Music

Domain

On the Music domain page, we present recent figures on the production, distribution and consumption of live and recorded music. The music 'ecosystem' is comprehensive and includes artists and creators, live music, recorded music and its distribution, rights and publishing, supporting organisations, media, education and training, policy and audiences. This domain page also covers developments concerning the music sector's resilience in various thematic areas, for example regarding talent development and professionalisation, fair pay, and diversity and inclusion. Together with the Theatre domain, music falls under the performing arts.

Summary

This page focuses on the domain Music in its full scope. The music industry is vast and growing annually: particularly streaming and live music have been gaining popularity over the past few decades. The industry also faces challenges. Changes within society, for example regarding digitalisation, require continuous adjustments. Not all music genres receive equal recognition; there is much uncertainty about work for creators and other professionals, and there are concerns about the accessibility of live music. There is also much discussion about broader social issues, such as diversity and inclusion, and sustainability. Although the importance of these themes is becoming more widely accepted and specific interventions are being developed, there is still a long way to go.

Introduction and key figures

The Dutch music industry consists of several subdomains, which are often divided into genres. From popular music such as hip-hop and Electronic Dance Music (EDM), to classical music and jazz: there is a wealth of creators, organisations, venues, events and others involved in each genre. Not all these subsectors have received equal attention and recognition within the music sector and within cultural policy, for example hip-hop (Raad voor Cultuur 2024, Vrieze 2023a, UNESCO 2024) and jazz (Kamer 2023). Popular music is often not subsidised by the government (only 2 percent of performances), while classical music and opera (23 and 81 percent of performances, respectively) can often rely on government subsidies (Siebe Weide Advies 2023). Although greater awareness of this disparity in recognition seems to be emerging within cultural policy (see Raad voor Cultuur 2024), there is still a long way to go. Also, there is not always sufficient data available to draw conclusions about developments per genre. For example, for the pop music sector, only cross-genre data is available annually, and for jazz and classical music, data is collected only occasionally.   

Despite differences between music genres, the broad music industry can be divided into three branches: 1) the recording industry (recording and distribution of music in physical and digital form), 2) the licensing industry (music rights and royalties) and 3) the live music industry (Wikström 2014). In recent decades, the rise of the internet has contributed to major changes within and between these three branches. Whereas the recording industry, including physical sound carriers such as CDs and vinyl, used to be of great importance as a revenue source, the focus is now much more on streaming and live music (Everts 2023, NVPI 2023). The visualisation below, with figures from the Dutch Association of Producers and Importers of Video and Sound Carriers (NVPI), shows that in the Netherlands, revenue from streaming is increasing, while total revenue from physical sound carriers has declined. Although streaming is the largest revenue source, the popularity of vinyl has been increasing slightly in recent years. The changes in revenue sources have also had a major impact on the licensing industry. For instance, for years there have been discussions about the way revenue from streaming should be divided between music platforms (such as Spotify) and rights holders, such as record companies, musicians and music publishers (for a detailed explanation, see Hesmondhalgh 2020). These discussions are particularly relevant when considering where revenue within the music industry comes from: for example, revenue from the physical and digital music market and from copyright are almost equal in 2021 (254 million and 239 million respectively).   

Music industry turnover and income

in millions of Euro
in millions of Euro

Source: Music industry turnover NVPI; Income from copyrights Buma/Stemra & Sena (processing Boekmanstichting)

Although live music has become an increasingly important part of the music sector overall, trends in performances and visits are difficult to fully track due to the lack of data on live music at non-professional venues, music festivals and nightclubs. However, we do note that total attendance of music performances in professional venues has gradually increased from 2005 to 2019, and even after the dip of the Covid pandemic, this trend seems to continue in 2022. Whereas there were about 2005 million music performance visits in 7,5, there were 2022 million in 9,5. The number of performances is also increasing: while there were 2005 in 17.697, in 2022 they will have increased to 20.138 (CBS, 2023). Pop music is particularly popular: in 2022, there were almost 7,9 million visits to performances within this subdomain. While the number of visits for pop music at professional venues is almost back to the pre-Covid levels, classical music still lags slightly behind in 2022. The number of classical music performances in 2022 rises slightly above 2019, but in 2022 there are still 185.000 fewer visits recorded across this genre than in 2019 (Ibid.).  

