The Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine really hit the electronic music industry like a metal wall. At least, according to the International Music Summit (IMS) annual IMS Business Report that was released this week. Their findings revealed that last year, the EDM sector plummeted to 54% of its value. Don’t order the tombstone yet, though, because this tells us a lot about what’s coming next.
The IMS is a major platform for business and culture in the electronic music industry. Their IMS Business Report, created by David Boyle, collects definitive data worldwide to produce valuable statistics and information about the state and economic trajectory of the electronic music business.
After a decade of steady climbing, 2020’s pandemic set the EDM industry back $3.4 billion in actual lost revenue. Businesses of most trades in the space experienced setbacks. Nonetheless, the news is far from all bad. Musicians and companies found new ways to provide their fans with satisfactory musical experiences.
The IMS report focuses on nine key points reflecting on 2020’s unique musical landscape. The following focuses on three of those topics: Festivals, livestreams, and the now growing “metaverse,” and what they mean for the future of electronic music.
Festivals and Shows in 2020
According to the report, more than 200 music festivals were either postponed or cancelled. The result of this is hundreds of thousands of employees and workers losing their jobs for the duration of the pandemic.
Venues and clubs worldwide had to close down. In some cases, businesses like clubbingspain.com, which provided lists of artists and live performances for two decades, saw nearly all of their revenue gone overnight.
Clubs and festivals lost a combined amount of $3.4 billion on their own during 2020. Despite this, the IMS report is confident that we will see a “big rebound” as venues begin to re-open.
For instance, ticket sales in March of 2021 outnumbered the amount of tickets sold in the entirety of the year of 2020. The rebound is actually happening right now when you take this into account.
Many festivals and clubs managed to preserve revenue by either opening their facilities to new services or moving to livestream shows.
Photo by Heshan Perera on Unsplash
Livestreaming in 2020
Livestream services have never seen success like they did in 2020. Top electronic music platforms saw 1.2 million new followers in total on Twitch alone. New methods of engagement with fans were discovered that rendered specializations for different streaming platforms.
Analytics reveal EDM performances on Twitch had some of the best engagement, compared to YouTube which usually achieves a higher view count. Twitch streams differ from Instagram, TikTok and other social media because, according to the report, it does not follow the same mechanics and therefore focuses on building and maintaining a community with fans.
Different platforms therefore serve different purposes. Where Twitch was good for building a fanbase, LIVENOW and DICE provide excellent sites for ticketed shows. There is now a more concrete dynamic to the digital EDM industry, which brings us to something intriguing.
The EDM Industry and the Metaverse
The IMS defines the metaverse as “The collection of digital spaces in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.” A big part of this is the gaming industry, and the rest can be attributed to augmented and virtual reality, as well as interactive art.
Video games aren’t the only medium for the metaverse. It’s more about digital environments people can socialize in, and right now that’s exactly what games like Fortnite and Minecraft are. Artists have begun featuring in such games, rather than just contributing to soundtracks as well.
With big companies like Apple investing in AR/VR, it is certain that music will become a vital component of a new way to experience entertainment in the near future.
See the full report here:
International Music Summit Annual Business Report 2021
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