COVID-19 will not prevent the International Music Summit (IMS) from delivering their annual snapshot of the electronic music industry. The 2020 IMS Business Report will be presented in a Zoom webinar on Thursday, July 16th at 5:00 PM BST.
The report is presented annually by economist Kevin Watson. It typically aggregates data from markets like recorded music, live music, and gear to outline trends from the previous year – but in light of the pandemic, it will include a “2020 So Far” section. Billboard Dance Editor Katie Bain will also moderate a first-ever live debate on the report following Watson’s 60-minute presentation.
End of an Era
2020 will mark the tenth annual IMS Business Report, meaning the launch of the series largely coincided with the commercial EDM explosion of the past decade. In 2012 Watson wrote that “it has felt like our industry is the next Hollywood Blockbuster,” and in the year that followed he estimated the total value of the industry to have climbed from $4.5 billion to $6.2 billion.
Over the past few years, however, electronic music’s aggregate market value began to show signs of slowing down. The 2018 IMS Business Report estimated the 2017 amount to be $7.3 billion – down 2% from the previous year’s figure of $7.4 billion. The 2019 report estimated the 2018 value to have contracted by another 2%, but COVID-19 will surely prove to cut it down by a much wider margin.
Webinar registration for IMS Business Report 2020 is available on a first-come-first-serve basis here.
