Report: Global EDM sector now worth US$7.1bn

The global electronic dance music sector is now worth US$7.1 billion (A$9.86 billion), according to the 2016 IMS Business Report, delivered in Ibiza. It has grown 60% over the last three years.

The report is here.

Despite a 3.5% slowdown in the sector in 2015, from $6.9 billion ($9.59 billion) in 2014, the report’s compiler Kevin Watson says EDM’s outlook is positive. He cites huge growth in South America and China, with more Asian clubs coming to the fore. Streaming is a massive growth factor. EDM is becoming more mainstream in the massive US market.

EDM’s continued globalisation is evident in its 79% growth in Venezuela followed by China with 64%. The rest of the Top 5 was Argentina (35%), Central America/ Caribbean (33%) and Chile (25%.).

The report points out how Asian clubs dominated new entries in the 2016 DJ Mag Top 100. Nine of the 20 fresh arrivals were from Asia, with four in China alone including Elements in Beijing (#65) and Club Cubic in Macau (#81). Three new clubs from Jakarta entered the list: Colosseum Club (#64), Dragonfly (#78) and X2 (#97). The United Arab Emirates had its first entry, with White Club in Dubai at #49.

The IMS report named the streaming revenue model as the most important driver of future industry success.

In the US, 54% of all dance sales are streams, making it the fifth most popular streaming genre. Consumers listened to an estimated 15 billion dance/electronic streams in 2015, up 33% from the year before. The most streamed song on Spotify in 2015 was Lean On by Major Lazer feat. MØ and DJ Snake, while Kygo became the fastest artist to reach 1bn streams in one year.

Dance’s share of digital track sales (4.2%) still remains higher than the level it was at in 2012.

EDM also continued to play a role in music consumption In the UK. Streaming muscled up at a faster rate than any other genre. It rose 3.2% year-on-year in album equivalent sales (against a 1.4% market average). Dance music buyers are twice as likely to subscribe to a music streaming service than other genre fans, with house and garage the biggest subgenres in single sales (accounting for 48% of the format).

Dance music also had a 7.7% share of the UK album sales in 2015, putting it third behind rock and pop. It is also second most popular style in compilations and third of singles.

In terms of DJ superstar earnings, Calvin Harris remained at the top with $66 million ($91.7 million). This was, the report pointed out, more than the top earning basketball player and F1 driver. David Guetta gave his bank manager 37 million (51.4 million) reasons to smile and Tiesto made $36 million ($50 million). Together the pair’s earnings were up 20%.

DJs also experienced huge growths online and social media. David Guetta was at the top of this ranking, with his SoundCloud following up 60%, Twitter up 26%, YouTube up 58% while his Facebook fandom was down 6%.

Skrillex at #2 expanded at 2% at Facebook, 30% at Twitter, 22% at SoundCloud and 39% at YouTube.

At third place, Calvin Harris: up 23% at Facebook, 48% at Twitter, SoundCloud presence grew 36% and YouTube was an awesome 93%.

Sydney based Flume, at 55^th position on the list, saw growth of 79% in Facebook-land, 68% at Twitter, 91% in SoundCloud and an impressive 105% at YouTube.

The report also stated:

EDM is the only genre to show significant growth in Google searches since 2009.

Techno is now the best selling genre on Beatport, overtaking Tech House in Q2 2016.

In France, EDM makes up 74% of what’s playlisted on radio, with one third of its radio stations dedicating 10% of output to EDM tracks in Q1 2015. Avicii was most widely circulated artist on French radio in 2014, with his 25 titles featuring in 48,000 broadcasts, resulting in 2.5 billion listens. However in terms of sales, in 2014 dance music (labelled ‘Techno–Jungle–House’) only made up 2%.

Across Europe, one in seven recently attended an EDM event. It was highest in Spain with one in three. It was one in six in the UK, one in seven in the Netherlands.

51% of Americans have attended a live music event, up from 44% in 2014.

The five EDC Vegas events injected $1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) into the economy, and drew 1.7 million attendees. They spent $189 million ($262 million) on food and beverage, and $94 million ($130.6 million) on transport.