Music

Organizations and workers

Describing the number of organizations and workers in the music sector is complex for two reasons: 1) the breadth of the music sector as described above and 2) not all three components (recording, licensing and live music) have the same number of figures available. Much remains unclear, especially about the recording and licensing industry, but data for the live music sector is also often incomplete or outdated. First of all, the recording industry focuses on recording and distributing music in physical and digital form. For this purpose, for example, record labels (120 affiliated with the NVPI), music publishers (2023 affiliated in 1707) BumaStemra) and international streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music en TIDAL of importance. For the licensing industry, which deals with music rights and royalties, two organizations are particularly important in the Netherlands: BumaStemra en Sena. Where Buma/Stemra focuses on composers, lyricists and publishers (copyright), Sena focuses on artists, session musicians and producers (neighbouring right). In 2023, 37.5 thousand composers and authors were affiliated with Buma/Stemra, while at the time of writing, 53 thousand musicians and producers are affiliated with Sena (Buma 2023; Sena 2025). It is unclear what overlap there is between registrations with Buma/Stemra and Sena. In any case, both organizations concern musicians who sufficient awareness have to earn money through copyrights. According to CBS figures from the Monitor Artists and other workers with a creative profession, based on various national monitors, there were 2021 musicians, singers and composers working in the Netherlands in the period 2023/22.000.

Income and subsidy flows

In recent decades, the rise of the internet has contributed to major changes within and between the three components of the music industry. Where the recording industry, including physical sound carriers such as CDs and vinyl, used to be of great importance as a source of income, the emphasis is now much more on streaming and live music (Everts 2023, NVPI 2024). The visualization below with figures from the NVPI shows that revenues from streaming in the Netherlands are increasing, while total revenues from physical sound carriers have decreased. Although streaming is still the largest source of revenue, the popularity of vinyl has been steadily increasing in recent years – to decrease slightly again in 2024 (van der Ploeg 2025a). The increasing importance of streaming also affects discussions about copyrights – these discussions are discussed in more detail under the heading 'digital transformation' on this page. These discussions are particularly relevant when it comes to the origin of revenues within the music industry: for example, revenues from the physical and digital music market and from copyrights are almost equal in 2023 (299 million and 303,6 million respectively).

Performances

The total number of music performances in professional venues has gradually increased from 2005 to 2019, and even after the dip of the corona years, this trend has continued up to and including 2023 (the most recent year with available data). A distinction is made within CBS data between performances for classical music and popular music. This shows that the number of performances for classical music rose above the pre-corona level again in 2022, only to fall below the 2023 level again in 2019. The number of pop music performances was already at the pre-corona level in 2022 and rose again in 2023 (from 15.380 performances in 2022 to 17.644 performances in 2023). In the future, we must look at how more distinction can be made in pop music genres in order to gain insight into developments within them. In the live music monitor (2022), for example, concerts were broken down by music genre. This showed that hip-hop and tribute bands in particular made a significant advance between 2014 and 2019.

Visits

In addition to the number of performances, the total number of visits to music performances also gradually increased between 2005 and 2019, which continued after the corona years in 2023 (the most recent measurement year). This increase is particularly large for pop music performances: from 7,9 million visits in 2022 to 9,2 million visits in 2023. For classical music performances, visitor numbers in 2023 are back to the level before the corona crisis. This is particularly striking because the number of classical music performances has fallen slightly from 2022 to 2023. It is not clear why this is the case. The Vrijetijdomnibus provides information about the distribution of music visits across the Dutch population: the latest figures for this come from 2022 (Culture and participationAn update of this will follow in the 2025 Culture Monitor.

Festivals

In addition to stages, festivals are an increasingly important location for live music. Since the turn of the century, there has been talk of the 'festivalization' of live music, a term that emphasizes the increasing importance of festivals in the live music industry (Mulder et al. 2020). Various studies for the Dutch context show that there is a growth in popularity. The Live Music Monitor (2022) showed that since 2008 there has been an increase in music festivals that program pop music in the Netherlands, with a peak of 1165 festivals in 2016. After this, the number of festivals seems to decrease, to 868 festivals in 2019. It is still unclear how this has developed after the corona years because festivals have been mapped out to a limited extent in recent years. For example, research has been conducted into the changing programming at a number of large music festivals (Mulder 2024) and music festival work in Rotterdam (Swartjes 2024), but it is still unclear which developments and challenges are taking place on a larger scale. Mapping music festivals is all the more important because several long-running festivals had to close in 2024 (Mulder 2024) and research by Respons (2025) – which focuses on larger festivals – also showed that over 100 festivals disappeared in 2024, while 46 editions of new festivals took place (mainly EDM). On the one hand, this could be a sign of a stabilization of the field, on the other hand it could also relate to increasing challenges with regard to, for example, cost increases (Van der Ploeg 2025b).

