While North America and Europe are on a path towards authenticity (due to an authenticity crisis), with such trends as #definluencing and #dupes loudly and quickly gaining traction, social media users in Asia Pacific (APAC) have a growing focus on artificial “virtual” influencers (VI’s).| MIDiA Research
The digital revolution has created an increasingly fragmented TV landscape. Traditional Pay TV still clings to its old business model whilst Netflix and Amazon hammer on its door, wooing audiences and tempting both cord cutters and cord nevers with its headline grabbing content budgets and original commissioning.| MIDiA Research
Since its launch back in 2005, YouTube has dominated online video with an audience winning combination of user generated content and corporate short form content. While YouTube is more successful in terms of brand recognition and video views than it has ever been, it now faces real competition from video newcomers Facebook and Snapchat.| MIDiA Research
For two decades now, Steam has been one of the go-to digital game distributors, particularly for computer gamers and developers. Yet, its weekly active audience does not quite reflect a fully representative sample of computer gamers. Rather, Steam’s weekly active users (WAUs) are a specific niche of gamers, characterised by their demographics, ge...| MIDiA Research
Streaming personalisation and falling radio audiences are combining to rewrite the music marketing rulebook, ushering in a whole new marketing paradigm. Hits used to be cultural moments; artist brands built by traditional mass media. This fire-hydrant approach to marketing lacked both accountability and effective targeting.| MIDiA Research
Podcast advertising is one of the key income sources for both audio platforms and creators alike. Ad agencies and platforms must go ever deeper with targeting capabilities by learning more about the other entertainment habits of audio consumers. Social...| MIDiA Research
2022 was a tumultuous year for the global economy, with factors such as high rates of inflation, rising interest rates, a growing cost-of-living crisis, post-Covid supply chain issues, and the Russo-Ukrainian war causing economic dislocation.While the recorded music business was far less affected than many other industries, it was impacted, especia...| MIDiA Research
This report presents the key figures, trends and drivers of MIDiA’s music forecast model. The figures presented in this report are both retail and labeltrade values and are in billions of US dollars – unless otherwise stated. An Excel file posted alongside this report provides complete country-level data, including DSP market shares and a detai...| MIDiA Research
Headwinds are threatening the creator economy’s potential. Audience growth, social platform monetisation, and content saturation are creating friction that is leaving creators frustrated. Now, the red lights are flashing on the dashboard: the average weekly time consumers spend creating and producing content has fallen for the first time since 20...| MIDiA Research
A little over three years ago some of America’s most notable entertainment executives killed off an attempt to revolutionise smartphone entertainment. The ill-fated platform, spearheaded by former Walt Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and backed with a $2 billion war chest, was Quibi.| MIDiA Research
From chiptune melodies to full orchestral pieces, video games have featured memorable music that enriches and elevates gameplay for decades. Much like film scores, these tracks have long been an essential part of the gaming experience. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
On September 17, 2025, I had the pleasure of attending the Radio Academy Festival: World of Sound. Held in the splendid Royal College of Physicians in Regent’s Park, it felt apt to discuss the future of sound in such a hallowed hall of learning. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Meta Connect 2025 (September 17-18) went all out on glasses and AI, outlining an idealistic future –although brought down to earth throughout by bugs and “WIFI troubles” (per TechCrunch ). To align with the public announcements of upgrades, pricing, and new features, Meta has also been pushing... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Social media is king among Gen Z and may seem to act as a hotbed for viral hits. However, social media’s impact on music streams and fandom is not as strong as it appears. MIDiA’s new report All eyes, no ears | Why virality is not building fandom highlights where social media is lacking when it ... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
AI is presenting an existential threat to the video creator hardware market . Key to the disruption is the ability of AI video generators to enable creators to bypass cameras within the video creation workflow. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
A review of the video game releases from the past few years depicts a games landscape dominated by remakes, remasters, and sequels. From the perspective of the publishers, the appeal of this strategy is easy to understand. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
All things, it seems, must now revert to “social”. Netflix has announced a new “Clips” feature, where segments of episodes can be selected and shared on social media (per Engadget ). Spotify has added a social feature allowing users to directly message songs to each other. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Over the past five years, social video has crept its way into nearly every aspect of music, from talent scouting to new release marketing. But the buzz around these platforms often obscures a more complicated reality. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
