How much is the global electronic music industry worth? 10 Takeaways From 2024 IMS Report

The IMS Ibiza 2024 conference kicked off today (April 24) in the mecca of electronic music on the event's eponymous island. The conference program includes three days of talks on multiple aspects of the electronic music industry, including streaming, labels, AI, wellness, the island clubbing economy and more.

As is tradition, IMS kicked off today with an introduction from the event's founders, including BBC Radio legend Pete Tong, followed by the presentation of the annual IMS Business Report, which looks at trends, growth areas and the overall health of global electronic music industry.

Marking its tenth edition this year, the report was authored by Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research and is available here. Overall, the 2024 report found significant growth areas along with higher valuation of the industry as a whole year-over-year. It also offered insight into the overall music industry landscape, stating that “after a slower 2022, the global recorded music market returned to strong growth in 2023, up to 10%.

These are ten key findings from the 2024 report.

1. Spotify gained market share, but overall less than a third of the global streaming market

The global streaming market currently has 713.4 million total subscribers, with this subscriber base growing by 14.4% between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023. This equates to 90 million added subscribers, or 6 .5 million more subscribers than were added during the same period last year.

The report finds that Spotify remained the largest DSP, increasing its global share to 32% in the third quarter of 2023. Tencent Music Entertainment remained the third largest, surpassing Amazon Music in the third quarter of 2022. Meanwhile, China's NetEase Cloud Music platform also had strong growth and contributed to significant growth for the entire Chinese streaming market.

2. Revenue grew strongly across the industry, especially in the live segment

Revenues of 15 of the world's largest music companies – across record labels, publishers, DSPs and the live entertainment industry – will grow by 18% in 2023, totaling $75.9 billion. “Although smaller than the 2022 post-lockdown boom growth,” the report says, “this is still strong.”

2023's biggest growth sector was live, a function of the fact that “prolonged interest in the lockdown encouraged increased demand and tickets were both more expensive and sold in greater quantities.” The growth of live was followed by the growth of DSPs, which grew by 16% in the last year.

3. Major labels dominated, but lost market share to next-generation labels

While labels worldwide showed strong growth in 2023, “the non-majors grew faster.” More specifically, major labels are up 7% overall in 2023, with listed non-majors like HYBY and Believe growing 17%. Additionally, 57% of HYBE's revenue was in unlisted products, compared to 23% for WMG.

“HYBE and Believe have grown faster,” the report says, “representing the spearhead of a new generation of labels pursuing revenue streams closely aligned with the dynamics of today's fan- and creator-centric music business.”

4. The top 10 electronic music markets as determined by Spotify's monthly listeners are:

According to the report, Australia stands out on this list as the country has 10 times more electronic music listeners than the entire country has people. (In the United States, this ratio is closer to 1:1.) Mexico, India, and Brazil represent the newest wave of global electronic music markets, with listener numbers smaller than each country's total population, suggesting that electronic music culture still secures a foothold in these areas.

South Africa also stands out, with almost twice as many online listeners as people. The country's strong listening numbers, the report says, “reflect the extent to which South Africa has created its own electronic scenes and culture.”

5. Electronic Music's online fandom grew in 2023, surpassing other genres

The genre gained significant followings on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Spotify, and saw much greater follower growth than rock, hip hop, and Latin. This online expansion has seen electronic's following surpass rock's on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Meanwhile, while hip-hop remains the dominant streaming genre, electronic is increasingly approaching the stream counts of Latin and rock.

6. Ibiza clubs are still thriving after the pandemic

Clubs on the island continued their post-pandemic recovery, with Ibiza's ticket revenue reaching €141 million (about $150 million) in 2023, up 14% from 2022 and 76% from 2019. The strength of demand,” the report says, “is seen in the fact that average ticket prices rose from €44 in 2022 to €51 in 2023.”

In 2019, total ticket revenue among the island's clubs was €80 million ($85 million), with an average of 123 events per venue during the season. In 2023, ticket revenue was €141 million ($150 million), with 147 events per venue.

7. Tech House remained the most popular dance genre on Beatport

Like last year, tech house was the most popular genre on the digital download platform. This year, Afro House jumped from 18th place in the first quarter of 2022 to ninth place in the third quarter of 2023. The report notes that this rise “coupled with the rise of South Africa as Spotify's leading market for electronic music, further highlights the growing importance of sub-Saharan Africa in electronic music culture;

Beatport's top ten most popular electronic subgenres overall were:

8. SoundCloud has maintained its position as the home for electronic music

Electronic music genres grew by 24% on SoundCloud in 2023, the second year in a row that this has happened. The platform is predicted to see at least another 10% growth in the genre, with the report stating that “SoundCloud consolidates and expands its long-term position as one of the global homes of electronic music fan communities.”

9. There is an obvious perception gap about the industry's gender equality advances

In a survey of members of the Electronic Music Association and IMS representatives, 82% of respondents said the industry was doing well on gender issues related to the diversity of lineups and employees. However, a survey of men, women and members of the gender-expanding industry found that women and gender-expanding creators were more likely than men to be “interrupted, excluded, challenged and judged unfairly”.

In addition, women's tendency to undervalue their contributions is reflected in a pay gap, with female creators almost twice as likely as men to find that they are paid less than their peers in the same or similar roles.

10. The global electronic music industry was worth $11.8 billion in 2023

Particularly significant growth occurred in festivals and clubs, with this sector accounting for almost half of the entire industry. Recording and publishing were also significant contributors, with music hardware and software making up the next largest segment – around a quarter of the total – although growth in this hardware and software sector was relatively slow in 2023.

Given this $11.8 billion valuation, the report states that “the global dance music business is now firmly in its post-pandemic growth phase.”