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Music in the Netherlands

Here you find a description of the Dutch music map. Direct links to many organizations such as orchestras, ensembles, venues, festivals, production houses, and information organisations. This information is available for the field of classical music, jazz and popmusic.

In the section support you will also find information n the role of intermediairies in the performance sector, on specialized payment bureaus, copyright organisations, information organisations, several professional associations and trade unions, and institutions for research and archives for music.

undefinedSource: Podiumpeiler 2011
How many people work in the performing arts?
In 2009 more than 17,000 performing artists were active in the Netherlands. The majority (13,000) worked as musicians.
Performing artists form 0.2% of the total working population and almost 23% of the total number of professional artists. These are people who state that their profession is performing artist.
Total employment in the performing arts in 2010 accounted for between 62,000 and 73,000 jobs, equivalent to between 0.8 and 0.9% of the total number of jobs. These figures also include auxiliary staff such as theatre management staff, theatre catering staff, and musical instrument makers.
How many venues, performances and visitors are there in the Netherlands?
The Atlas local authority data base listed a total of 999 venues in 2009, in which almost 67,000 performances in the performing arts took place.
These performances attracted an estimated total public of 21.5 million.
The average size of the public per performance fell from 369 in 2005 to 323 in 2009 – a drop of more than 12%.
Pop music drew in the largest audiences (43%), followed by cabaret and musicals (both 13%).
The smallest audiences were for dance (3%) and opera (4%).
Podiumpeiler estimates that 467 performing arts festivals took place in 2010, attracting a total public of 15 million. This is 23% of the total number of events and 11% of the total events public.
The audience size for performing arts events fell from 18 million in 2008 to 15 million in 2010.
undefinedSource: BeAM 2010
And what about the smaller venues for classical music and jazz?
In 2010 the 510 BeAM stages and festivals organised more than 15,000 performances for over 3,3 million visitors.
About 10,000 people worked at these venues and festivals and 84% of them were volunteers.
The total turnover of these venues and festivals was about € 65 million euro’s in 2010.