IMS Ibiza 2026: what does it reveal about the future of electronic music?

IMS Ibiza 2025: What Does It Reveal About the Future of Electronic Music?

To find out, we turned to the IMS Business Report from the latest edition of the International Music Summit (IMS) in Ibiza – the premier conference for culture, education, business, and wellness in electronic music. The report offers a snapshot of the global dance music industry, highlighting key transformations, challenges, data, and trends.

The data was compiled and analysed by MIDiA Research (midiaresearch.com), a leading firm in digital entertainment research and insights.

If you missed the event, here’s a breakdown of the key takeaways and emerging figures to better understand where the industry is headed.

The Electronic Music Market Reaches 15.1 Billion Dollars

In 2025, the value of the global electronic music industry reached 15.1 billion dollars, growing by 7% compared with 14.2 billion in 2024.

Growth involved all the main segments, although at different speeds. Music publishing, merchandising, sponsorships and digital platform revenues recorded the strongest performances. Live events and tools for creators showed more moderate momentum, influenced respectively by the closure of some venues, lower audience attendance frequency and the rise of artificial intelligence.

Streaming and the Fan Economy Are Changing the Music Market

The global recorded music market reached 39 billion dollars in 2025, growing by 9% after the slowdown of the previous year. Streaming generated 24 billion dollars, while the physical market reached 5 billion dollars.

For the first time, however, streaming grew less than the overall market. The strongest growth came from so-called expanded rights, meaning revenues linked to merchandising, direct-to-consumer activities and other initiatives that allow labels to monetise their relationship with fans beyond simple listening.

This is one of the report’s most significant signals: the value of music increasingly depends on the ability to build communities, identity and forms of participation. Electronic music starts from a favourable position, because club culture, festivals, DJing and local scenes have always had a strong collective dimension.

Streaming Subscribers Surpass 900 Million

In 2025, subscribers to music streaming services reached 919 million, 85 million more than the previous year. The 10% growth was driven above all by markets in the Global South, which are developing at more than twice the speed of Western markets.

Spotify maintains 32% of the market and reaches around 290 million subscribers. YouTube Music is the other global service that recorded particularly significant growth.

Electronic music retains a very solid international presence. It is the first or second genre by Spotify listeners in 10 of its 13 main markets, often outperforming hip hop, rock and Latin music.

Germany remains the largest market, with 604 million cumulative monthly listeners on Spotify. Indonesia recorded the fastest growth, at 77%, while Mexico dropped by 34%, leaving fifth place and falling to twelfth.

These figures also suggest the need for greater caution when reading global trends: the demographic size of some countries can make phenomena appear universal when, in reality, they remain strongly concentrated at regional level.

Festivals and DJing: A Year of Consolidation

Electronic artists represented 17% of the line-ups of the world’s top 100 festivals, slightly down from 18% in 2024 but still above the 2023 figure.

The report interprets this change as consolidation rather than a loss of centrality. DJs and electronic artists continue to hold a stable position within the major events landscape, also supported by a wide circuit of dedicated festivals.

The increase in female representation in DJing is also continuing slowly. In 2025, women represented 15% of AlphaTheta accounts with declared gender, compared with 14% in 2024 and 13% in 2023. The direction is positive, but the gap remains wide, and the report highlights the need to address behaviours and barriers that have become entrenched over time.

Artificial Intelligence and Music: The Creator Economy Grows

Artificial intelligence is one of the deepest changes identified by the report. Between 2023 and 2025, revenues from generative AI applications and stem separation tools grew by 651%.

In 2025, these solutions reached:

• 63 million monthly active users;
• 333 million dollars in revenue;
• increasing adoption even among people without professional musical training.

The main effect of AI concerns creation. New technologies are making activities such as production, audio processing, remixing and stem separation more accessible, expanding the number of people who can take part in the creator economy.

Almost half of consumers already carry out at least one activity linked to music creation or plan to start doing so. Singing, playing an instrument, following tutorials, writing lyrics and publishing music on platforms are becoming increasingly widespread behaviours.

This democratisation opens up new possibilities, but also increases pressure on traditional music tools and makes the debate around quality, rights, recognisability and the value of content more urgent.

Ibiza Grows Even with Fewer Events

Ibiza confirms its role as an international centre for electronic music. In 2025, revenues from club ticketing alone reached 160 million euros, ten million more than in 2024.

This growth took place while the average number of events per venue fell from 144 to 140. Venues therefore generated higher revenues through less frequent programming, maximising the return of each event.

The figure does not include VIP areas and other revenues generated on the island, so the overall economic value is even higher.

Tech House at the Top, Afro House Still Growing

In terms of genres, tech house retains first place in Beatport sales for the fourth consecutive year, followed by house. Melodic house and techno rises to third place, overtaking drum and bass.

Afro House continues its growth path, although the picture is more complex than in 2024. On Beatport it ranks seventh, while on Splice it becomes the second most searched genre, rising from tenth place in 2023. In 2025 alone, searches increased by 82%.

Regional scenes combining global electronic languages and local cultures are also growing. On SoundCloud, phenomena such as Indonesian breakbeat, Vinahouse, South Korean EDM and Colombian guaracha are emerging.

The Future of Electronic Music Starts from the Scenes

The IMS Electronic Music Business Report 2025/6 describes a larger, more global and more technological industry, in which consumption alone is no longer enough to explain value.

Streaming and platforms remain fundamental infrastructures, while community, live experiences, cultural identity and participation are becoming increasingly important. Artificial intelligence expands access to creation, but makes the market more crowded and raises new questions about content quality and the sustainability of creative professions.

Explore all the data and trends in the official IMS 2026 keynote video >> CLICK HERE to view it.