Performances on professional stages

Number of music performances in professional venues
Number of music performances in professional venues by subdomain

Source: CBS 2021 2022 2023a 2023b

Visits to professional stages

In millions
In millions

Source: CBS 2021 2022 2023a 2023b

Festivals are an increasingly important venue for live music. Since the turn of the century, there has therefore been talk of the ‘festivalisation’ of live music, a term that emphasises the increasing importance of festivals in the live music industry (Mulder et al. 2020). Several studies for the Dutch context also show a growth in popularity. For example, the ‘Live Music Monitor’ shows that from 2008 onwards, there has been an increase in music festivals programming pop music in the Netherlands, peaking at 1165 festivals in 2016. After this, the number of festivals appears to decrease, to 868 festivals in 2019. It is still unclear how this developed after the Covid years.  

Another important venue for live music is nightclubs. Although limited data is available on nightclubs, previous research showed that the number of nightclubs in the Netherlands almost halved between 2008 and 2017: from 312 clubs in 2008 to 174 clubs in 2017 (Van Spronsen & Partners 2017). Moreover, music venues play an important role in nightlife, as many club nights are also organised here. In 2022, 54 of the 60 professional music venues affiliated to the VNPF organised a total of 2138 club nights in their own buildings (Dee et al. 2022). Despite these figures, data is limited and fragmented. There also remains the question of how clubs are defined in different reports: while Van Spronsen & Partners counted only 33 nightclubs in North Holland in 2017, research by Koren (2023) shows that Amsterdam had as many as 58 nightclubs just before the Covid crisis. Koren defined a nightclub as a venue or stage with a dance floor and a DJ that hosts weekly club nights, mostly after midnight.  

What else do we want to know about the Music domain?

The Research and Innovation Agenda for the Pop Music Sector indicated a strong need for data on small venues and rehearsal spaces, to gain more insight into how local talent development can be further stimulated. Moreover, identifying small venues and places that provide occasional performance space - such as pubs, party venues, squats, and community centres - would provide valuable knowledge about audiences and smaller players in the music world outside the large, established institutions. Gradually, more data on this is becoming available, for example regarding live music venues in Rotterdam and other European cities in the Live Music Mapping Project.

Figures for the live music sector are mostly incomplete and therefore do not give a complete picture of the industry. Therefore, there remains a need for cross-sectoral data: not only concerning different music genres, in which, for example, more distinctions could be made by genre within pop music, but also for festivals and nightclubs more broadly. While there is a relatively large amount of data available on concerts, it is still unclear, for example, how the Covid years have affected the festival and nightclub industry. We also know little about diversity and inclusion in the pop music industry, in which research focuses mainly on gender, and we know even less within other music genres. A major question also arises regarding ethnicity: there is consistently little data available on this subject throughout the music industry (see also discussion on personal data on the Diversity and Inclusion page).

A final knowledge question concerns gathering insights about workers. Regarding fair pay and educational opportunities, existing studies, projects and reports focus mainly on musicians. However, the music industry, and all the issues surrounding work therein, consist of many more stakeholders. To gain more insight into work in the music industry, and to form appropriate policies, it is important to shift the focus and explore the experiences and positions of other groups of workers as well.   

Want to know more about the Music domain?

View more data about the Music domain in the Dashboard of the Culture Monitor.  

More literature about the Music domain can be found in the Knowledge baseof the Boekman Foundation.  

Previous editions of the text on this domain page can be found here:
2021 
2022

Sources

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Justification text and image

Editorial note: An earlier version of this page was written by Janna Michael and Shomara Roosblad.

Discussion partners: In 2021 we spoke to various people to collect information for the development of this domain page.

Graphics and design: Studio Paisley Cheese / Photography: Lisa Maatjens.

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