International Music Summit (IMS), the leading platform for business, culture and education in global electronic music, has issued the figures covering 2020.
The report reveals a year-on-year decrease in value of 54% down to $3.4 billion following almost 10 years of steady growth. The sector is now at its lowest valuation since before 2012, following a year of lockdown and a live sector out of action.
The overall recorded music market grew by 7% from 2019 to 2020 to $22 billion. However, electronic music’s share declined in the US by 11% and the UK by 2%, lowering the global value of electronic music.
In spite of this, dance recorded music revenues broke $1 billion, driven by a rapid rise in popularity in markets including Germany and Canada.
Dance music’s decline in popularity is confirmed by analysis of representation on the top Spotify charts, with fewer electronic artists placing in these charts based upon data in 16 of 18 countries the report studied (Italy and Brazil were the exceptions).
However, there were major success stories. The DJ Software and Hardware sector experienced record growth as the world found new ways to entertain itself during lockdown, with an estimated 23% increase year-on-year to $1.1 billion.
Livestreaming was the huge success story of 2020, with Twitch alone registering 1.2m new followers for the top electronic music accounts.
NFTs also offer new opportunities for monetisation, with 76% of all music NFTs (worth $50.2m) issued by electronic artists in the last year.
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