The Golden Age of EDM

The great John F Kennedy once said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” And right now, it’s high tide for electronic dance music. As young people are seeking experiences more and more over material goods, EDM festivals and raves are exploding in popularity. The EDM market grew 12 percent last year alone, matching the growth of the S&P 500, compared to a US inflation rate of under 2 percent.

EDM Blog Post Graph

As exposure is greatly increasing, and EDM YouTube subscriptions increased 60 percent on mobile devices in 2014 alone, there has never been a better time to have an audience. A market growing nearly $3 billion in 3 years, to a total market of nearly $7 billion, is going to bring a lot of prosperity.

That brings us to 3LAU. Justin Blau, known by his stage name 3LAU, started making music while in college in 2011. As social media grew more mainstream, his music started to spread. He put himself in the perfect place to succeed in the upcoming EDM explosion. The EDM growth allowed 3LAU, in just three years, to make 5-figures a show and perform at 100,000 people Electronic Daisy Carnival.

A whole generation of multi-millionaire DJs is being created; even companies like Live Nation and Insomniac are riding this boom to 10 figure paydays. In his Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the importance of timing. In this golden age of EDM, the timing is right.