Music Week: IMS Business Report 2023: Global dance music sector revenues up 34%

Presented at the IMS Ibiza summit, this year’s comprehensive report was authored by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan.

“MIDiA Research is proud to have compiled the 2023 edition of the IMS Business Report, building on the great work of its previous authors,” said Mulligan. “After a couple of pandemic-impacted years, the global dance music industry is back in top gear and this report reflects how growth has returned across all the various aspects of its thriving business.”

According to the report, the global dance music industry grew by 34% year-on-year to $11.3 billion – 16% higher than the pre-pandemic levels. Revenue was up across all categories.

The success for dance music globally was underlined by keynote events at IMS, such as Warner Music Group’s Recorded Music CEO, Max Lousada, in conversation with Pete Tong.

Following the pandemic, festival and clubs rebounded in 2022, representing almost half of all dance music revenues, according to the IMS Business Report. Dance music live revenues were up 65% year-on-year, reaching $4.1 billion, although that is still slightly below 2019’s $4.4bn.

Ibiza club ticketing revenue reached €124 million in 2022, up 55% on 2019. It was underpinned by increases in the number of events per venue and average ticket prices. The total number of tickets increased from two million in 2019 to 2.5m in 2022.

Electronic music artists represented 39% of all festival bookings in 2022, up from 33% in 2021. Although female DJs represented 15% of top 100 DJ bookings (festivals and other events) last year, this share fell from 21% in 2021.

Music publishing revenues grew more than two times faster than recordings in 2022. Combined revenues were up 13% year-on-year to $1.9bn. Dance music slightly increased recorded music market share.

Production music and hardware was up 7% to $2.8bn. The reported identified this as a long-term growth area for dance music.

The growth of dance music plays on SoundCloud – up 24% – underlines the platform’s importance to the various sub-genres.

The report also noted the growing importance of TikTok, which has provided viral moments tracks by LF System, Eliza Rose, David Guetta and Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding that went on to reach No.1.

The IMS Business Report identified strong international subscriber growth for dance platform Beatport, as well as consistent growth in download sales for its DJ audience. Tech house remains the leading genre on Beatport.

Read the full piece on Music Week.