Mark Mulligan identifies some of tomorrow's growth drivers for the music industry

By Emmanuel Legrand

MIDiA Research's Mark Mulligan has identified in a paper titled 'What Comes After Streaming?' some of the music industry’s potential growth drivers for the future:

  1) Games, which present "a wealth of opportunity," but to succeed, music companies will need to think about creative ways to enhance the gaming experience rather than simply seeing it as another licensing play."  

  2) Social: "We are still scratching the surface of what social can do for music, but building tools for users to create their own music and audio will be key," writes Mulligan.

  3) Creator tools: the new independent artist-focused business "represents a new set of opportunities for deepening artist-fan relationships and a set of new facets for the future of music companies."

  4) Next-generation sync: a major new wave of opportunity in sync is shaping up, with social content, platform and creators "representing a scale of demand that far exceeds that of the traditional sync market."

  5) Livestreaming: Mulligan believes that during the pandemic, there have been "enough high-quality successes to suggest that this is a sector with longevity that will outlive lockdown." For him, the services that will prosper are those that "deliver genuinely differentiated experiences that complement rather than try to replace" live events.

  6) Fitness: with the surge in consumer spending on home fitness equipment during the pandemic, there are "some meaningful music licensing revenue building around the space."

  7) Fandom: described as "the next frontier for music monetisation," fandom is about maximising the relationship between artists and their fans, with SE Asia acting as a precursor.