“I hear it enough on social” is a common barrier to streaming music, particularly for 16-24 year-olds LONDON – 16 September, 2025 – MIDiA Research, the global authority in music, creator economy and cross-entertainment insights, today published “All eyes, No ears: Why virality is not build...| MIDiA Research
Over the last five years, labels and artists have invested in social media, betting that a steady stream of artist content and influencer campaigns will engineer virality. The theory is simple: virality leads to streams, streams lead to fandom, and fandom leads to long-term, sustainable artist careers.| MIDiA Research
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.| MIDiA Research
MIDiA Research empowers global entertainment companies to think differently. Our trusted data, forecasts, and creative insights reveal unique solutions across music, social, the creator economy and entertainment and fandom.| MIDiA Research
In any industry, the simple bits tend to be the most stable. For every ice cream, there’s the company that makes the sticks; for every book publisher, there’s the company selling the paper. By the same logic, in the midst of the AI boom, Nvidia – which manufactures chips that make the technolo... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Whether you work in the entertainment industry or not, you have almost certainly used the term superfan . It’s a ubiquitous label we apply to the most ardent audiences. It’s the fans who camp out for new releases, who own every variant of a vinyl, who drive viral moments, and whose identities ar... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
The video industry is in the middle of a substantial shift. The days of traditional entertainment and the creator economy occupying separate lanes are ending. Creators are expanding beyond social platforms to produce more premium content on SVOD services. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
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... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
KPop Demon Hunters has taken the world by storm. With 266 million all-time views (at time of writing), it is currently Netflix's most-watched film ever . That’s not to mention the success of its soundtrack – four songs from the film are in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 , with breakout hit “Gold... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Today’s most successful movies and television shows are video game adaptations. For those who remember the media landscape of the 1980s and 1990s, this represents a marked shift in the entertainment industry. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
It’s that time of year again, MIDiA’s independent label and distributor survey is now live and waiting for your contributions! Click here to take the survey. The annual survey is an opportunity for the global independent community to have its voice heard – and this year is one of the most impo... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
The gaming industry’s largest showcase, Gamescom, wrapped up on Sunday 24 August, and with over 350,000 attendees, it broke records to become the most attended event in its history. Serving as an annual barometer for the industry, Gamescom helps set expectations for the upcoming holiday season, wh... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
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 ... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Eras are defined by their moments. The 2000’s saw low-rise jeans, a neon palette, and pop star drama. The 2010’s had barn weddings and ‘Gangnam Style’. With time comes the benefit of hindsight, and clarity on what was big versus what faded quickly.| MIDiA Research
The rise of short-form video, and the resulting shift in value from music videos to music in videos, have upended the music video space. This report unpacks the growth of short-form, the resulting decline in YouTube weekly active user penetration, and the impact on both artist marketing and advertising revenue.| MIDiA Research
This report presents MIDiA consumer data for key music consumer behaviours and company financials for 2024. Consumer data covered includes, streaming app usage, music behaviour, and streaming activities. Company financials covers record labels, music publishers, DSPs, and live music companies.| MIDiA Research
Competition among social platforms is intensifying, with attention largely saturated and new regulations poised to upset the balance of power among incumbents. While growth is left in the overall market, it will largely be driven by YouTube and a cohort of smaller disruptor platforms – with fragmentation happening as these disruptors begin to eat...| MIDiA Research
The social marketplace has been growing – but attention is a finite resource, as is consumer time. As a result, audience attention is fragmenting across many different apps, with the biggest – YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok –still dominating.| MIDiA Research
In June 2025, MIDiA made a call that WEBTOON , the vertical scrolling digital comic app, could pose a greater challenge to anime’s leading subscription streaming service, Crunchyroll. The conclusion was made based on the potential for WEBTOON to deliver a more compelling in-app offer around video. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
