Dutch music bringing in more money abroad, but not back to normal

The export value of Dutch music more than doubled last year compared to the pandemic years 2021 and 2020, but it was still much lower than before the coronavirus, music rights organization Buma/Stemra reported.

Dutch music brought in 171 million euros from abroad last year. That is 231 percent more than in 2021 but still well below the 214 million euros export value of pre-pandemic 2019. The fact that the music sector was not yet back to normal last year had several causes, including that artists could not yet perform anywhere in Asia due to still-existing coronavirus restrictions.

“It is a nice recovery, but we are not there yet,” Buma/Stemra cultural director Frans Helmink said. “We are now at the level of about ten years ago, so there is still a lot of catching up to do.”

The largest part of Dutch music’s export value came from Dutch artists performing abroad, 215 million euros last year. The rest was made up of revenues from Dutch music played abroad.

Like in previous years, Dutch dance music was particularly popular abroad. Performances by Dutch DJs like Martin Garrix, Afrojack, Giorgio Tuinfort, Tiesto, and Armin van Buuren accounted for 87 percent of the income from performances abroad.

“Older hits” also remain popular abroad, Buma/Stemra said. These include Boom Boom Boom!! by the Vengaboys, Radar Love by Golden Earring, Little Green Bag by the George Baker Selection, and Venus by Shocking Blue. Songs released a few years ago, like Arcade by Duncan Lawrence, are also getting a lot of playtime abroad.

Helmink thinks Dutch music exports will eventually recover, though he pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic has changed the music world enormously. People are listening to local music much more, he said. “That makes exporting music a bit more difficult. On the other hand, many producers and composers from the Netherlands are more popular than ever, and more and more international hits are co-written by the Dutch.”