Nightlife

Another important location for live music is nightclubs. In recent years, more and more cities have developed policy visions regarding nightlife, with explicit attention to night culture (see in the Knowledge Base: Policy visions for night culture in the Netherlands). There are now also 17 night mayors and bodies spread across the country, who are committed to night culture (also through the Dutch Nighttime Alliance partnership). Various studies emphasize the spread, versatility and diverse values ​​of night culture (Leichsenring et al. 2024; Blaker et al. 2021; Koren et al. 2024). However, the increasing attention does not mean that nightlife has been sufficiently mapped out: there are both numerical and more qualitative questions that this sector is struggling with. Most studies focus on one city, often in the Randstad, and generally do not map out all relevant data on nightlife and culture, such as locations. At a national level, only more recent data are available on night programming in established pop venues. For example, in 2023, 55 of the 63 professional pop venues that participated in the annual VNPF survey organised a total of 3143 club nights in their own building (Dee et al. 2023). This is a clear increase compared to 2022, when 54 venues organised 2138 club nights. After concerts, club nights are the most visited in pop venues with 1,4 million visits in 2023. However, more informal and smaller locations are also of great importance for night culture and are not yet mapped at a national level (Leichsenring et al. 2024).

Talent development and education

Talent development and education form an important basis for a resilient sector. Defining what falls under this is complex for four reasons: 1) there is a wide variety of places where formal and informal learning takes place 2) learning takes place in different phases in which different locations are relevant (see e.g. Zwaan et al. 2023 for the pop music sector), 3) ways of learning differ per field and 4) ways of learning differ per music genre and the associated communities. For example, guidance can take place in official educational institutions, music schools, community centres and talent development organisations, but is also provided in more informal forms of education, such as at venues or skills are learned on the job. For example, a research report on music managers in Europe showed that 95 percent of respondents learned skills by working in the music sector and 63 percent from a mentor in the music sector (Calkins et al. 2024). Training in other fields (40 percent) or in music management specifically (29 percent) were much less popular. This also differs per field: where there will be a training opportunity at an educational institution for one profession, this is not the case for all subjects. Physical meeting places are also of great importance for knowledge transfer – and for some music communities more than for others. For example, research by Donken (2024) showed that there are concerns within hip hop about the lack of physical meeting places – which means there are fewer opportunities for knowledge transfer between older and younger makers. This indicates that official forms of training are not sufficient to provide a picture of talent development and forms of education in the entire music industry – a field that requires more research.

In the Netherlands there are 10 colleges and 8 MBO schools that offer vocational training in music. For HBO this concerns training courses for musicians, such as at conservatories and music academies, but also training courses for music teachers. For MBO, this concerns training courses for musicians or stage and event technology. In the 2023/2024 school year, a total of 2354 students were enrolled at MBO schools - this brings the number of registrations back to the 2019 level after a decline during the corona years. The number of registrations for the MBO training course for artist Music shows a decrease from 1214 registrations in 2019/2020 to 1013 in 2023/2024 - registrations for stage and event technology in particular appear to have increased sharply. The total number of registrations for HBO courses has grown from 5465 students in 2018 to 5735 students in 2023. Of these, the bachelor's and master's courses for musicians are the largest. In formal educational institutions, including colleges, increasing attention is being paid to competencies that are needed in a continuously changing music industry (Everts, 2023). For example, Coppes (2024) investigated the added value of higher pop music education for a successful career. This showed that current education is mainly focused on musical knowledge and skills, but that alumni lacked so-called 'transferable skills' (such as communication skills and leadership) that proved essential for a good career start.

In addition to formal educational institutions, various initiatives are also organised by the sector, both within and outside of venues and concert halls. For example, consider (inter)national initiatives such as the summer school that the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam organised annually between 2019 and 2022 for their youth orchestra 'Young' (Trienekens et al. 2022) and programmes such as NEXTSTAGE focused on the event industry. Or platforms for talent development such as The base in Nijmegen and Foundation in Amsterdam, which also have a more local impact. Work-study programs, such as internships, are also frequently used in the music sector. For example, a total of 2023 people did an internship at the VNPF stages in 383, compared to a total of 2165 employees on their own payroll and 1614 self-employed persons in the same year (Dee et al. 2024). 

