It was good to be back on the island. IMS Ibiza 2026, held in partnership with AlphaTheta at Mondrian & Hyde Ibiza, wrapped up on Friday and for those of us who attended, it felt like one of the most forward-looking editions in years. The theme — Reclaim the Dancefloor — wasn’t just a slogan. It shaped three days of genuinely pointed debate about where electronic music is heading and who gets to shape that future.
We caught up with colleagues and clients throughout the week, and the conversations away from the panels were just as revealing as those on stage.
“Reclaiming the dancefloor is not about looking back, it’s about building what comes next.”
This year’s IMS Electronic Music Business Report, compiled by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan, confirmed that the global electronic music industry grew 7% in 2025 reaching a total market value of $15.1 billion. That figure now includes electronic music’s attributed share of DSP revenues for the first time, which reframes the scale of the sector considerably. Publishing, merchandise and streaming platforms led growth, while live and creator tools faced headwinds from venue pressures and the rapid rise of AI in production.
Ibiza itself remains the commercial heartbeat of the live scene: club ticketing revenue on the island hit €160 million in 2025, up €10 million year-on-year, even as the average number of events per venue continues to decline. Venues are doing more with less — optimising yield rather than volume. That’s a dynamic we’re watching closely on the radio and streaming promotion side too.
The report’s global market data paints a vivid picture of which countries electronic music genuinely owns, and where the next wave of listeners is coming from. Germany remains the undisputed leader by Spotify monthly listeners (604 million cumulative) extending a run at the top that feels unlikely to be challenged any time soon. Australia, the Netherlands and the UK round out the strongholds, and there’s a particularly striking metric buried in the data: in Germany, Australia and the Netherlands, electronic music Spotify listeners exceed five times the total national population. That’s a measure of how deeply embedded the genre is in those markets’ music cultures, and how internationally significant their audiences are.
The emerging market story is where it gets genuinely exciting. Indonesia recorded the highest growth of any market in 2025, a 77% increase in electronic music monthly listeners on Spotify and SoundCloud’s top growing scenes list is dominated by Global South signals: Indonesian breakbeat sits at number one, followed by South Korean EDM and Colombian guaracha. These aren’t genres being parachuted in from Europe; they’re local sounds fusing with global electronic frameworks. Brazil and India are also sizeable audiences that continue to expand, and South Africa’s prominence here is consistent with the surge of afro house on both Beatport and Splice globally.
One of the most energising sessions on the final day put CIRCA’s Brandon Reynolds, Apple Music’s Stephen Campbell and Tim Sweeney on stage alongside Eliza Rose and The Warehouse Project’s Mark Abbott to examine how DJ mixes are functioning as a global discovery tool. The panel made a compelling case that long-form mix content is carving out genuine cultural weight as both a creative medium and a listener acquisition engine. For anyone working in electronic music promotion, this is a conversation that matters: mixes and podcasts are increasingly the front door.
Electronic music is the number one genre on SoundCloud in the UK and number two in the US, accounting for one in three of all uploads globally in 2025. On TikTok, the #ElectronicMusic hashtag grew 106% since 2022, with niche subgenres like #SpeedGarage and #Garage expanding at roughly double the rate of mainstream categories. These metrics point to a genre whose discovery infrastructure is increasingly social and context-driven, not just editorial.
AI was a thread running through almost every panel, but the most substantive framing came from the market data. Revenues for generative AI and stem-separation tools grew 651% between 2023 and 2025, reaching $333 million with 63 million monthly active users. That growth is happening in direct competition with traditional music software, DAW and non-DAW software revenues fell over the same period. The creator economy is being restructured in real time.
Tech house held on to four consecutive years at the top of the Beatport charts, with melodic house and techno climbing to third — displacing drum and bass, which lost ground in 2025. On Splice, afro house was the story of the year, rocketing from tenth to second most-searched genre with an 82% increase in searches. Schranz (hard German techno) saw an 83% increase in SoundCloud uploads. The MIDiA report put it plainly: music tends to get harder and faster when the wider world feels uncertain.
The Brave Space, presented by HE.SHE.THEY., held space for conversations on mental health, equity and global networks. AlphaTheta’s data on gender split among registered users showed female DJs growing their share year-on-year, now at 15% of registered accounts, but the report was candid that the pace of change remains slow. The summit’s closing keynote featured Sister Bliss of Faithless in conversation with co-host Jaguar, a moment that tied the week’s themes together: legacy, identity and what the next generation inherits.
These insights aren’t new themes for us, but IMS has a way of sharpening the picture. We’ll be sharing more on each of these in the weeks ahead. Thanks to everyone who took the time to meet with us during the summit week. If you’d like to continue any of these conversations, our door is open.