The 2012 fiscal year has ended and studies show the EDM industry has made quite a macroeconomic impact. For the first time, Langdon and Massive Advisors have compiled the data to show the true figures on EDM as a lucrative industry and add a concrete numerical value to its worth.
As a little background, Massive Advisors is a management consulting and advisory firm that provides business counsel to some of the highest paid individuals and companies in the world. They use their financial, functional and industry expertise to build and streamline enterprises.
At the end of October, the curators of this study (Langdon and representatives of Massive Advisors) will serve as panelists at the Amsterdam Dance Event Radio Forum speaking alongside the world’s top DJ, Armin Van Buuren. They will discuss the state of the dance music industry, production, and technology and the future of dance music.
According to the study they conducted, despite being shunned by politicians and the media or misunderstood by investors around the world:
The EDM market is a $15.0 to $20.0 billion global industry, with the major players in the global festival market achieving $4.5 billion in sales for 2012. Digital music revenues grew an impressive 9.8% in 2012 (IFPI, 2013).
While attendance at concerts and festivals for other music genres declined by 8.3% in the past three years, EDM has only prospered. The attendance for the top 50 EDM specific festivals was two times the number in attendance of concerts for all other music genres combined. The EDM genre alone reports a staggering festival audience of over 3.5 million people between the ages of 18-35, “who are young, highly inclined toward purchase, technologically facile, with significant disposable income,” making us the most marketable crowd in history.
When it comes to digital streaming, EDM continues to dominate over other music genres. Last.fm reported their aggregate number of unique listeners and plays per genre since 2012 and their findings are astounding.
Per Last.fm, the average number of Hip Hop listeners dropped from 7,000 in 2012 to 2,000 through July 2013, a 78% drop. Last.fm data shows that for the same periods, EDM as a total genre increased from 92,000 to 266,000, a 190% increase. Figures like these are powerful illustrations of the tsunami of new music dwarfing non-EDM related music content.
The numbers don’t lie and the truth is, EDM is driving the global digital music growth and international artist sales. EDM is not only at the forefront of the music industry but it’s conquering it completely. From a fans perspective, what does that mean for us?
It means that the total number of festivals produced worldwide in the past year has increased by 33% making the 3-day (average) concert experience more accessible than ever. It also means that in order to meet the current market demand, technology to produce this music is being developed quicker and more advanced than we’ve seen in the past. With production costs at an all time low, the industry is bracing itself for the tidal wave of music composition that is brewing.
In 2005, there were approximately 38,000 total tracks released globally via traditional labels across all genres. For the 6-month period ending July 2013, there were a total of 371,000 total tracks released in EDM alone.
EDM is becoming supersaturated with new music, emerging artists and opportunities to experience it all at a live music venue. With song’s like Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” reaching over 150 remixes (according to Spotify) in hundreds of EDM sub genres, the digital world has a means to satisfy almost any music lover’s taste.
The Massive White Paper illustrates what Massive Advisors terms as the EDM Pangaea. The Pangaea refers to a time when the earth was composed of one supercontinent – illustrating the entire global music industry as one, all encompassing, economic ecosystem, with electronic dance music as its unifying cultural core.
Through studies like these it is clear… There is no stopping the unparalleled expansion of the EDM gold rush.
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