The electronic dance music industry has reached a remarkable valuation of $11.8 billion, according to the IMS Business Report 2024.
Bolstering its cachet as a cultural and economic force, the global dance music business “is now firmly in its post-pandemic growth phase” after achieving 17% revenue growth in 2023, according to the report.
The rise can be attributed to EDM's universal appeal, its technological integration, and its unparalleled ability to captivate audiences. As the genre's popularity rises at major events like Coachella, festivals and clubs continue to dominate revenue, accounting for nearly half of the industry's total. The next largest segment was music hardware and software, which accounted for approximately 25% of total revenue.
The increase in the number of EDM fans far surpassed that of hip-hop, rock and Latin music, reflecting substantial help for its “participation in global culture.” Electronic music has the smallest fan base of those four major genres, but it grew the fastest across all key DSPs in 2023 by a wide margin, outperforming rock on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. It was eclipsed by hip-hop, which still dominates broadcasts.
Elsewhere, there is key data revealing the growing influence of non-major brands, which increased their market share for the fourth consecutive quarter at a pace of 31%. Major labels continue to dominate, according to the report, but have lost share to “the new generation of future-focused labels.”
When it comes to streaming, the four markets with the most monthly electronic music listeners are Germany, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, respectively. But the report indicated strong market penetration in South Africa, which has almost twice as many Spotify listeners as its entire population. That figure reflects the degree to which the country “has built its own electronic scenes and culture.”
South African dance music icon Black Coffee won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2022 and renowned label Defected Records recently launched One People, a label that aims to “orchestrate a sonic celebration of Afrocentric music from a chart diverse and international artists”. “. Meanwhile, Zimbabwean producer Nitefreak was recently included in EDM.com's 2024 promotion.
That global appeal is the result of a post-pandemic rebound like the one David Guetta predicted at the end of 2021, when he said that “the next few years will be the best years for dance music in history.” The current valuation of $11.8 billion exceeds that of the dance music industry. 6.9 billion dollars A decade ago, in 2014, when the genre experienced a cultural explosion in the United States.
“2022 was an unusual year in that it reflected the post-pandemic live recovery effect,” said Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research. “There was a risk that in 2023 we would struggle to live up to those inflated expectations, but instead the electronic music industry has returned to strong growth, with impressive growth in virtually all of its constituent parts. It is Furthermore, electronic music culture grew its fan base faster than other leading genres, in part due to the rapid rise of African music and fans, illustrating the growing cultural footprint of electronic music culture and. its vibrant global scenes.
You can download the full IMS Business 2024 report here.
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