Finally, small stages, practice rooms and local guidance play an important role in talent development for musicians (Zwaan et al. 2023). After all, they are the first point of contact for getting to know music and further developing skills. However, the situation of music education at this level is worrying. More and more music schools and broader arts education centres are having to close their doors as a result of cultural budget cuts (Santen 2023). Several institutions for talent development in classical music were not awarded government subsidies in 2024 (Jorritsma, 2024) and individual music lessons at the Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam will stop in 2025 (Gandolahage et al. 2025). Research into music education in Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland and Flevoland also showed that music schools have taken on a different appearance: in addition to music schools and collectives, there are also many private providers. Concerns about the financial accessibility of music education continue to play a role. There are also initiatives to improve the accessibility of supply: for example, The Driving Pop School music education in Groningen for children, young people and adults More Music in the Classroom  is committed to ensuring that primary school children in the Netherlands receive structural music education (Schrijen et al. 2020).

Diversity, Inclusion and Equality

Issues surrounding this are faced by workers, makers and the public alike Diversity, equity and inclusion attention. In recent years, various studies have been published regarding workers and makers that map inequalities. These studies mainly focus on gender and the pop music industry. Several studies show that there is vertical segregation in subsectors of the pop music industry. This means that there are structural inequalities in who gets the best-paid or most prestigious positions within this subsector of the music industry (Berkers et al. 2016; Calkins et al. 2024; Koren 2023; Swartjes et al. 2023; VNPF 2022). Figures from the VNPF this domain consisted of 2022 (Dee et al. 2023) show, for example, that positions in the management of pop venues, programming and production & technology are mainly filled by men. Research by Buma.Stemra (2025) indicated that among its members – i.e. creators – only 16 percent are women (in 2016 this was still 13 percent). At European level, research from 2023 showed that female music managers are usually in lower income categories than their male colleagues, even if they have the same level of experience, the same full- or part-time status, the same educational background and the same ethnicity (Calkins et al. 2024). 

The white, male organizational cultures that prevail in the pop music industry were also noted in the music festival industry in Rotterdam (Swartjes et al. 2023) and the nightclub sector in Amsterdam (Koren 2023). These organizational cultures also appeared to contribute to women being more likely to leave the sector, thus perpetuating inequality in the music industry (Swartjes et al. 2023). In general, too little data on ethnicity has been collected in the various reports to draw conclusions about this for the Dutch music sector (Calkins et al. 2024, Daru et al. 2023). In Flanders, a baseline measurement was recently conducted on exclusion and discrimination in the pop music industry by VI.BE (Goossens et al. 2024). More research has also been conducted in the United Kingdom, for example by Black Lives in Music.

Social safety

In recent years, there has also been increasing attention for safety for the public, makers and workers. For example, various sessions were organised on social safety for the public and workers at Eurosonic Noorderslag, No Man's Land and the Congress of Stages, Festivals and Events, and there is a wide variety of organizations, initiatives and campaigns that deal with this theme – especially within the nightlife. Artists also draw attention to safety, for example by means of safety riders (one of the better known examples is that of DJ Kimmah). In recent years, there have also been several reports of transgressive behavior within the music industry, for example at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (Pointer 2023). Research into transgressive behavior in the Dutch music industry from 2023 once again emphasizes the importance of attention to this subject (Daru et al. 2023). This research showed that half of the 980 respondents, all of whom work or worked in the music industry, experience intimidating or emotionally transgressive behavior during their work. Other forms of transgressive behavior were verbal/online sexual (31 percent), physical sexual (20 percent) and physical aggression (11 percent). It also appears that women experience more transgressive behavior than men, and that people with a migration background experience this more than people without a migration background (Ibid.). Various organizations and initiatives are therefore looking for ways to combat transgressive behavior. For example, there is the reporting center Mores for music professionals, and will launch the campaign in early 2024 I set the tone started, in which various initiatives aim to discuss transgressive behavior, increase awareness about this and work towards a safer working environment in the music industry.  

Fair Pay

Work in the music industry is generally described as insecure (Professional practice). Many workers work long hours, there is little job security, incomes are often low and musicians often hold multiple jobs (Haynes et al. 2018). In the music sector, concerns about low incomes for musicians are particularly prominent. For example, orchestras indicate that they do not have the money to pay musicians fairly and artists in pop music are also often poorly paid (Jorritsma et al. 2023, Everts 2023). Vinkenburg and Clemens (2023, 2) concluded that the income of pop musicians from live performances is 'only a third of the social minimum and only a quarter of fair pay remuneration'. Furthermore, they show that without additional (government) support, fair pay is unachievable for most pop musicians.

