New York, NY (July 24, 2020)—International Music Summit has released its annual IMS Business Report, assessing the state of the global electronic music industry, looking at trends and economic performance over the past year, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the culture’s recording and live sound sectors.
Compiled by data analyst Kevin Watson, the report finds that while EDM dropped in popularity in 2019, it nonetheless performed well, as earnings for the genre’s top-ten artists increased 4% year on year to $273m, clubbers contributed half a billion Euro income to the Ibiza economy alone and the overall industry valuation increased by 2% to $7.3bn, following a slight dip in the previous two years.
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Nonetheless, the impact of COVID-19 can’t be understated and the report predicts the electronic music industry will be severely affected in the immediate future. That 2019 industry valuation of $7.3bn is expected to drop by 56% to $3.3bn, with dance/electronic clubs and festivals losing upwards of 75% of their income in 2020, equivalent to $3.3bn. Likewise, the report predicts DJ and artist income could fall from $1.1bn in 2019 to $0.4bn in 2020, a drop of 61%
While the industry’s economic fall is expected to be short-term until economies begin to reopen, the report expects that a full return to 2019’s levels could take five to 10 years. Like many parts of the live sound industry, the EDM industry has pivoted to live streaming, garnering more than 127m views of electronic music content to date, and reportedly raising more than $3.6m for charitable causes. The report notes that emerging formats such as livestreaming, drive-in concerts and distanced dancefloors may not be commercially viable for clubs and EDM festivals—no doubt bad news for the approximately 350 EDM festivals worldwide that had to be cancelled this year.
Despite the discouraging news, IMS sees the road back as workable and to that end, has announced the next edition of its annual summit for business, culture and education in electronic music. IMS Ibiza will return in 2021 with details to be released soon.
International Music Summit • www.internationalmusicsummit.com