This post builds on our January 2025 post ‘The unflattening of music’ which itself built on two previous pieces (you can find links to both in that post). Industries arrive at pivot points when an accumulation of fissures coalesce into one big crack. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
When Nintendo announced the Switch 2 would release this year, it had big shoes to fill. Its predecessor has become one of the best-selling consoles in history; surpassed only by the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS in total sales. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Too often, fans are categorised as one amorphous group. They can be lumped together regardless of their age, purchasing power, community engagement, or entertainment consumption behaviours. Fans are a diverse group and always have been. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Have you noticed how many festival lineups this summer feature the same handful of artists? I have, and, crucially, fans are noticing it too. Where festival billings once offered a window into a distinctive scene, today’s lineups are merging into a wave of homogenised big-name experiences. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Meta’s Instagram has begun rolling out a new ‘Maps’ feature, similar to Snapchat’s (but with added privacy concerns). It has also rolled out a new ‘friends’ tab on the Reels page, allowing users to see videos already liked by others they follow, seemingly weighted by the friends they int...| MIDiA Research
Social is an integral part of entertainment consumption This report presents key data and insights about the advanced overlaps between social behaviour (both on digital platforms and in real life) and entertainment consumption. It looks at data from nine markets, featuring segments of social platform users and the audiences of different forms of en...| MIDiA Research
Typically, the marketing team for a games company or TV show would not be thinking of audiobooks and podcast listeners as a key consumer segment to address. Yet, podcast and audiobook listeners are digitally sophisticated and spend more time and money than the consumer average on most forms of entertainment – including games, music, and video.| MIDiA Research
In March, on the heels of a Danish man becoming the first person convicted of streaming fraud, MIDiA explained how AI could soon enable a golden age of audio piracy . Coupled with the fact that book publishers have been reporting that AI-generated books are being published under their names or oddly...| MIDiA Research
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.| MIDiA Research
During its Q2 FY2025 earnings call, Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters announced plans to increase investment into its gaming division (via GameSpot ). At first glance, this move may seem surprising, given the company’s rocky experience in the gaming space so far. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Over the past few weeks, a growing list of indie bands have decided to leave Spotify, the most prominent being Deerhoof and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (a partial list has been compiled by Fader ). Source| MIDiA Research Blog
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. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Fandom is evolving into a more powerful force within entertainment. The value gap between what entertainment IP holders produce and what fans can create is narrowing fast. This has implications for audience engagement. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Two competing opinions landed in my inbox recently, both signalling a shift in late-night entertainment, but from entirely different perspectives. The first, from RainNews , argued that podcasts were replacing traditional late-night TV. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
More parties than ever are becoming frustrated with streaming. For evenmany successful artists, streaming is a minority income stream, as fandom-related endeavours like live performances, merchandise, and brand deals prove to be more lucrative. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Critically acclaimed, financially dominant, and still hyper-relevant more than a decade after its last release, the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series sits at the summit of the video game industry. Given this sustained success, it is no surprise that anticipation is high for the next instalment in the se... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Drake’s new single ‘Which One’, featuring Central Cee dropped on July 25, 2025 –not abnormal. Less normal: he launched it with no warning halfway through a 41-minute episode of Iceman , a YouTube series he is streaming in advance of his album of the same name. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Over the past decade, digital sales have become the primary way gamers purchase video games. With this shift comes a series of growing pains that often puts gamers at odds with publishers. One particularly contentious issue is digital ownership and consumer rights; topics gaining renewed attention t... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Much of the traditional entertainment world is now working with creators. In fact, many of these companies have long-standing creator strategies when it comes to marketing. Whether it is a movie launch, a new TV series, video game, or album release, these businesses have a strong handle on which cre...| MIDiA Research
