IMS Business Report 2025

Today I presented the 11th edition of the IMS Business Report at the ever-brilliant annual electronic music industry conference in Ibiza. And who doesn’t like a conference in Ibiza?! The full report is available via the IMS website. Here are some highlights.

• Fandom and listening still on the up: Electronic music listening was up across nearly all markets. The top four electronic music markets all gained significant Spotify listener counts in 2024, but (in order) Mexico, UK, and Germany saw the highest growth. Mexico was up 60% on 2023. Australia and the Netherlands were stand-out markets in that the gross total of electronic music Spotify listeners is more than ten times the total population size in both markets. Electronic music was up 14% on SoundCloud while #ElectronicMusic hashtag performance on TikTok reached 13.4 billion views, a 45% increase on 2023. On top of all this, electronic music added a gross total of 0.6 billion fans across Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook in 2024.
• Genres on the rise: African genres and Drum & Bass, Jungle, and Garage were the big genres winners in 2024. In terms of Beatport sales, Afro house and Drum & Bass were the big gainers. Speed Garage saw a 183% increase in video views on TikTok; UKG and Bassline plays were up 31% on SoundCloud; Garage was one of the top gainers for searches on beats marketplace Loopcloud (a forward looking indicator of what music will be big in the coming year). African genres (Amapiano, Afrobeat, and Afrohouse) dominated the top gainers list for Loopcloud; Amapiano had the fourth highest growth in vide videos of all electronic music genres. Drum & Bass was #2 for Beatport new releases in 2024.
• Continued live momentum: Ibiza club ticketing revenue reached €150 million in 2024, which was up 6% from 2023. This figure reflects ticketing only and does not include VIP, so the total value created for the local economy was even higher. Meanwhile, electronic music is steadily becoming a bigger part of the global festival landscape 18% of the line-ups of the top 100 festivals were electronic artists in 2024, up two points from 2023 and five points from 2021. Meanwhile 9 of the top 100% festivals were electronic music festivals. All of which was in the year that Superstruct (Sónar, Awakenings, Parookaville, etc.) sold for $1.4 billion. Electronic music’s festival momentum is clear.

And so, onto the big one: the value of the global electronic music industry in 2024. Across recorded music, publishing, expanded rights, merch, sponsorship, hardware and software, festivals and clubs, total revenues grew by 6% in 2023 to reach $12.9 billion in 2024.

 Some concluding thoughts:

• The global electronic music market benefited both from solid, consistent growth and cultural renewal in 2024
• A new, younger generation of fans and creators are starting to reshape electronic music culture, often claiming long-established genres for themselves, reimagining them and forging their own scenes
• The wider music industry is busy shifting its focus to fandom and scenes, but these have always been the central forces that drive and shape dance music culture. The rest of the music business is beginning to follow electronic music’s lead!