record labels blog by MIDiA Research

Blog: record labels

Why AI music may make fandom even more important

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

22 Mar 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) was as hot a topic as ever at last week’s SXSW conference, where debate swirled around how human artists will compete with AI-generated music. As more parts of music-making...

Should streaming take a cue from TikTok’s revamped creator program?

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

23 Feb 2023

music streaming

Spotify

music industry

A year ago, VidCon co-founder and vlogger Hank Green posted a viral YouTube video lambasting TikTok’s $1 billion Creator Fund, claiming it delivered chump change to videos with millions of views. The...

At the Grammys and Super Bowl, the last hurrah of the mainstream era

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

14 Feb 2023

music industry

record labels

Music creators

Rihanna’s performance at the Super Bowl LVII over the weekend was remarkable for several reasons, but most of all was that she had not performed a show at this scale in seven long years. “The wait...

With its Australia experiment, TikTok gives the music industry the ultimate test

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

9 Feb 2023

TikTok

social media

independent music

Licensing negotiations between platforms and the music industry come down to one question: which side needs the other more? The more that TikTok needs hit music to attract users, the more leverage the...

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

Blog post by 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....

The record labels’ TikTok opportunity cost

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

22 Nov 2022

music streaming

TikTok

YouTube

With their short-term music licensing agreements soon to expire, record labels are reportedly pressuring TikTok to sign an ad revenue share agreement, which would see TikTok pay a share of advertising...

YouTube's secret weapon for overtaking Spotify

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

22 Sep 2022

creator economy

Music creators

YouTube

YouTube has not been quiet about its ambitions to overtake Spotify as the music industry’s top revenue driver by 2025. The clock is ticking, and although YouTube is the most popular platform for music...

Beatport’s LabelRadar acquisition is the latest sign of the platforms era

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

22 Jul 2022

Beatport

record labels

music industry

This week, online music marketplace Beatport acquired LabelRadar, a service that streamlines the demo submission process for artists and labels. Following previous strategic acquisitions, the deal represents...

A counterculture music industry is emerging — welcome to the platform era

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

5 Jul 2022

music industry

Major labels

record labels

What do TikTok’s distribution tool , Universal Music Group’s samples marketplace , and Snoop Dogg’s virtual marijuana have in common? On the surface, not much. But beneath, these news headlines are...

Reflections on the music industry at NFT.NYC

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

23 Jun 2022

cryptocurrency

NFT

record labels

At the fourth annual NFT.NYC conference in New York, the sentiment fell somewhere between faint excitement and “so this is still a thing, right?” Unlike this time last year, when the music industry...

The record label addiction to virality is about the attention recession, too

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

26 May 2022

social media

Content Creators

creator economy

In a painfully-of-the-moment twist of irony, Halsey went viral on TikTok this week for speaking out about the pressure to do just that. “Basically I have a song that I love that I wanna release ASAP,...

Is TikTok becoming a record label? The question misses the point

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

18 May 2022

music streaming

music industry

Fandom

Every time TikTok does anything that seems to hedge on record label territory, someone inevitably asks the question: is TikTok turning into a record label? Cue the eye-rolls from the music industry. No...

Music industry earnings 2021: Riding the wave

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

6 May 2022

streaming music

record labels

live music

Universal music’s Q1 2022 earnings showed continued growth but a noticeable slowdown in streaming growth, with streaming revenues up 12% year-on-year (YoY) in USD term compared to a growth of 35% one...

Why TikTok is primed to become the next-generation music company

Blog post by Tatiana Cirisano

10 Mar 2022

TikTok

social media

creators

By now, TikTok’s impact on popular music is well-established. The platform routinely catapults songs to hit status, and it has become a regular part of digital marketing campaigns. But behind the scenes,...

The record labels are weaning themselves off their Spotify dependency

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

6 Aug 2021

Spotify

streaming

TikTok

The major labels had a spectacular streaming quarter, registering 33% growth on Q2 2020 to reach $3.1 billion. Spotify had a less impressive quarter, growing revenues by just 23%. After being the industry’s...

Labels are going to become more like VCs than they probably want to be

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

30 Jul 2021

record labels

labels

artist accelerators

When you are in the midst of change it can be hard to actually see it. Right now, the music business is undergoing a consumption paradigm shift that is changing the culture and business of music. Streaming...

The IFPI Confirms 2019 was the Independents' Year for Streaming

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

4 May 2020

independent labels

majors

record labels

UPDATE: this post has been updated to correct an erroneous data point. Previously it stated that independent market share was 41%. It has been corrected to 29% Recently I wrote about how a little-known...

Schubert Music Is the Latest Publisher to Push Into Recordings

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2020

music publishers

music publishing M+A

record labels

Schubert Music Europe, the holding company of Schubert Music Publishing, today announced a deal with Sony’s independent label distribution division The Orchard. Under the deal, Schubert will distribute...

Playlist Malfeasance Will Create a Streaming Crisis

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

9 May 2019

artists

labels

per stream rates

Streaming economics are facing a potential crisis. The problem does not lie in the market itself; after all, in Q1 2019 streaming revenue became more than half of the recorded music business and Spotify...

Music Sync: A Market Ripe for Change

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

3 May 2019

Florence and the machine

game of thrones

music publishers

Florence and the Machine’s performance of Jenny of Oldstones, which appeared over the closing credits of the April 21st HBO’s Game Of Thrones episode, has registered the most Shazams...

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