IMS Business Report

The 2024 IMS Ibiza conference began today (April 24) on the event’s namesake island electronic music mecca. The conference’s program includes three days of talks on multiple facets of the electronic music business, including streaming, labels, AI, wellness, the island clubbing economy and much more.
As is tradition, IMS started today with an introduction from the event’s founders, including BBC Radio legend Pete Tong, followed by the presentation of the annual IMS Business report, which looks at the trends, growth sectors and general health of the global electronic music industry.

Marking its tenth edition this year, the report was authored by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan and is available here. Generally, the 2024 report found significant growth areas along with a higher year over year valuation of the industry as a whole. It also offered insights on the general music industry landscape, stating that “after a slower 2022, the global recorded music market returned to strong growth in 2023, up 10%.”

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These are ten key findings from the 2024 report.

1. Spotify Gained Market Share, But Totaled Less Than a Third of The Global Streaming Market

The global streaming market currently has a whopping 713.4 million total subscribers, with this subscriber base growing by 14.4% between the third quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2023. This equates to 90 million added subscribers, which is 6.5 million more subscribers than were added over the same period a year earlier.

The report finds that Spotify remained the largest DSP, increasing its global share to 32% in the third quarter of 2023. Tencent Music Entertainment remained the third largest, overtaking Amazon Music in the third quarter of 2022. Meanwhile, Chinese platform NetEase Cloud Music also had strong growth and helped contribute to significant growth for the whole of the Chinese streaming market.

2. Revenues Grew Strongly Across The Industry, Especially In the Live Sector

Revenues of 15 of the world’s biggest music companies – across labels, publishers, DSPs and the live sector – grew by 18% in 2023, for a total value of $75.9 billion. “While less than the post-lockdown boom growth of 2022,” the report states, “this is still strong.”

2023’s largest growth sector was live, a function of the fact that “lingering pent-up lockdown interest fostered increased demand, and tickets were both more expensive and sold in larger quantities.” The growth of live was followed by growth of DSPs, which grew by 16% over the last year.

3. Major Labels Dominated, But Lost Market Share To New-Generation Labels

While record labels across the board experienced strong growth in 2023, “non-majors grew the fastest.” More specifically, major labels grew by 7% overall in 2023, with the publicly traded non-majors like HYBY and Believe growing by 17%. Additionally, 57% of HYBE’s revenue was in non-recorded products, compared to 23% for WMG.

“HYBE and Believe grew the fastest,” the report states, “representing the spearhead of a new generation of record labels that pursue revenue streams closely aligned with the dynamics of today’s fan and creator centered music business.”

4. The Top 10 Markets For Electronic Music As Determined By Monthly Spotify Listeners Are:

Germany

United States

Australia

United Kingdom

Brazil

India

Mexico

South Africa

Canada

France

Per the report, Australia is a standout on this list, as the country has 10 times more electronic music listeners than the entire country has people. (In the United States, this ratio is closer to 1:1.) Mexico, India and Brazil represent the newer wave of global electronic music markets, with listener numbers smaller than each country’s total population, which suggests that electronic music culture is still securing a foothold in these territories.

South Africa is also a standout, with nearly twice as many electronic listeners as people. The country’s strong listening figures, the report says, “reflect the degree to which South Africa has built its own electronic scenes and culture.”

5. Electronic Music’s Online Fandom Surged In 2023, Outperforming Other Genres

The genre gained significant followers across Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Spotify, and saw vastly more follower growth than rock, hip hop and Latin. This online expansion saw electronic’s following surpass that of rock on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Meanwhle, while hip-hop remains the dominant streaming genre, electronic is getting closer to the stream counts of Latin and rock.

6. Ibiza Clubs Are Still Booming Post-Pandemic

Clubs on the island continued their post-pandemic rebound, with Ibiza club ticketing revenue reaching €141 million (approximately $150 million) in 2023, up 14% from 2022 and 76% from 2019. “The strength of demand,” the report states, “was illustrated by the fact that average ticket prices increased from €44 in 2022 to €51 in 2023.”

In 2019, total ticket revenue across clubs on the island was €80 million ($85 million), with an average of 123 events per venue over the course of the season. In 2023, ticket revenue was €141 million ($150 million), with 147 events per venue.

7. Tech House Remained The Most Popular Dance Genre on Beatport

Like last year, tech house was the digital download platform’s most popular genre. This year, Afro House shot up from being in the 18th spot in the first quarter of 2022 to the ninth spot in the third quarter of 2023. The report notes that this rise “coupled with the rise of South Africa as a leading Spotify market for electronic music, further points to the rising importance of sub-Saharan Africa in electronic music culture.

Beatport’s ten most popular electronic subgenre’s overall were:

Tech House

House

Techno (peak/driving)

Melodic House & Techno

Drum & Bass

Dance/Electro Pop

Deep House

Minimal/Deep Tech

Progessive House

Afro House

8. SoundCloud Maintained Its Position As a Home For Electronic Music

Electronic music genres grew by 24% on SoundCloud in 2023, the second successive year this has happened. The platform is forecasted to have at least another 10% growth of the genre, with the report stating that “SoundCloud is both consolidating and expanding its long-term position as one of the global homes of electronic music fan communities.”

9. There’s an Apparent Perception Gap Regarding The Industry’s Gender Equality Advancements

In a survey of members of the Association For Electronic Music and IMS delegates, 82% of respondents said that the industry was doing well on gender issues related to diversity of lineups and employees. But a survey of male, female and gender expansive industry members found that women and gender expansive creators were more likely than men to be “interrupted, excluded, questioned and judged unfairly.”

Additionally, a tendency among women to undervalue their contributions is reflected in a industry pay gap, with women creators nearly twice as likely as men to discover they are being paid less than their peers in the same or similar roles.

10. The Global Electronic Music Industry Was Worth $11.8 Billion In 2023

Particularly significant growth happened in festivals and clubs, with this sector representing nearly half of the industry total. Recording and publishing were also significant contributors, with music hardware and software making up the next biggest segment — around a quarter of total — although growth in this hardware and software sector was relatively slow in 2023.

Given this $11.8 billion valuation, the report states that “the global dance music business is now firmly in its post-pandemic growth phase.”