This report presents MIDiA consumer entertainment data across media, music, audio, and games. Key data and insights: Time spent weekly active users (by format platform)for streaming music, podcasts, social &nbs...| MIDiA Research
This report presents MIDiA consumer data for key music behaviours of French consumers. Key data and insights in this report: Monthly music behaviours of French consumers Listening habits French consumers, monthly, weekly, and &n...| MIDiA Research
Brazil’s large, youthful population has fully embraced streaming. It is now the country’s top consumption format and the source of of its recorded music revenue. This is helping Brazilians’ strong connection to music reach across borders, with the Brazilian funk genre and artists like Anitta becoming global sensations.| MIDiA Research
After a buoyant 2023, recorded music revenue growth slowed again in 2024, the fourth year of alternating growth rates. It was a year of varied fortunes across both formats and labels, but perhaps most crucially of all, a growing divergence between label streaming growth and DSP growth.| MIDiA Research
The video creator software market is evolving fast. AI tools are carving out new workflows, and the democratisation of video creation is increasing demand from social video creators and professional videographers. Editing software and plugins remain key to monetisation, but challenges are emerging from subscription-adverse creators and users brough...| MIDiA Research
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.| MIDiA Research
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 ...| MIDiA Research
AI chatbots are intersecting our entertainment lives as the tech majors transform consumer devices into digital companions. Such moves are building upon the foundations laid by smart speakers and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to elevate chatbot engagement towards the mainstream.| MIDiA Research
This report presents the key figures, trends, and drivers of MIDiA’s music forecast model. The figures presented in this report are both retail and label trade values, and they are in billions of US dollars – unless otherwise stated. An Excel file posted alongside this report provides complete country-level data, including DSP market shares and...| MIDiA Research
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. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
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... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
We are living through a peculiar moment in media evolution, where the traditional categories used to organising content – TV, radio, podcast, film – are collapsing under their own weight. Not because they are obsolete, but because they do not reflect how audiences are consuming media. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
How are social platforms coping as the AI floodgates open? For some time now, MIDiA has been advocating for social platforms to provide some protections to human creators from the increase in AI content. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
“Superfans” remain the headline topic for the entertainment industries , in music and beyond. They are the biggest cheerleaders amongst their peers, the most engaged on social media and streaming, and the highest spenders across the board. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Podcasts are well and truly getting the in-real-life treatment. What began as a digitally native on-demand medium is now commanding physical spaces with remarkable success. This isn’t from the live recordings in and of themselves, but from mastering scene alignment . Source| MIDiA Research Blog
London, 10 July 2025 – The digital era has transformed every part of the music industry, but perhaps no role has been more quietly upended than that of the songwriter. Unlike recording artists, songwriters have long lacked the fallback revenue streams of touring or merchandise, while their share o... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
‘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 ... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
Governments often struggle to keep pace with technological change. This can be frustrating for young but growing industries that need ministerial support to unlock the next stages of their economic potential. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
1st July 2025, London - The global music industry is navigating a crucial period of recalibration, as outlined in MIDiA Research’s recently published report “Global Music Forecasts 2025-2032.” This comprehensive report is an in-depth analysis of a market experiencing changing growth patterns, ...| MIDiA Research
Brands and creative agencies can claim a larger slice of the creative economy as adoption of virtual influencer content accelerates. Cheaper to run, with higher productivity rates and more monetisation options, virtual influencers provide an opportunity for brands to secure a greater return on their marketing investment.| MIDiA Research
As niche officially becomes mainstream, the entertainment industry faces a delicate balance. Audiences are losing interest in broad, mainstream propositions, but hyper-personalised niches are inherently difficult to scale and monetise while retaining what made them special to fans in the first place.| MIDiA Research
1. Introduction| www.midiaresearch.com
The 2024 edition of MIDiA’s global music forecast captures a market at a crossroads. With limited streaming user growth remaining in the West, revenue growth will be fuelled by price rises and ARPU increases, as well as expansion in emerging markets, albeit at lower ARPU.| MIDiA Research
