The IMS Business Report 2026 reveals that the global electronic music ecosystem is now worth $15.1 billion. Afro house is exploding, Ibiza clubs are hauling in €160 million, and the Global South is building its own festival infrastructure.

The IMS 2026 report has just dropped, and the numbers are as wild as the scenes they measure. The global electronic music ecosystem is now worth $15.1 billion. That is 7% growth year‑on‑year. As a result, electronic music stands out as one of the most resilient creative economies in music.

MIDiA Research compiled the snapshot for the International Music Summit. Streaming, festivals, clubs, publishing and creator tools all contributed to the climb. However, the most striking point is where the growth comes from. It no longer centers on the usual suspects. Instead, the future looks increasingly Afro‑driven, AI‑assisted and rooted in the Global South.

Afro house leads the IMS 2026 report

Within that big figure, the genre data shows a seismic shift. Afro house grew an astonishing 82% in a single year. It became one of the most‑searched genres on the producer platform Splice. It is also the fastest‑rising sound of the 2025–26 cycle.

Once, the genre circulated mainly in local barrios and regional raves. Now it is a global search phenomenon. Millions of producers reach for its percussive runs, vocal cuts and groove‑first logic. The IMS report treats this as a forward‑looking signal. In other words, what producers search for on Splice today shapes tomorrow’s sets.

Ibiza: big money, growing tension

At the same time, the numbers show that electronic music still depends on its heartlands. Ibiza, long the symbolic capital of club culture, earns an estimated €160 million a year from clubs and after‑parties alone. Clearly, the island remains deeply embedded in the global party economy.

Yet protesters now gather outside those same clubs. Locals block viewpoints and call for limits on tourism, liquor sales and late‑night parties. This tension between economic pull and local push is a central contradiction of the sector. The places that built electronic music’s myth now struggle to live with it.

The Global South builds its own scenes

Perhaps the most telling story in the report is the rise of new infrastructure in the Global South. From Lagos to Panama City, and from São Paulo to Nairobi, local scenes no longer just import European sounds and festival formats. Instead, they build their own club cultures, resident‑driven mixes and festivals rooted in local traditions.

The IMS data flags these regional scenes as a long‑term growth driver. They won’t dethrone Ibiza or Las Vegas. Rather, they will create new centers for careers, labels and communities. In the end, everything is shifting: the money, the regions and even the definition of “electronic” music in 2026.