By James Kirby
Futuresource Consulting

After an extremely successful year in 2020, the home content creation market has undergone a major transformation. Whilst demand is currently experiencing a slowdown, 2021 broke records in terms of market value. That’s according to a new content creator report from Futuresource Consulting, which combines in-depth industry interviews with a 16,000-respondent consumer survey.

A New Focus on Higher Value Products

“Back in 2020, market growth was being driven significantly by new users taking up content creation,” says James Kirby, Senior Market Analyst, Futuresource Consulting. “Then, in 2021, we found that these new users, as well as more established content creators, drove a second wave of trade-up demand for the industry. Creators had a lot of time to work on their content during the pandemic and this drove a steady increase in users wanting to take the next step in their content creation journey. Trade-up demand peaked in 2021, whilst at the same time we witnessed the rate of new user growth beginning to fall. New users showed to be more impulsive purchasers and were impacted to a greater extent by the initial return to leisure activities. These dynamics drove a significant increase in market-wide ASPs overall during 2021, and new users seeking to improve the quality of their content will continue to be an area of positivity longer-term.”

Gamers, Podcasters and Vloggers are Moving Centre Stage

Musicians are a key driving force in the audio creator economy and, during 2020 and 2021, they were a significant contributor to demand. However, the latest round of Futuresource research shows that gamers, podcasters and vloggers are becoming more important than ever. These user groups, which exhibited phenomenal growth during the pandemic, will drive significant long-term positivity for the industry. Brands are reacting by providing innovative and tailored products to these user groups, which make creation easier and draw more users into the market.

Despite the focus on these individual modern user types, overwhelmingly creators themselves are becoming more diverse in the content they produce. This year’s research demonstrated that more and more users are becoming multi-faceted creators, broadcasting an increasingly diverse range of skills to the world. Combined with their content creation know-how, creators are using their platform in one area to promote their skills in other forms of content. For example, gamer/musicians are increasingly using their following from game streaming to promote their music content. This is something that has paid off for big names in the music industry, and now amateur/prosumer creators are following suit.

Long Term Growth Driven by the Continued Cycle of Content Creation

In 2022, the market has witnessed some decline, driven by a combination of trade-up fatigue, the return of leisure activities and a slowdown in the number of new users. However, demand is expected to recover quickly as replacement cycles kick-in and the market climbs to new heights. “The sheer quantity of available content out there continues to inspire new creators,” says Kirby.  “While stay-at-home advice, free time and disposable income were key driving factors during the pandemic, market enablers such as inspiration, expression, learning, content quality and revenue streams are expected to provide long-term growth for the industry. These factors are cyclical in nature, with each of these factors being amplified by the growing consumption of user-generated content in the general population. This is the cycle of content creation growth, and positivity will continue to be felt from the evolution of these factors.”

New Brands and New Functionality

“As the content creator universe expands, we’re also seeing new brands enter the market,” says Kirby. “Gaming is a particular growth area, with consumer gaming brands quickly making an impact on the content creation space. It’s likely we will witness more big-name consumer brands enter the space over the coming years.

“Innovative new products that target specific user types are also becoming more important, with brands adding new features to existing lines to capture the attention of creators. We’re talking wireless, specific aesthetics, functionality and ease of use as the key factors here.”

A Content-Filled Future

Although the rapid growth seen during the pandemic has sapped some of the energy from the market and the industry is demonstrating a rebalancing, Futuresource expects a raft of deep-rooted factors to drive demand in the long term. As well as continued opportunity in trade-up demand, the rising outflow of content is inspiring new content types and new content creators.

The latest content creator survey and sizing report from Futuresource Consulting is based on 30+ expert industry interviews and a consumer survey of over 16,000 respondents across the USA, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, China and India. Key product areas explored include microphones, audio and video editing software, mixing consoles, audio interfaces, headphones, studio monitor speakers, controllers, video capture devices, tripods, gimbals/stabilisers, lighting and PCs. For further information or to make a purchase, please contact ben.thrussell@futuresource-hq.com. To view the full insight as it appears on Futuresource’s website, click here.