Electronic dance music (EDM): From plain entertainment to profitable business

Abstract

Music is one of the main sources of income in the Entertainment Industry. It has created lots of jobs, thus it generated plenty of money. Since the music industry is always evolving and the trends keep changing, there is a sudden growth in the audience of the Electronic Dance Music over the last few years. That growth is examined in a global scale with respect to the market and the demographic of the genre’s forefathers (the U.S. and the U.K.) during the past decade. The goal of this study is to understand how the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) movement grew to what it has become today, if it is another temporary trend and if it will grow further in the near future. In order to understand the rapid development of this scene into one of the largest growing industries of the past decade, three approaches are used. A socio-cultural approach, to identify whether this unexpected popularity is simply just another trend, or it gradually grew to a valuable form of entertainment. That is analyzed by studying the people who produce services and the consumers. An economic approach, based on examining the funds spent and the profits gained from every relevant aspect in the industry. That includes an economic analysis on the finances of artists, managers, promoters as well as crazed fans and festival attendees. A technological approach, in terms of the ways that the industry evolved. Also, the effect of that evolution to the people involved with this scene as mentioned before. Finally, a list of significant issues that led to massive losses is presented along with some certain temporary and long-term solutions. The results of this study show that after the initial, yet rapid, growth of the overall EDM industry value until late 2015, a period of stabilization started for the past five years with a rough estimate of over 7 billion dollars (IMS Business Report 2019). Although there was a dip of 1% in the value during the last year, having a five-year stability in the industry value and considering the incidents of the global market in 2021, it is safe to say that EDM is still relevant. It is not just another trend and it will keep evolving. Even if that means that another subgenre of EDM might rise into popularity it is still the same outcome, concerning the value of the industry.