Subscriptions Reports from MIDiA Research

The audio creator opportunity
Audio creator behaviours and monetisation potential

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Rutger Rosenborg

March 2025

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...

Socioeconomics of podcast listening
Engaging a higher value audience

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Rutger Rosenborg

October 2024

Creators

Subscriptions

Radio

Podcasts alone will struggle to monetise via subscriptions, leaving advertising as podcasts’ key source of revenue for the foreseeable future. However, podcasts do attract high-earning, high-spending...

Bridging the creator gap
Monetising social video’s micro-communities

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Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

April 2023

Subscriptions

YouTube

Twitch

The pandemic-induced boom in content creation has saturated social video platforms at a time when creators are battling a downturn in digital advertising revenues. These dual pressures of less exposure...

Attention recession impacts on D2C growth

Richard Broadhurst

July 2022

Subscriptions

Streaming

Spotify

Weekly active user (WAU) penetration for the top streaming services is now slowing with quarter-on-quarter growth effectively flat for the leading subscription video on demand (SVOD) services. Peak attention...

Music market subscriber shares 2021
Growth is not letting up yet

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Mark Mulligan

December 2021

Subscriptions

Streaming

Music Subscriptions

This report presents key figures from MIDiA’s global music subscriber market shares model. The full dataset is published alongside this report, with quarterly data (from Q4 2015 to Q1 2021) and annual...

Unlocking mainstream AVOD
The silver streamer catalyst

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Tim Mulligan

July 2021

Subscriptions

Streaming

Video

Ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) has been championed as the free-to-access equivalent of subscription video on demand (SVOD). However, for AVOD to become the digital successor to free-to-view TV it...

Spotify Q4 2020 earnings
ARPU pays the price for growth

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Mark Mulligan

February 2021

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

In 2020 Spotify accelerated the growth of its total user base, with emerging markets playing a key role. However, revenue increases became decoupled from user growth across all categories, resulting in...

Spotify Q3 2020 Earnings
The Shift to Free

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Mark Mulligan

November 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

With three quarters of 2020 gone, Spotify has prospered during the most challenging of times, with consistent growth across most metrics. Q3 2020 saw a slight deviation from the script though, with ad-supported...

Music Subscriber Market Shares 4.0
Subscriptions Decouple from Revenue

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Mark Mulligan

September 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Music Subscriptions

This report presents key figures from MIDiA’s global music subscriber market shares model. The full dataset is published alongside this report with quarterly data from Q4 2015 to Q1 2020 and annual label...

Spotify Q2 2020 Earnings
In the Shadow of COVID

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Mark Mulligan

August 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

Spotify’s share price grew strongly in June 2020, with the markets responding positively to its podcast investments. However, while that increase was sustained throughout July, by mid-August the share...

COVID-19 and the Vulnerability of Pure Play Sports Streaming Services

Alistair Taylor

April 2020

Subscriptions

US

UK

The postponement of annual competitions and major quadrennial events has highlighted just how heavily pay-TV and sport-centric streaming services’ value propositions rely on live sports. Filling schedules...

Ad Receptiveness Consumer Survey
Country Snapshots

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Mark Mulligan

March 2020

Subscriptions

Marketing

Music streaming

Ad receptiveness consumer snapshots for US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Sweden, France, Netherlands, and Italy.

Video Consumer Survey
Country Snapshots

Tim Mulligan

March 2020

Consumer behaviour

Subscriptions

Video

Video consumer survey country snapshots for US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Sweden, France, Italy, Netherlands and Mexico.

Spotify Q4 2019 Earnings
Great Year for Premium, Less So for Ad Supported

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Mark Mulligan

February 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

2019 was another strong year for Spotify’s premium business, in which it saw off growing competition to retain its leading global market share. But it was also another year in which Spotify’s ad-supported...

Music Subscriber Market Shares 3.0
The Big Three Dominate

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Mark Mulligan

December 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Music Subscriptions

This report presents key figures from MIDiA’s global music subscriber market shares model. The full dataset is published alongside this report with quarterly data from Q4 2015 to Q2 2019 for 23 streaming...

Spotify Earnings Q3 2019
Up on Most Counts

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Mark Mulligan

November 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

Q3 2019 was a quarter of mixed fortunes for Spotify, with its subscriber base showing good, consistent growth, podcasts making a solid early showing, emerging markets demonstrating promise but ad revenue...

Sports Rights
Measuring the ROI for Streaming

Alistair Taylor

October 2019

Subscriptions

Video

Amazon

Measuring streaming sports audience engagement is paramount when determining which rights mix consumers are actually willing to pay for. Netflix has shown that in a saturated market, retaining consumer...

Spotify Q2 2019 Earnings
Mature Markets Still the Engine Room of Growth

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Mark Mulligan

August 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

Q2 2019 was another solid quarter for Spotify, adding the same number of subscribers it typically does in promotional quarters. Core metrics such as churn and average revenue per user (ARPU) all moved...

Spotify Q1 2019 Earnings

Mark Mulligan

May 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

Q1 2019 was a quarter of milestones for Spotify, hitting 100 million subscribers, launching in India and becoming a podcast company. However, it was also a quarter in which a number of metrics started...

State of the Streaming Nation 3.0
Multi-Paced Growth

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Mark Mulligan

May 2019

Subscriptions

Streaming

Streaming Music

2018 was yet another strong year for streaming music growth, with the leading streaming services consolidating their market shares. Consumer adoption continues to grow but as leading markets mature,...

Reports: Subscriptions