In the Amsterdam Dance Event, NetEase Cloud Music’s EDM-focused subsidiary FEVER released China Electronic Music Market Research Report detailing the condition of the market.

The report presented a prosperous consumer market for electronic music in China, with every submarket growing in revenue. Electronic Music has grown to be the second most popular musical genre in China. Among the subgenres, House is the most popular (53%), followed by Bass (50%), Trap (39%), Techno (31%), and Hard Dance (31%).

20% of Electronic music lovers see it as a potential career path; the rest of them likes it as a hobby. 84% of them are interested in traveling abroad to attend EDM festivals, among whom the United States is the most sought after location (53%), followed by the Netherlands (40%) and the UK (34%). An average music festival traveler spends 996 Euros per year on music festival tourism.

With the growing market comes an increasing demand for talent. Many music conservatories are setting up Electronic departments. Private institutions are also emerging. Due to a lack of local talent, these institutions prefer partnering up with electronic music schools abroad. In 2019, NetEase FEVER set up Point Blank China (网易放刺杭州电音制作学院) in collaboration with Point Blank Music School.

While Chinese DJs are starting to receive global recognition, the market mechanism for local talent hasn’t matured. 2 Chinese DJs made the 2018 DJ Mag Top 100 list, DJ Carta, and DJ L. However, many Chinese night clubs and music festivals still heavily rely on international talent and rarely give local talents a chance to showcase their skills. Without a way to monetize their expertise, many local DJs have to drop out of the field. Ziggi Zhang, FEVER’s A&R manager commented on this issue at the ADE conference: “In the h

The electronic music festival market is growing and complicated. In 2016, there was only 32 electronic music festival in China. In 2018, there were 150. Many festival promoters fail, and many more emerge. The market is still in its nascent stage, where promoters try desperately to emulate successful western music festivals, which results in the music festivals being very similar. Without brand recognition and a stable fan base, whether fans buy tickets for a particular music festival solely relies on the lineup, which pushes booking costs up and profits down.

Support at the local government level is also crucial for the success of an electronic music festival. Therefore, many promoters partner up with local governments to promote tourism to festival-goers.

Night clubs, a major venue for the consumption of electronic music, are also becoming more abundant not only in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai but also in second-tier cities like Chengdu and Hangzhou. 

For China’s electronic music market, the days of aggressive expansion is over, quality music, artists, venues, and value chain management is about to start.