Music is content and growth in music is nothing new. Trends are always shifting and new genres are being thrust into the spotlight with every year that passes. With the growth of streaming services and tech-related music, dance music is a genre that has experienced some of the most growth in the past two decades.
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Follow the Playlist on SpotifyHow much is the dance music industry worth? As of 2023, dance music revenues are growing by 30-35% annually. Prior to the pandemic, dance music already had a pretty good amount of growth behind it, estimated at 15-20% annually.
Needless to say, this is quite a jump but is also in line with similar growth in music publishing and creator tools.
A report by MIDiA Research suggests the current value of the dance music industry can be estimated at $11.3 billion.
This amount of money is being derived from several sources. Live dance music clubs and venues are operational, and experiencing record growth in terms of popularity. Dance music festivals are seeing record numbers of tickets sold.
Electronic music is also finding a younger audience on TikTok. Fan engagement for dance music on TikTok is estimated to be growing up to ten times faster than other genres, including hip-hop. EDM and dance music is the fastest-growing genre in the world.
Here is some more data and trends examining the rise of dance music which is on the path to continue growing.
Music Industry Trends Are Supporting EDM
As we’ve identified, there are a number of trends that have helped dance music grow along.
The real nucleus of today’s dance music explosion began somewhere around 2015, the first year where digital revenues surpassed physical revenues in music worldwide. Today, more people are listening to music through their earbuds or headphones than ever before and that has affected the ways that mixes are being built.
EDM and dance music mixes, some might say, sound better and are easier to craft than say a rock band.
Top 5 Richest Artists In EDM And Dance Music
The richest artist in EDM currently is Calvin Harris with a reported worth of $300 million.
The rest of the top five are filled with Tiesto at $170 million, David Guetta at $150 million, Steve Aoki at $120 million, and Thomas Bangalter at $90 million.
Though these amounts are nowhere near the top names in hip-hop, rock, or pop, the genre’s growth rate is higher than these genres mentioned by far. Everyone’s wealth is growing at record rates.
Summer EDM Festivals Are Driving A Lot Of People To Dance Music
Recorded dance music is one thing but going to see live dance music is a full-body experience that’s memorable.
Summer festivals are the go-to money-makers for a lot of dance music artists and, unlike hip-hop, their success transcends geography becoming worldwide hits. New EDM festivals have already been established in countries as far away as Cuba, Panama, Vietnam, and the Philippines. It’s truly a global music genre.
The biggest EDM festival in the United States presently is the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, generating millions in gross profit and with an attendance of over 410,000 people this past year, making it the 4th largest festival in the entire world.
Live Music Is Not Growing But Live Dance Music Is
A recent study published by Nielsen Music in the United States analyzing live music events showed that the only genre of music that was generating growth in profits in live music was electronic music-related events.
Club events, in particular, are seeing the most attendance growth and dollar-amount growth annually while venues and events geared towards other genres have either experienced no growth or are actually seeing a reverse trend.
The pandemic certainly did not do live music any favors but since the onset, live dance music is bouncing back better than anyone.
Dance Music Is A Worldwide Culture
The primary reason, above all others, for the high growth in EDM, electronic-influenced, or electronic-based dance music has to do with its worldwide culture of music.
No one has to understand the language of the vocals to understand the beat.
Throughout the history of music, across nearly every continent, music was made to move people and to provoke movement. It is this that dance music has been founded on and it’s what is allowing it to grow in areas of China, India, and other parts of East Asia, as well as South America and Europe.
Audiences Like Music That They Can Dance To – They Always Have
The most popular music of every decade of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in North America is associated with movement.
The 1920s had dance music. The 1930s had swing. The 1950s had rock and roll. The 1960s had soul music. The 1980s had synth rock. The 1990s and 2000s had hip-hop and R&B. It just keeps going and going.
People love to dance and dance music, however it’s defined, is seemingly always the most popular music.
EDM Might Be The Genre Of The Next 25 Years
As DJs, producers of dance music, and EDM artists continue to climb the charts, it’s already become difficult to locate a mainstream successful artist that has not been in some way influenced by dance music.
Nothing moves young people and people of all cultures like what’s heard in dance music, EDM, and house music.
This is only going to continue. In the same way that jazz had its day, rock had its day, and in the ways that hip-hop has had such a wide influence in the past 25 years, the next 25 years could be the time for electronic music to rise to the top.