The IMS Business Report 2025 has found numerous areas of growth for club culture and electronic music.
The annual conference and showcase returned to Ibiza, with music industry professionals from across the spectrum of club culture descending on the White Isle. This year felt particularly potent, with IMS exploring a number of different takes on the nightlife industries.
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One of the key takeaways from the IMS Business Report is the continued post-pandemic growth of electronic music as an industry – in all, it’s worth across the past 12 months grew to $12.9 billion.
The 11th edition of the IMS Business Report has been authored for the third year by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan, and it found that the rate of growth was measured by a “maturing” audience.
He comments: “Global music industry revenue grew again in 2024, though at a slower rate than in 2023 due to maturing streaming revenues and the post-Covid live resurgence lessening. Electronic music, however, continued to increase its share of both revenues and culture. Driven by the rise of new genres like Afro house, a renaissance for genres like drum & bass, and the rise of a new generation of fans, creators and scenes remaking electronic music in their own image, electronic music finds itself at the start of a brave new era of culture resonance.”
The report notes that monies from streaming have plateaued or in some cases fallen, but the IMS Business Report nonetheless showed that subscriber numbers are booming, rising 12% to hit 818 million globally across all platforms; notably, four fifths of this increase came from markets in the Global South.
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The IMS Business Report also took time to analyse the live market, asserting that following a post-pandemic boom revenues are at a record high. The data suggests, however, that the market is split – between high profile tours with high costs, and DIY or grassroots venues struggling to break even.
Expanding on this, Mulligan said: “Live music revenues are far higher now than they were pre-pandemic. Part of that was all the pent up demand from people desperate to get out again and hear great music. But much of what drove the lower levels of growth in 2024 vs 2023 was higher ticket prices. The live business prides itself on having such a high level of demand for its product that it can continually raise prices. We are now approaching the point where that will go no further. Consumers only have so much disposable income and we are seeing the first signs that prices are getting too high. In Ibiza and in the top 100 global tours, the number of tickets sold was actually down slightly in 2024, though higher ticket prices ensured revenues were still up.”
Some notable stats: listenership for electronic music across key markets such as the UK and Germany was reportedly up by 15% in 2024, while Mexico enjoyed a huge leap of 60%. On TikTok, posts with electronic music finally overtook that of indie.
Download the IMS Business Report 2025 HERE.
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