IMS 2024 kicked off on Wednesday with an analysis of the dance music industry. | Toni Planells

The tenth edition of IMS Ibiza kicked off this Wednesday at the Mondrian Hyde Hotel in Cala Llonga. After the official presentation, the electronic music summit kicked off with an analysis of the details of the IMS 2024 Annual Business Report on the past season, written by Mark Mulligan, managing director and analyst at MIDiA Research.

According to the data in this report, revenue from Ibiza nightclub ticket sales in 2023 was up 14% on the previous year, reaching €141 million, and up 76% on the figures recorded in 2019, before the pandemic hit, when it reached €80 million.

The number of events held in the island's nightclubs has also increased significantly from 123 in 2019 to 147 last season. Another fact that the head of MIDiA Research wanted to highlight in his speech points to the increase in the price of tickets to Ibizan clubs, which went from an average price in 2022 of 44 euros to 51 in 2023.

Post-pandemic growth

In the midst of a post-pandemic growth phase, global data for the electronic music industry according to the IMS 2024 Annual Business Report presented by Mulligam also reflects a notable increase in revenue of up to 17% in 2023. The same report puts the total industry valuation at over €11 billion, with notable growth particularly in festivals/clubs, recordings and publishing.

«2022 was an unusual year in that it reflected the post-pandemic recovery effect for live events,» said the MIDi head of MIDi. The head of MIDiA Resarch went on to explain that «there was a risk that 2023 could not live up to those inflated expectations, but instead, the electronic music industry grew solidly again, with impressive growth in virtually all its constituent parts».

«In addition, electronic music culture grew its fan base faster than other leading genres,» explained Mulligan, who attributed this success «to the rapid rise of African music and its followers, illustrating the growing cultural presence of electronic music and its vibrant global scenes».

«DJs are getting gigs again, but those gigs are getting in the way of creating music,» Mulligan explained during his presentation to expose what he called the «creative paradox» in which 81% of DJs consider it more important to play music than to create it.

In terms of music styles, Mulligan's report highlights that while Techno and House continue to dominate sales, Afro House has seen a meteoric rise from 18th in Q1 2022 to ninth in Q3 2023. This, along with the rise of South Africa as one of Spotify's top markets for electronic music, further signals the growing importance of sub-Saharan Africa in electronic music culture.

The head of MIDiA Research also analysed the various music platforms for electronic music, acknowledging Spotify's overwhelming dominance over the others, followed by Amazon Music, Tencent Music and Apple Music. The global music subscriber base grew by 14.4% in Q3 2022 to 2023, adding 90.0 million subscribers. This is 6.5 million more subscribers than were added during the same period a year earlier.