In recent years, Platform ACCT has brought together chain tables – in which each table worked on stimulating better working conditions and collective agreements for different chains/sectors (see: Chain table Pop musicians, Chain Table Freelance Classical Musicians, Chain table Jazz World impro). In 2024, the pop musicians' chain table initiated a fair pay pilot for 8 pop venues with the help of the Performing Arts Fund, Fund 21, the Culture Fund and VSB Fund. In March 2025, research into this pilot was published - based on a survey (49 respondents), in-depth interviews (23 interviews) and the cash flows of the artists involved (604 in total). In addition to an evaluation of the fair pop pilot and the Pop Musicians Calculation Tool, also made more generally clear what fair pay does for pop musicians, managers/bookers and programmers and it was explored how fair pay could be structurally implemented. The expected positive effects are mainly focused on making the artist career more sustainable and more room for innovation and development. It also turned out that acts in career phase 2 – that is, developing artists – as well as support acts are in a vulnerable financial position. The financial feasibility of fair pay remains a concern. In order to pay main acts fairly, for example, an extra 7,50 euros per visitor is needed or a supplement of 55% on top of the initial fee for an artist for a performance (also known as 'gage' mentioned) – the required supplement also differs per stage. Although the report provides ideas for those responsible, both from the market and the government, it is still unclear whether and who would take this on (Berkers et al. 2025). In addition to financial feasibility, there are also concerns about the possible effects that paying out fair pay could have on the number of venues and increases in ticket prices.

In addition to fair pay, experiments are being conducted with other ways to improve the income situation of musicians, including experiments with basic incomes. In the Netherlands, research has also been conducted into an experiment with basic income for musicians. In the project 'No Strings Attached', seven makers received a basic income for 6 months (Wijngaarden et al. 2024). It is striking that most attention in research into fair pay and in these experiments seems to go to musicians or other makers, while income insecurity affects a larger part of the sector. For example, a report on music managers in Europe showed that 40 percent of respondents earn less than 9999 euros per year (Calkins et al. 2024).

Mental health and well-being

The attention for mental health of creators and other workers in the industry has been high on the agenda in recent years. In the research Can Music Make You Sick? (2016) Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave reported on data from 2211 musicians in the UK. Of all respondents, 71,1% reported experiencing panic attacks/anxiety, 68,5% reported experiencing depression. Also, over half of respondents felt there were gaps in the provision of support for musicians – for example, services were difficult to find. Despite the fact that musicians derive great satisfaction from their work, these mental health issues could be a result of 1) poor working conditions (including long hours), 2) a lack of recognition, 3) the physical impact of work and 4) exclusion and insecurity (Gross et al. 2016).

Although there are no numerical data available for the Netherlands yet regarding mental health of employees in the music sector, it is on the agenda of the music industry. For example, there was attention for mental health at various conferences, at Eurosonic Noorderslag for example in sessions on 'How to not get Burned Out?' or in the 'Mental Health Helpdesk'. There are also various interventions that are related to mental health in the music industry. Think for example of the international collective Music Industry Therapist Collective or the Music Clinic in Utrecht that focuses on physical complaints of musicians. The project also has Heal the healer in 2025 receive a subsidy. In this project, interventions are designed within three courses at universities of applied sciences that prepare students for the mental risks of working in the music sector. On the public side, data is also collected on music and well-being - think of research into the experience of live music and mental, physical and social health carried out by Erasmus University, Erasmus MC and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

Digital transformation

The changes in revenue sources – in which streaming has increasingly gained a larger share (see overview and key figures) – have had major consequences for the licensing industry. For years, there have been discussions about how streaming revenues should be distributed between music platforms (such as Spotify) and rights holders, such as record labels, musicians and music publishers (for an extensive explanation, see Hesmondhalgh 2020). This also raises questions about AI legislation and how a fair revenue model for creators can be realised (NOS 2025). Digitisation also has other consequences for the creative practice of musicians. For example, Nick Polak and Julian Schaap (2024) showed that creators use various optimisation strategies, such as skipping intros or introducing the chorus more quickly, in order to take into account the digital platform on which their music ends up.  

