The Dutch music industry generated €198 million in exports last year, a 15% increase on 2022, according to music research bureau Perfect and More, and quoted in Monday’s Telegraaf. 

However, the figures are still below the record set in 2018 and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic were still being felt early last year, the paper said. 

At the same time, however, new markets such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Chile and Colombia are opening up. ‘They literally just look at who the most popular DJs are and rent them in,” Frank Helmink, director of performing rights association Buma Cultuur told the paper. 

Dutch DJs and bands performed in 84 different countries last year, led by the US, German and Britain. 

Top DJs such as Tiësto, Martin Garrix and Afrojack take the top three positions in terms of live performances abroad, but number five on the list is a little known Nijmegen punk band, Antillectual, which put on 88 shows outside the Netherlands last year.

“A nice surprise,” singer and guitarist Willem Heijmans told the paper. “We’ve been on the list since 2008 but never in the top five.”

Some 70% of the export value of Dutch music comes from live performances.

Dance accounted for almost two-thirds of last year’s total but orchestra leader André Rieu was in 22nd place. On the verge of a new world tour, he is likely to rise in the charts this year.  

The full report will be published later this week, during the Eurosonic-Noorderslag music event in Groningen.