Electronic artists were still paid less for gigs in 2023 despite industry growth, IMS Report finds

The IMS Business Report 2024 has found that fees for electronic artists have yet to bounce back to a pre-COVID level, despite the industry growing by 17% last year.

The annual report, which was published ahead of the International Music Summit (IMS) last month, revealed that 40% of DJs say they are "generally being paid less," while a further 40% said they were "struggling to find gigs" in comparison to before the pandemic.

However, 85% disagreed with the statement that "DJing is more important than making music," despite 51% claiming that performing was a better source of income than music royalties.

Working with MIDiA Research, the report has dived into a “view of the current state of the global electronic music industry.”

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The IMS report's tenth edition also discovered that women and non-binary artists are more likely than men to be interrupted, excluded, questioned and judged unfairly.

It’s shown that women creators are nearly twice as likely as men to find that they are being paid less than their peers in the same or similar roles.

It continues: “Women and gender-expansive creators are still treated differently to their male peers in the music business, which often holds them back from fulfilling their potential.”

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For record labels, 2023 saw non-majors grow the fastest by 17%, whilst majors grew by 7% overall.

On top of this, Beatport sales found that Afro House rose in popularity, going from being the 18th most popular genre in the 2022 chart, to ninth in 2023.

Tech-house continued to grow last year as it held its place at the top of the charts with the genres of house and techno just below.

Check out the full report here.

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Multimedia Editor, follow her on Twitter