Digitalization and technological developments received a new boost during the corona pandemic, for example in the form of hybrid and fully online concerts. However, after it became possible to visit live performances again in 2022, pop venues largely stopped programming online activities. In 2023, online activities declined further: 15 percent of VNPF venues organized hybrid activities and 6 percent online activities without a live audience (Dee et al 2023). This is not surprising: the importance of physical presence with others (so-called physical copresence) turned out to be one of the most important elements in live music experiences (Mulder 2023, Vandenberg 2023). Nevertheless, there is a lot of attention for digitalization, especially for forms in which more interaction is possible, for example through Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and other developments in Artificial Intelligence. This is how Thunderboom Records from 2024 onwards to an Augmented Reality toolkit in the project Next Stage AR | Thunderboom Records for stages and they test their technologies in a series of live concerts. At Effenaar Lab , attention has been paid to understanding and learning new technologies in the music sector since 2018. Within the classical music sector, too, there has been attention for some time for the possibilities that digitalization offers for audience participation. For example, researchers previously experimented with a game to influence listening styles and attract a younger audience (Erdbrink et al. 2021). Other questions arise with regard to digitalization. The role of AI, for example, is a much-discussed topic within the pop music industry, with much attention paid to ethical implications and fair practices regarding AI. At the 2025 edition of Eurosonic Noorderslag, sessions were organized on tools related to AI, and ethical and legal challenges in the AI ​​ecosystem.

Ticket prices, cost increases and accessibility

The increase in ticket prices is a long-term trend: research in the United States, for example, shows that ticket prices increased by 190 percent between 1996 and 2018, with inflation correction (Krueger 2019). The increase in ticket prices can partly be explained by major changes in the source of income: where the recording industry used to be responsible for a large part of the income, this is now the live music industry (Everts 2023). More recently, festival organizations have been forced to increase prices further due to inflation and rising costs of artists and materials (Respons 2024). Pop venues are also concerned about cost increases and municipal subsidies that have not yet been indexed (Dee et al. 2023). In the Netherlands, less is known about the development of ticket prices in the long term and how this relates to the increase in other costs. Research by Respons (2025) into concerts and festivals with more than 3.000 visitors also shows a gradual increase in the average ticket price in the Netherlands between 2018 and 2024. For example, from 2023 to 2024, the average ticket price of festivals increased by 11 percent and that of concerts by 16 percent. It is not yet clear how this applies to smaller concerts and festivals.

There is also a relatively new development within the price increases: namely dynamic pricing by means of, for example, platinum tickets. The price of tickets for popular concerts is determined by supply and demand: if demand is high, the price of the platinum ticket goes up (Pisart 2023). In 2024, this discussion flared up again following the ticket sales for Oasis (see: NPO Radio 1). Previously, profiteering, which refers to the resale of tickets for illegal profit, played a major role in discussions about ticket prices. For example, political attempts were made to curb profiteering and thus offer consumers more security (see for example motion Quint). However, recent research shows that only 12 percent of resold tickets for sporting events, festivals and concerts are sold at a higher price (Koeman et al. 2023). Legal measures are therefore not yet considered necessary by OCW (Vrieze 2023b).

The rising ticket prices are part of industry- and society-wide developments, but also have a clear downside when we look at the accessibility of live music. For example, Davies, Gouthro, Matthews and Richards (2023) show, using data in the United Kingdom, that people living in poverty are often excluded from participating in festivals due to the disproportionate increase in costs. In the Dutch context, little is known about how rising ticket prices could affect the accessibility of live music, and thus who can and cannot attend concerts and festivals. Actions are also being taken to promote accessibility. For example, Friendly Fire and EKKO started a pilot price segmentation, which offers tickets in three categories: 1) regular, 2) less to spend and 3) more to spend. The accessibility of live music experiences is also in the spotlight outside of rising ticket prices. Think for example of the program Unlimited Party of HandicapNL and Green Events, which focuses on accessibility and removing barriers for visitors in the broad sense, or making pop venues and festivals more accessible for deaf and hearing impaired visitors.

Sustainability

An ecological, sustainable society is one of the greatest challenges of our time and the music sector is also working on this. On the one hand, the music sector has a role to play in making its own practices more sustainable, for example the impact of touring and audience travel, printing scores for symphony orchestras, the way in which music is distributed, the use of electricity at stages, etc. the amount of waste produced at festivals and the impact of outdoor concerts on flora and fauna (Hoeven et al. 2023, Skovbon 2024). Various initiatives have been developed for this purpose in recent years, which mainly focus on pop music festivals. This is especially the case in the Netherlands Green Events a major role in this. For example, they developed the Plastic Promise, which aims to replace 50 percent of all disposable items with reusable products or recycle them within three years. A variety of major Dutch music festivals also signed the Green Deal Circular Festivals, in which they work together towards circularity in 2025. For example, they come up with circular solutions in the areas of food and drink, water, energy, transport, mobility and the use of materials and plastic. In the course of 2024, the Sustainability ladder for events – important connections were made between ecological, social and organizational themes (Frijters et al. 2024). In addition to making its own practices more sustainable, the music industry may also play an important role in the awareness process, in which various individuals and organizations raise awareness of sustainable practices (Hoeven et al. 2023).