Global EDM market up 12% to $6.9b, Australia largest Asia Pacific market

The global electronic dance market has grown 12% from last year to be now worth US$6.9 billion. North America accounts for $2 billion of that annually. The Asia Pacific, of which Australia is the largest market, is worth $1 billion annually.

This is according to the International Music Summit's 2015 Business Report, unveiled by its author Kevin Watson yesterday on the first day of the annual IMS in Ibiza.

Such has been EDM’s transformation from niche market to global phenomenon, that it was worth $4.5 billion in 2012/13, and $6.2 billion in 2013/14.

What’s more, its continued growth through 2015/16 is certainly assured as it enters in mainstream culture. This will be through the Ultimate DJ TV show set to have franchise globally (and due early 2016), and the movie We Are Your Friends starring Zac Efron which is due for overseas release in August this year.

The MOMEM – Museum of Modern Electronic Music –is set to open this year in Frankfurt.

Australia’s Stereosonic was the largest festival in 2014 in the Asia Pacific, drawing 420,000, according to the report. Its closest rival in the region is Sunburn in Goa, India, with 370,000, and set to become a four-day festival in 2015. This year, the eight major festivals in the Asia-Pacific will host 1 million rave-heads.

Australia’s Nervo (pictured) are the highest ranked female DJs in the Asia Pacific, with 3.2 million fans on Facebook, 741,000 on Twitter and 423,000 on SoundCloud. The twins from Melbourne have notched up 29 million plays on YouTube.

As earlier reported in TMN, Australia’s Your Shot contest was this year turned into a U.S. version fronted by Tiesto, marking an important milestone in local EDM culture’s continuing contribution to the global scene.

Some of the other statistics unveiled in the report showed that:

Dance share of US tracks in 2014 was 4.5% equaling an all time high first achieved in 2013. Digital sales now 1.5 times the level it was in 2011. The U.S. had an ever higher share of streams accounting for 6.8% in 2014. Albums slipped from a high in 2013 but Watson suggests this is a one-off.

In the US and Canada, dance is the 4th most popular genre for streams. In America, R&B/hip hop was the highest with 29%, followed by rock (25%), pop (21%) with dance at 7%, beating country at 6%.

In Canada dance’s 4th place in the streaming stakes came with a 10% share. Pop lead at 27%, then rock (26%), R&B/hip hop at 21% and country at 5%. Dance accounted for 1 in every 10 streams in Canada in 2014.

Consumers listened to an estimated 12 billion dance/EDM streams in North America. In the US, total streaming across all genres grew by 55%, while album and track sales both declined by 11%.

The official videos of the Top 9 EDM tracks in 2014 generated 2.3 billion views and 8.4 million likes on YouTube. EDM fans are more likely to be online, with consumers aged 25 and under viewing most EDM content on YouTube. Those between 25 and 34 showed the highest growth in audience for the EDM, while those aged 35 to 49 grew 80% last year.

In 2014, the 12 largest electronic music clubs in the US generated half a billion dollars in revenue. The Top 3 were in Las Vegas, with the biggest club being he XS Nightclub grossing over $100 million.

Dance’s share of single sales in the UK reached an 8 year high, with compilations at #2 and albums at #3.

The number of tracks available on the Beatport site has increased tenfold since 2008. User growth is 4.5 times what it was in 2008.

In terms of DJ earnings, Calvin Harris was the most highest paid at $66 million. The others in the Top 5 were David Guetta ($30 million), Avicci ($28 million), Tiesto ($28 million) and Steve Acki ($23 million).

Martin Garrix’s online base grows by 22,000 a day. He has added almost twice as many YouTube subscribers in 2015 as 2014. His 2014 Ultra Music Festival performance received 1.3 million views a year later in April 2015. 54% of his followers are female.

The global DJ product market is now worth $350 million, with the US market growing 61% since 2009 from $86 million to $139 million.

Annual global sales of $201 million gave Pioneer DJ a clear market share of 60%.

Read the full report here.