It will come as no surprise to clock that there’s quite a lot of money in dance music at present. According to figures at the recent International Music Summit (IMS) in Ibiza, the global electronic music industry cashed in to the tune of $6.9 billion (€6.3 billion) in 2014. That’s a lot of Steve Aoki T-shirts.

It also adds up to a lot of ancillary bits and bobs. The IMS business report which came up with that eye-catching figure divides dance music’s earnings into four different pots, from music sales and DJs to festivals and company activity. All of these areas right across the board are on the up, so it really is a good time to be a DJ rocking into a club with a USB key in your pocket.

However, it’s fair to say that there’s never really been a bad time to be a DJ, inflicting your tastes on the paying public. On the other hand, the high earning nature of the sector at present really does stop you in your tracks. The fact that America has bought into dance music with such gusto and reshaped it for themselves as EDM has been the biggest contributory factor to dance music’s current salad days.

We’ve seen decent pay days for the sector before – the superclub boom of the late 1990s, for instance – but never on this kind of worldwide scale. When you have large multinational corporations with quarterly targets to meet like SFX, Live Nation and AEG and brands like Smirnoff, Volvo and Armani getting in the game, fees increase and there’s more cash all round.

Yet there’s another side to the scene which is never reflected in profit margins or earnings and that’s the area of creativity. There may not have been the same amount of cash sloshing around in the old days when dance music and club culture were starting out, but there was a hell of a lot more imagination in the music.

The reason there’s so much reflection and reverence for “back in the day” in dance music circles is simple - that’s when the template was first struck, and it didn’t involve a humongous confetti cannon or a DJ crowdsurfing on an inflatable life-raft.

Of course, it would be wrong to say that dance music today completely lacks innovation because the underground is still full of music and individuals to bedazzle and beguile, from Jamie xx to DJ Sprinkles. But the mainstream continues to be a no-go zone for anything but the lowest common denominator shapes and sounds.

It’s what to expect when you’re dealing with mass volume, like those big festivals and clubs. They want the Aviciis and Guettas and Skrillexes, the bromasters of the dancefloor.

But it’s worth remembering that without any sort of forward momentum, scenes falter and fade. The scene will keep on making large sums of money at the door and on the back-end for now, but money is no harbinger of excitement or virtuosity in the long run.

YOU’VE GOT TO HEAR THIS

Janelle Monae - Yoga
A jam to liven up your next Bikram session, Janelle Monae teams up with Wondaland accomplice Jidenna to bring the funk and do some levitation. From forthcoming label compilation The Eephus.

ETC

If you only read one book by a former record shop employee this weekend, make sure it's Original Rockers by Richard King. His history of Bristol's Revolver record shop is a paean to a treasure trove of dusty grooves and a place where music really was the key to unlocking an alternative universe. They don't make them like this any more.