IMS BUSINESS REPORT 2020 ANALYSES THE IMPACT OF THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC ON THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC SECTOR

International Music Summit (IMS), today released the annual IMS Business Report, authored by data analyst Kevin Watson. Used by professionals across the industry, it is an essential and trusted tool used to assess the performance of the previous year. A detailed and in-depth study, the report offers a global snapshot of the trends and economic performance of the industry, illustrating the profound and turbulent impact the pandemic has had on all sectors.

The report reveals that despite falling two places to be the World’s fifth most popular genre, electronic music had a positive global result in 2019. Earnings of the 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.

The impact of COVID-19 has been profound and the report predicts the electronic music industry will be severely affected as a result of the pandemic:

The value of the global industry is predicted to be $3.3bn, a fall of 56% from $7.3bn in the previous year
Dance/electronic clubs & festivals could lose 75% of their income in 2020, equivalent to $3.3bn
DJ and artist income could fall from $1.1bn in 2019 to $0.4bn in 2020, a drop of 61%. 

These figures are inevitable and immediate short-term consequence of COVID-19 and the associated lock down measures put in place globally. As economies begin to reopen many indicators point to an anticipated bounce back over the next five to ten years.

The pandemic has led to an industry pivot to live streaming, resulting in excess of 127m views of electronic music content, driving a marked increase in brand and artist social media following as well as raising over $3.6m for charitable causes.