The IMS Biz Report Shows EDM as $7.4 billion Industry

As exhilarating and unforgettable as events and shows are, many forget that Electronic Dance isn’t just a genre: it’s a global market. The 2017 IMS Business Report was released this week at the International Music Summit in Ibiza, and EDM is doing more than just fine as a global industry.

Sitting at an already stunning $7.1 billion net worth as of 2015/2016, the global EDM industry is now currently worth $7.4 billion. Among other key points in the IMS report, a few new milestones have been reached for our beloved genre as a business:

• Dance music is now the 5th most popular genre in the US with a drastic increase in shares in 2016. On a global scale, Brazil and Mexico are the leading countries in streaming EDM, even above Europe and Asia. Additionally, Dance scored the top spot of most played genre on the radio at a whopping 29% in France and Germany outdid its own record with double the amount of sales made three years ago.
• In streaming research, EDM has seen a massive rise as it takes the 4^th most popular genre in the channel. All platforms combined, you’re looking at about 57% of dance sales from streaming along with 12 billion EDM streams per month.
• Three of the largest Dance festivals in the world were reported to have quintupled their allotted capacity since 2008. Belgium’s Tomorrowland jumped from 50k to 360k, EDC Las Vegas grew to 400k from 60k, and Miami’s Ultra went from 70k capacity in 2008 to 165k in 2017.
• The industry acquired two big-time partners in 2016: the Ministry of Sound Recordings and Pacha Group. Sony Music UK bought Ministry of Sound Recordings in August of 2016 for an estimated £67m ($87 million) and Pacha was sold to Trilantic Capital Partners for €350m ($390 million) in February 2017.
• According to DJ Mag Top 100 DJs, the average age of their top 10 DJs is three years younger than that picked in 2007, with 50% being under 30.

The report also marks that the festivals and clubs will continue to expand internationally as more partnerships are in the works. Countries set to expand with larger festivals include Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

For more information on the IMS report, visit http://www.internationalmusicsummit.com/ibizalive/ to learn more about statistics and the business side of the culture we’ve all come to know and love.