What you need to know about the growth of the Asian market
The annual IMS Ibiza report has been released for 2018 and as always, the report covered a vast number of topics within the realms of EDM including DJ’s social media numbers, streaming growth, festivals, DJ’s earnings and digital music sales. In this article, we’ll be delving into the stats revealing EDM’s rapid exponential growth across the Asia-Pacific region.
How big is the market?
A Nielsen study into music habits in the Asia-Pacific found that Koreans are most likely to listen to dance music. The study, which surveyed 5,000 people, questioned how often, if ever, participants listen to electronic music. Results showed that 74% of participants listen to EDM, making it the second-most listened to genre. In addition to this, dance music ranked in the top 5 genres in China, Taiwan & Australia, with up to 64% of respondents listening to some form of electronic music. Overall recorded music revenues grew 5.4% in Asia and Australasia in 2017, with China up 35% YoY.
These numbers are great, but what do the numbers mean? Essentially, the Asia and Oceanic regions are going to become BIG. Despite a large overall population, Asia’s (namely) market is still relatively underdeveloped compared to that of the U.S and Europe – meaning, there’s plenty more room for growth. Their biggest asset? A gargantuan population size. Trying to crack into the U.S market is never an easy task. It’s a big, oversaturated boiling pot full of large stacks of money and already established artists and labels. With major labels such as Sony, Universal, Dim Mak and Relief Records all based in North America, starting from the ground up is straight up difficult. Asia, however, doesn’t have any major record labels. Beatstats’ statistics show that the top-selling labels on Beatport are all based in Europe and the U.S. This means, the title for Asia’s biggest record label is still up for grabs. Given the aforementioned information, this makes Asia the perfect landing spot for the next Spinnin’ Records or Revealed Recordings to set up camp.
Festivals
Another indicator of Asia’s booming growth was Ultra Music Festival‘s expansion into the region. Adding festivals in China and India, Ultra capitalized on a large population and ever-growing market. Despite this, Ultra was just one of many festivals to have taken place in China recently. After their mammoth 2018 expansion, Ultra now have installments in 12 cities across the Asia and Oceanic region with countries such as China, Indonesia, The Philippines, India, Korea and Japan all a part of the Ultra family. Unlike Miami, the Asian editions haven’t been around for 20 years, but despite this, they always draw out strong crowds. These crowds are a clear indicator of the region’s booming market. Should this continue, vast digital sales and record labels will very soon make their way into countries such as China and India, much like Ultra have found their place.
In addition to this, the number of electronic music festivals in China is expected to rise from 32 in 2016 to over 150 this year. Storm Music Festival has led this expansion, going from 1 event / 24k attendees in 2013 to 9 events / 180k+ attendees last year. While patron numbers are excellent, this isn’t the best part. With 150 festivals, China will have a large number of time slots open for DJ’s to perform. While many will be reserved for international acts, essentially, more festivals means more chances for local acts to hop on stage and build their brand. This helps China build their scene at the grassroots level, establishing a strong foundation from the ground up.
Is Asia where all the fun is at?
Not necessarily. The infographic above shows that Australia holds the 4th largest EDM audience in Asia. While the aforementioned Asian countries each have consistently maintained their own festivals, Australia’s festival situation has been a complicated one for some time now. After losing Stereosonic and Future Music Festival in previous years, Creamfields and Ultra came to fill the void in 2017 and 2018 respectively. But what did they achieve? They showed signs of life in the land down under. They showed the rest of the world that there’s another market waiting to be tapped into. Given their close proximity, it isn’t uncommon for DJ’s to tour Australia and Asia within the same time period. As a result, DJ’s will come to Australia, because they’re already touring within the region, not because they targeted it initially.
Due to a lack of festivals, luring big-name DJ’s to Australia is never an easy task. Despite this, Sydney-based booking agency Poster Child has lured Patrick Topping, Snails, Sam Feldt and Laidback Luke to play across various dates in 2018. In comparison to certain Asian countries, Australia boasts a number of respectably-sized record labels (such as onelove, Central Station Records, TMRW Music, formerly known as Ministry of Sound Australia) and boast the foundations to grow into a premier EDM market. However, unlike Asia, Australia does not boast the population size to consistently sustain a large number of events.
The Asia-Pacific region holds many valuable assets and boasts sufficient foundations to build from the ground up. Despite still being rather small in comparison to the U.S. and Europe, the Asia-Pacific is on track to become one of the world’s electronic music hotspots. With so many underdeveloped necessities, external sources have the opportunity to make their way into Asia and put their stamp on the map.