The 2025 IMS Business Report has been published, offering a “definitive snapshot of the global electronic music economy”
The 2025 IMS Business Report has been published, with one of the annual study’s key findings showing that the global electronic music industry has risen in value to $12.9 billion.
The figure marks a 6% year-on-year increase from the previous 12 months, which had seen a 9% rise from $10.7 billion to $12.2 billion. While this year’s figures indicate a slightly slower rate of growth than before, the IMS Business Report — which offers a “definitive snapshot of the global electronic music economy” — outlines a detailed overview of a period in which the international scene has done anything but quieten.
Released today, 23rd April, the first day of IMS Ibiza 2025, the 11th edition of the IMS Business Report has been authored for the third year by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan.
Speaking about this year’s report, Mulligan said: “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 attributes the slowing growth of recorded music revenue in 2024 to a “maturing” streaming market in the West, and an overall decrease in physical music sales, which is said to have “yo-yoed between growth and decline all this decade”.
The disparity between major and non-major labels’ market share, as well as that of self-releasing artists, is also factored into the report. While non-major labels reportedly grew their market share once again to reach 30% overall, self-releasing artists lost share amidst “streaming royalty thresholds” introduced by platforms like Spotify, which decrease smaller artists’ capacity to earn revenue from DSPs.
The subsumption of certain larger independent labels under major label umbrellas is also worth noting when considering the distribution of market share. Speaking to DJ Mag on this matter, Mulligan said: “The major record labels still dominate recorded music, but they have been steadily losing market share to the independent sector each and every year. Part of the reason for this is that they all have big businesses distributing independent labels, which means these labels contribute to the market shares of the majors.
“One thing that will change the trajectory, however, is the introduction of two tier royalties, where tracks with fewer than a thousand streams are not paid royalties, with this income instead being shared with the bigger labels. In 2024 we saw this impact self-releasing artists, with their revenue growing dramatically slower than the rate at which the number of self-releasing artists grew. More artists [are now] earning less. In 2025, expect this same dynamic [to] start to bite the long tail of smaller dance music labels. That in turn will see the start of a groundswell of discontent among the indie label community.”
In the midst of decreased revenue growth for artists on streaming platforms, the IMS Business Report nonetheless showed that subscriber numbers are booming, rising 12% to hit 818 million globally across all platforms. Four fifths of this increase came from markets in the Global South. Spotify remains the most popular, accounting for 32% of the market share and registering over a quarter of a billion subscribers globally.
Most of the financial benefit in the live sector is being felt by large venues and major label artists undertaking huge tours with high-ticket prices. Meanwhile, smaller venues, events and festivals are facing a period of immense financial difficulty, with many spaces facing uncertain futures due to the cost-of-living crisis, which has not only increased the price of operations, but left consumers less willing and able to spend money on attending.
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.”
The revenues of listening and live sectors are intrinsically connected. Mulligan points to a potential push and pull effect in action between the consumption of physical media such as vinyl and the attendance of live performances. “Physical has become a merchandise format,” he told DJ Mag. “It is an expression of fandom, and with record labels chasing super fans in the face of slowing streaming revenue, vinyl has become big business. But vinyl super fans are also — most often — live superfans also. So everyone is competing for their spending and they only have so much to spend. So, with rising ticket prices, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that physical revenues felt the impact in 2024.”
Listenership for electronic music across key markets such as the UK and Germany was reportedly up by 15% in 2024, with Mexico’s listenership increasing by a whopping 60%. Regions like Brazil and India also saw a significant increase. There were a reported 566 million new electronic music fans added across Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook in 2024. TikTok posts featuring electronic music outgrew the views of those with indie music, increasing by 45% from the previous year to 13 billion.
Genre-wise, the report outlines the continued rise in popularity of Afro-house, which has gone from being the 24th to the 4th most-searched style on Beatport over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, amapiano continued to rise in popularity alongside resurgent styles such as UK garage, jungle and drum & bass, all driven by a younger generation of artists who are bringing fresh energy to classic sounds.
While electronic music is noted in the report as having the highest or second highest follower count on Spotify in nine out of 13 of its top markets — next to rock, hip-hop and Latin music — the IMS Business Report notes that, as streaming becomes an increasingly global fixture, analysing “trends” on a purely international scale becomes an increasingly less clear, and altogether less practical, exercise. Understanding trends with regard to the specific region they exist in, and observing how those trends move or don’t move into other markets, looks set to become a more useful tool.
“We are entering an entirely new era for the global music business, in which ‘global’ will be less and less relevant as every year passes,” said Mulligan. “We will have two opposing forces, where more music from previously less-heard parts of the world will find global audiences, but music will regionalise much more. Hits will travel further from wherever they are from, but people in non-Western markets will increasingly prioritise music from their own parts of the world over Western hits.”
Speaking on this subject, and the degrees of promise and concern that come with it for the industry, Mulligan said: “Most new tech over-promises and then under-delivers, at least in the near-term. AI is different. Sure, there will be some sort of drop off once the initial hype dies down, but make no mistake, AI is going to transform the music business, though perhaps not just in the way many people expect it to. Indeed, so far everyone has obsessed with what AI can make rather than what AI can do.
“AI will find its way into all aspects of the music business, including automating A+R at scale — not just looking at how something is performing, the way data A+R works now, but looking at what [types of] music early stage producers and artists are likely to make in the future, based on what they are creating now. AI will be used to help labels define their sound, with labels using AI tools to ensure tracks have the right sound, mix and mastering to fit their sonic identity. It will be used to help identify unclaimed royalties, to improve catalogue management, to improve royalty payments to artists and writers, to help fans discover music at a level that today’s algorithms can only dream of.
“But AI will also result in lots, and I mean lots, of new music being made. Some of this will be via tools that help producers to get good at something they are less good at (like mixing and mastering), or which help them find inspiration (e.g. producer co-pilots) and create samples and sounds that are unique to them rather than choosing from sample libraries that everyone else can use. But it will also result in a lot of best fit music — music made for the algorithm and for functional playlists.
At some stage, unless streaming services either turn off access or create new lanes just for AI music, listeners will eventually react. Mainstream listeners will carry on unawares, happy with their ‘relaxing study’ and ‘intense workout’ playlists. But music fans will start looking elsewhere.”
The full IMS Business Report is available to read in full here.
IMS takes place at Cala Llonga this week, running from 23rd to 25th April. Presented in partnership with AlphaTheta, this year’s summit will centre around the theme of Intergenerational Exchange, with related programming focused on bridging generational gaps by bringing together industry pioneers and rising stars to connect and exchange ideas. Full programme details are available here.
