Pollstar (05/09/23) King, Ariel

Electronic dance music is enjoying a resurgence, with acts closing out the Coachella festival's second weekend after headliners suddenly cancelled. The IMS Business estimated that dance music's global audience rose 34% last year, while the genre is now valued at $11.3 billion. The reinvigorated dance music movement, with minimal production, contrasts with the massive productions that kept pushing toward bigger and better spectacles ahead of the pandemic. Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred again..'s Coachella performances followed a weekend of pop-up performances in New York City, including in Times Square and at Madison Square Garden. The Garden show, which was announced only a few days before it took place, sold 15,412 tickets and grossed $748,767, according to reports submitted to Pollstar's Boxoffice. Dance music is the largest genre represented at Coachella, which "signals to us that there's a real appetite from concert-goers to see both established and emerging electronic talent," says WME's Stephanie LaFera. "And it's not just here in the States, we're seeing massive growth in live electronic acts around the globe right now." Wasserman Music executive Lee Anderson also notes that every subgenre of electronic music is popular in America, while LaFera credits the pandemic for driving its recent worldwide growth.

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