Guess which economic assets are set to double in the next seven years amidst widespread anxiety caused by global political shifts and trade wars? Precious metals? Stocks of companies focused on artificial intelligence? Collectible Lego sets? Wrong guesses all around. The market that’s about to double is electronic music.
This forecast comes from Wise Guy Reports, a well-known company specializing in market research. In 2024, the planetary volume of the electronic music market stood at $12.2 billion. By 2032, it will reach an astonishing figure of $24.49 billion. Frankly speaking, there aren't many markets on Earth capable of such growth.
The rise of electronic music is particularly striking when considering its historical context. Just recently, back in the late '90s and even into the early 2000s, it was languishing in near-hopeless underground obscurity. Record labels treated raves as a phenomenon and techno, house, acid, and drum-and-bass genres with outright hostility.
The traditional music community also viewed electronic music with unconcealed sarcasm, calling it “kick-drum solos” and pointing out that many producers often lacked basic knowledge of music theory, creating this “helpless nonsense” using computer mice.
The media wasn't entirely off-base either, contributing to the image of electronic music as a deeply marginalized culture steeped in the use and promotion of illegal psychoactive substances.
What's more, electronic music has created its own ecosystems, including those non-traditional for the music business. Real money has entered the scene, along with greater competition and more intellectually savvy authors, artists, and producers. Nowadays, even umbrella genres like “house,” despite their danceable nature, have become far more serious. And the growth of electronic music catalogues is outpacing many traditional economic assets.
In their recent specialized report, analysts at Wise Guy Reports outline several reasons behind this rapid expansion. Firstly, recommendation algorithms on streaming platforms, despite their mixed reputation, continue to improve. They introduce users to genres they might not otherwise explore, leading to increased attention for electronic music. This trend is evident in how contemporary mainstream pop music borrows arrangement techniques, sound design, and song structure elements from EDM.
Secondly, social networks indirectly contribute to audience growth. These platforms provide independent artists with direct access to existing and potential fans, allowing communication down to personal messages. Emerging producers and performers now find it easier to connect with their audiences.
Thirdly, new distribution technologies make it relatively easy for artists to publish their work. Additionally, the rapid development of music production software and the emergence of diverse affordable hardware for home studios have provided opportunities for a larger number of aspiring participants to enter the competitive landscape.
Analysts highlight another key trend: listeners seek fresh, engaging sounds and readily explore unfamiliar subgenres. The experience of listening to music becomes increasingly personalized. Mobile and online platforms catering to niche audiophiles are gaining prominence in the market.
A fourth major factor driving the growth of the electronic music market is the worldwide liberation from the COVID-induced stagnation and sanitary lockdowns that lasted for several years. Music festivals began attracting larger crowds than before the pandemic. People had grown weary of any form of offline musical activity.
These events serve as venues for promoting new artists and styles, introducing attendees to previously unknown music and encouraging consumption among newly converted followers.
Additionally, festival visitors actively share their experiences on social media, interact with each other, and expose electronic music to users who were previously unaware or unengaged.
Thanks to these factors, the consumer base of electronic music (not just dance-oriented genres) continues to grow, making its cultural landscape ever brighter and more diverse.
But we would add one more factor to this list—the unique business ecosystems that have sprung up around electronic music.
In conventional music business terms, the B2B sector refers to synchronization opportunities—placing songs in films, TV series, documentaries, shows across different genres, and advertisements. While electronic music frequently secures placements in media outlets too, it has developed a uniquely tailored B2B segment that clearly contributes to increasing the value of its music catalogs. No other genre boasts anything comparable.
We’re talking about licensing music to DJs for public performances. Only within electronic music do large-scale offline and online festivals, concerts, open-air events, and club parties exist where the actual creators and performers of the tracks themselves DO NOT PARTICIPATE.
Take Beatport, for instance. Although this platform sells music directly to end users (DJs), these DJs frequently perform in professional settings where the music serves commercial purposes—for example:
- At festivals;
- In clubs;
- On radio shows;
- During live streams and mixes
This makes DJs bona fide “business consumers,” rather than mere private individuals.
Beyond selling files to end-user listeners, Beatport offers:
1. Public Performance Rights — Indirectly via a licensing model. When a DJ purchases a track, they gain access to it for public performance, provided they hold a valid performance license from a PRO such as BMI, GEMA, or a similar organization.
2. Beatport Streaming Subscription Service — Designed specifically for DJ software (like rekordbox, Traktor, Serato). This qualifies as a B2B platform because it's aimed at professional DJs performing with laptops or CDJs.
3. Beatport DJ and LINK Pro Services — Integrated into club and streaming equipment. These are pure B2B products.
Additional features of Beatport's operations are definitively B2B-focused:
Beatport LINK: A paid subscription service enabling streaming playback in DJ software.
Beatport CLOUD: An advanced pre-listening service featuring a sample library and full waveform analysis designed for seamless professional mixing.
Integrations with Rekordbox, Serato, Denon, Traktor: Directly targeted towards DJs functioning as business entities.
APIs and White Label Solutions: Utilized in B2B exchanges.
To reiterate: no other genre in the music industry offers a comparable system for selling access to fully produced, ready-to-play tracks — as opposed to just samples or beats — like electronic music does. Another point worth noting: Beatport’s commission rates on file sales are less than 50%, and most tracks sell for prices ranging between $1.49–$2.69 USD. Compare this to the infamously low payouts per stream offered by streaming services. It seems that artists and producers in the broad category of electronic music enjoy certain economic advantages compared to everyone else.
So, are you still surprised that substantial amounts of money circulate in the electronic music market and that it grows so robustly?
As we've already established, based on data from 2024, the current size of the market stands at approximately $12.02 billion. Of this total revenue, roughly $3.5 billion is generated by House music. With numerous substyles, House remains intrinsically linked to festival and club scenes, offering predominantly danceable rhythms. House dominates the electronic music market and appears poised to maintain its triumphant trajectory in the coming years.
Techno came in second in 2024, despite being an experimental style. Surprisingly, this subgenre flourished on underground scenes, generating nearly $2.5 billion for producers and stakeholders—a remarkable achievement given its “underground” origins.
Trance tied for third place with Drum and Bass, each earning around $2.3 billion. Known primarily for its euphoric live performances, Trance thrives equally well on streaming services. Drum and Bass shares the same earnings bracket, dominating mainly club scenes and festivals.
Dubstep claimed fifth place in 2024, bringing in around $1.4 billion.
All these subgenres are expected to attract larger audiences and generate higher revenues going forward. If you're a budding music producer yet unsure of your chosen genre but drawn to electronic sounds, consider this: perhaps your future stage lies in electronic music. Yes, competition here is fierce, much like in other major genres. However, will these other genres see similarly impressive growth over the next 7-8 years?
After all, if producing doesn't pan out, there's always DJing to fall back on :)
