Is this the end of golden era of EDM?

Last week, the International Music Summit took place in Ibiza once again. Apart from all the amazing speakers and panels, the annual study of electronic music industry by Kevin Watson, was presented there as well. It shows quite a few alarming statistics and it seems like the golden era of EDM is slowly running out.

The report covers five key areas of the music industry: recorded music, DJs & live acts, clubs & festivals, companies & brands and the industry value. Almost all of these are showing us the downfall of the EDM popularity, in the USA and UK the market share fell down to 3% and 9,5%, estimated top 10 DJs earnings were reduced drastically, from $298m which they earned in 2017, to $261m last year, Calvin Harris still remaining the highest paid DJ, with $48m and The Chainsmokers on the second place with $45,5m. Nightclub closures all around the world, which can be seen in the UK with 21% less nightclubs still operating in 2018, compared to 2017, the overall value of electronic music industry decreased by 1%.

However not all of the statistics are bad, in Germany and Canada the market share of electronic music grew up to 7,1% and 5,9%, dance music has been ranked as the third most popular genre in the world with 1,5 billion listeners around the globe, female techno DJs dominating the festival scene, with Nina Kraviz‘s 35 festival performances, which is almost two times the amount that the Killers (the top performing band) played last year, more people than ever are attending festivals, with an increase from 18% to 23% of the USA general population attendance.

You can check the full study here.