The annual IMS Business Report also found that the DJ software and hardware sector experienced record growth during a year of lockdowns.
The global value of the dance music industry fell by 54% to $3.4 billion in 2020, the IMS (aka International Music Summit) Business Report 2021 reveals. The decline in value follows nearly ten years of consistent growth, with the new valuation the report’s lowest since 2012. In 2020, the IMS Report valued the global industry at $7.3 billion. The figure wasn’t far off the all-time high valuation of $7.4 billion in 2016.
Elsewhere, the report revealed that the DJ software and hardware sector experienced record growth in 2020, with an estimated 23% increase year on year to $1.1 billion. This is likely due to a year of lockdowns, and consumers and artists seeking out ways to stay creative and engaged with dance music at home. Plus, a pivot to live streaming.
The IMS Business Report also reports that festivals and clubs lost 78% of their value due to Covid-19, with more than 200 music festivals cancelled or postponed and $3.4 billion in value lost. However, the report claims we can expect a “huge rebound” as the live industry finds ways to reopen safely as lockdown measures gradually ease. Data from UK ticket agent Skiddle shows that the value of festival tickets sold in March 2021 was more than the whole of 2020, while the value of festival tickets sold was up 3,999% in March 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
Everyone from Arca to Aphex Twin and M.I.A. has jumped aboard the NFT train in recent months. According to the IMS Business Report, 76% of all music NFTs, worth $50.2m, were issued by electronic artists in the last year. “After experiments with NFTs up to and including 2020, electronic artists finally catapulted them to the forefront of the music industry’s attention in early 2021,” states the report. “For all the fuss that’s been made over NFTs, we are only in the earliest of early days of seeing their potential.”
The findings from this year’s annual report were revealed in a live streamed presentation last night (28 June). The 2021 edition was authored by data analyst David Boyle and compiled through analysis of over 35 sets of data as well as interviews with over 20 industry figures.
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Read: Digital Artist WEBB on the NFT trend and its possibilities.