The music business is bifurcating, with streaming emerging as the place for mainstream music and lean-back consumption, and social as the spiritual home of fandom and the creator economy. In this report we will explore how today’s music business challenges are setting in motion a new, bifurcated business.| MIDiA Research
Human nature and human nosiness seem to go hand in hand. There is something undeniably compelling about getting a view into someone else’s world. Historically, this would be in the form of a coy walk past a living-room window’s undrawn curtains in the street. Source| MIDiA Research Blog
We are pleased to announce the release of MIDiA’s annual music forecasts report. This is always a labour of love and takes a bit longer than some other entities’ forecasts as our approach is more Etsy than Amazon, with every single line of data (and there are thousands of them) being hand crafte... Source| MIDiA Research Blog
How do broadcasters and traditional filmmakers adapt to a YouTube world? It is a question that has hung over the video industry’s old guard for some time now. Yet, social video is nothing new; YouTube is 20 years old, and the creator economy is already worth hundreds of billions of dollars.| MIDiA Research
AI is transforming culture, entertainment, business, and society at a rate unprecedented in the digital era. Unlike previous tech, AI is evolving at the speed of computing, not the human brain. Delivering as quickly as it promises, AI is breaking the mould.| MIDiA Research
Still recovering from post-pandemic aftershocks, the music creator economy now faces unprecedented disruption from generative AI. More people are creating than ever before (both as creators and consumers) and sounds, services, and software revenue is growing well (the latter boosted by generative AI).| MIDiA Research
The streaming era upended the already-fraught business of being a songwriter, pushing songwriters to secure new revenue streams and better deal terms. While the recorded music industry has responded to similar shifts with a flourishing artist services market, the same is not true for songwriters.| MIDiA Research
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.| MIDiA Research
This music creator tools forecasts report acts as a companion piece to MIDiA’s report “State of music creator economy: AI’s growing reach ” . This report provides analysis, market sizing, and forecasts for users and revenues for music creator tools revenues across the following categories: and services DAWs Music software ...| MIDiA Research
Consumer music behaviours are both stabilising and showing signs of coming change. Change that could be challenging for all music business stakeholders, especially with regards to fandom monetisation. This report presents data-focused visuals and impactful analysis of trends and anomalies that will inform your understanding of what is happening to ...| MIDiA Research
The biggest apps are in the process of disruption. TikTok’s uncertain future and Meta’s apps relaxing content restrictions and fact checking will constitute greater challenges for creators, advertisers, and audiences looking to use and benefit from these platforms.| MIDiA Research
The music catalogue acquisition market bounced back from a slightly cooled 2023 with a new fever in 2024. What is being bought is changing, however, as investors look to diversify their portfolios and uncover new growth pockets in an increasingly crowded market.| MIDiA Research
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.| MIDiA Research
This report presents MIDiA consumer entertainment data across media, music, audio, and games. Data covered includes streaming music, podcasts, social media, games consoles, and much more. All data is from our 2024 survey, fielded in US, Canada, Brazil,...| MIDiA Research
The conversation around AI narration has awakened a historic tension, one that emerges at the dawn of every technological epoch. The tension is not just about the capabilities of AI itself, but the gnawing uncertainty of what it means for humans.| MIDiA Research
Key takeaways from this blog: Generative AI is reshaping creative workflows, with MIDiA’s research highlighting how AI-only video production is already achievable The next creative divide will be defined by prompting skill level: those who can expertly translate vision into AI prompts will be ahea...| MIDiA Research
Generative AI is improving, and its use is increasing. AI tools have rapidly accelerated , and, as a result, AI is now widely used to generate lesson plans, find recipe measurements, and draft lists of potential client companies.| MIDiA Research
Key takeaways from this blog: Audiobooks are evolving into something far more than just a listening experience With its integration into the wellness sphere and innovations in immersive audio, the medium is carving out new paths MIDiA examines the evolution of audiobooks and the possibilities ahead ...| MIDiA Research
Key takeaways from this blog: President Trump'sproposed tariffshave shaken the stock market, with trust in the US economy weakening Unpredictable policies, including the US TikTok ban, are making conditions difficult for businesses that operate across multiple countries With this uncertainty in the ...| MIDiA Research
Key takeaways from this blog: Creators want more than just productivity. Over half of video creators want tools that help them improve their skills, not just speed up production (according to MIDiA's Video Creator Tools Survey Q2 2024) AI assistants should support and engage creators.| MIDiA Research
