving between copyediting, audio editing, and ...

Cover image for How the Bloodborne community filled the void with fan-made content

How the Bloodborne community filled the void with fan-made content

Ben Woods and Tatiana Cirisano

25 Jun 2025

Content Business Strategy Community

Bloodborne has built a deep and committed fanbase since it was released exclusively on PlayStation 4 in 2015. Despite a decade passing since, the action role playing game has remained the subject of intense speculation of what its next iteration will be.

Cover image for The future of music streaming

The future of music streaming
Change or be changed

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

13 Oct 2025

Streaming Music streaming Business Strategy

This report presents MIDiA’s vision for the long-term future of music streaming. While there are clearly pressing, near-term priorities, these are sustaining innovations aimed at optimising the existing model. In this report, we shift perspectives to the long view, identifying the challenges of today that must be met in order to secure a vibrant ...

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The future of creator apps
Fuelling engagement with fandom

Ben Woods

29 Jul 2025

Creators Spotify Artists

The AI boom has unleashed a wave of creator tools, but some are struggling to make the transition from interesting and experimental to compulsive and essential. Fandom offers a solution by tying creation to a consumer’s personal passion, appetite for community engagement and a desire to have a stake in the entertainment they love.

Cover image for The future of (US) TikTok

The future of (US) TikTok
Implications for the social marketplace

Hanna Kahlert

16 Apr 2025

Social Business Strategy TikTok

TikTok has played a significant role in digital culture over the last five years, driven largely by pandemic-era adoption and knock-on effects. From marketing strategies to viral trends, it has become inextricable from Gen Z culture. Yet it now faces risk of disruption in the US and possibly beyond as a result.

Cover image for Scenes are the new markets

Scenes are the new markets
Why and how entertainment should go niche

Tatiana Cirisano

6 Mar 2025

Marketing monetisation Entertainment

In 2022, MIDiA introduced scenes as a new lens for marketing music. This report expands on the concept, reintroducing scenes – groups of people whose shared interests, aesthetics, values, behaviours, and vernacular have coalesced into a shared lifestyle – as a wider business strategy reset for all of entertainment.

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.

Cover image for The state of the video creator economy

The state of the video creator economy
Creativity in a streamlined world

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Ben Woods

11 Jul 2024

Business Strategy Creator economy

The video creator tools industry is primed for turbo-charged growth as artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates the consumerisation of creation. While the opportunity is significant, a considered approach is needed to ensure AI elevates the creator economy’s success at turning passive consumers into monetisable creators.

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.

Cover image for The single-player opportunity

The single-player opportunity
Course correcting from a red to blue ocean

Rhys Elliott

30 Sep 2024

YouTube Netflix Xbox

The AAA PC and console games market is facing growth issues, money is more expensive, and developers are facing pressure to become leaner, more profitable, and take fewer risks. Many game makers, including those that found initial success in single player, have been chasing the live-service trend.

Cover image for The future of creator software

The future of creator software
Maximising AI’s engagement opportunity

Ben Woods

29 Nov 2024

Product Strategy

Artificial intelligence is revolutionising creator software to make it easier for those with little or no skill to produce high-quality content. These innovations are proving highly disruptive to existing workflows meaning traditional creator tools will struggle unless they adapt and evolve.

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 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...

Cover image for The future of creator hardware

The future of creator hardware
AI’s new creative lane

Ben Woods

30 Oct 2024

Twitch Sony Microsoft

AI tools pose a risk to the hardware funnel by becoming the go-to toolkit for beginners and a substitute for recorded footage. With AI providing solutions at every stage of the video creator workflow, hardware must fight to justify its need. Especially because AI makes it easier for all creators to produce professional-grade content.

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