There were less musicians operating in Australia in 2024.
But more music was released in a single day than in the entire year of 1989. The number of creators around the world jumped by 12%, to 75.9 million.
Artists that had a stunning rapport with their audiences went down a storm at the box office.
Consumer Changes
Music executives and fans were still trying to work out how consumer behaviour changed since COVID, and there were as many misfires as there were success stories.
New events and acts did well at a time long-established festivals were running out of runway.
Read up on all the latest features and columns here.
Streaming changed the exposure of certain genres, and saw the independent sector grow to new heights.
Pop singers were younger, so much so that one lost her milk tooth during a TV appearance.
A = AI
As Artificial Intelligence swept into mainstream, artists realised it could finish tracks, correct voice pitch, help producers mix and master tracks quicker, and bring recording costs down.
But AI did provide copyright and moral issues, and the Australian government listened to the music industry and developed policies to protect creators’ rights while remaining innovative.
The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers predicts AI will rob 25% of workers in music and audiovisual by 2028.
B = BRAT SUMMER
More than a pop culture moment about living our best life, Brat Summer was a significant economic boost for Charli XCX.
97% of tickets (261,694) of her 21-city North American tour with Troye Sivan, sold because of the publicity and fans throwing their arms around the trend.
Her share of the tour, 1 billion streams of her new album on Spotify and 2 billion of her back catalogue, and her ad campaign deal with fashion and accessory brand H&M made her US$9.62 million this year.
C = COURT CASES
Among the highlights were two charged in alleged plot to kill members of Sydney OneFour drillers, P Diddy staying behind bars until next year on sex trafficking charges, and Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s diss getting serious.
Young Thug and Lil Durk faced life in the pokey playing don’t-drop-the-soap on gangsta charges, Live Nation and Ticketmaster defended antirust allegations, Sydney rapper Snowy Badman was accused of murder, and copyright battles followed Ed Sheeran and Miley Cyrus.
D = DYNAMIC PRICING
As local Green Day ticket prices zoomed to $500, the Aussie government moved to ban the practice.
In the UK, Oasis tickets went from £135 ($268.09) to £355 ($704.94), and Noel Gallagher straight-facedly told TV cameras he needed the money because of an expensive divorce.
E = ELECTION IMPACT
As the US election campaign between Donnie’s Republicans and Kamala’s Democrats heated up, Pollstar magazine noted that a Trump win would be a hands-off win for the antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Trump’s election promise to slap 20% on tariffs on 60% of goods from China and 100% on goods from countries that move from trading in the dollar, would mean that “finished goods — everything from stage lighting to trucks — will be far more expensive if purchased from overseas.
“Even products made in the U.S. — say, a soundboard — that include foreign-manufactured components would be pricier.”
F = FEMALE
P!nk’s 2023-2024 Summer Carnival global tour ended up the second highest-grossing run of all time by a female artist after Taylor, ker-chinging US$700 million, from 5 million tickets snapped up in 130 stadium/ arena dates in 15 countries.
The Australia/New Zealand leg was to 1 million fans over 20 stadium dates.
Having sold a total 3 million tix over 6 tours, the P!nkster is now Australia’s highest-selling live act.
G = GAMES
Latest figures from the Australian Video Games Industry association had 81% of Aussies as gamers (almost 50% female), 91% of parents playing with their kids as a bonding exercise, and the average gamer age as 35.
Australian-made games brought in $345.5 million in largely export revenue. Australians spent $4.4 billion on video games.
H = HOTELS
Taylor Swift’s February shows in Sydney prodded hotel occupancy up to 92%.
It beat occupancy in the NRL and AFL grand finals, at 85% and 82.7% respectively.
I = INFLUENCERS
Brands give event tickets away to influencers with millions of followers to score free publicity.
But it can be egg-on-faces if the choice is lazy, sloppy and based only on follower numbers.
A lesson was when Taylor Swift’s Eras tour arrived in the UK.
In Demand
It was the most in-demand UK live show of 2024 (196% higher than the second-hottest, Liam Gallagher), and reached almost 1.2 million fans over 15 performances across four cities.
Obviously many fuming Swifties missed out on tickets. When some influencers admitted in their later posts they weren’t really Tay-Tay fans and in it for the freebies, the backlash was quick and angry… and worked against the brands.
J = J, TRIPLE
Lime Cordiale were the most played artists on the national broadcaster this year.
Then came Sycco, Royel Otis, Hockey Dad, The Kid LAROI, Teenage Dads, Billie Eilish, Cosmo’s Midnight, Remi Wolf and The Buoys.
K = K-POP ANTICS
Among K-Pop antics going viral was our girl in Blackpink, Aussie-raised Rosé, dissing an ex: “I didn’t mind you never returned my Tiffany rings but you wasted my prettiest years!”
While in Australia, Stray Kids’ Han wanted to see a giant spider. During an interview, their film crew dangled a mammoth plastic spider in front of him, leading to his undignified falling off his seat in fright and trying to hide.
Music Awards
During the Hanteo Music Awards, one act picking up their trophy had a visibly smelly moment when a fan right in front of the stage pooped her pants and they copped the fumes while trying to make their thank-you speech.
In other strange moments while cameras rolled: IVE caught eating hamburgers with forks, a Lightsum fan club meeting in a park ending when sprinklers went off, and 13-year old 5th Gen group UNIS member Seawon lost her baby tooth while dining with the rest of the group.
L = LAROI, THE KID
Based on Spotify streaming data, The Kid LAROI was most newly discovered Aussie artist by global listeners outside Australia in 2024.
He was most streamed Australian artist in the APAC region, followed by Troye Sivan and Chase Atlantic.
Da Kid was second most streamed Australian act by Australians, beaten by The Wiggles.
M = MUSICIANS, DECREASING AMOUNT
In the Artists As Workers report in May, the total number of musicians in Australia decreased from 2014–15’s peak… the lowest number of musicians since 1992–93.
Reasons given in other surveys by musicians leaving the industry were concerns over financial pressures, time constraints, mental health issues, burnout, a lack of opportunities and support from consumers and the industry.
Outnumber
In comparison, number of actors/directors and dancers/choreographers increased substantially.
Artists As Workers also noted that while women outnumber men in most arts fields two to one, it is different in music.
Male musicians outnumber females at 58% to 42%, and composers 74% to 26%.
N = NEWCOMERS
40% of the crowd at Taylor Swift’s Australian shows had never seen a concert before.
This was pleasing to the music industry, to see a new generation of fans were out there.
Figures
2024 Australian audience figures for the likes of P!nk, Coldplay, Cold Chisel, Pearl Jam and The Killers, compared to their last visit, showed they’d taken on board new fans.
It was also gratifying to see younger performers emerge with great impact.
GUTS
Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour was the highest grossing ($186.6 million) by someone born in the 21st century.
The 101 date tour in four continents was attended by 1.4 million fans.
In Australia, on her first arena visit, the original four dates in Melbourne and Sydney blew out to eight. The Sydney shows alone reached 70,000.
O = ORDER OF AUSTRALIA
24 entertainment names were recognised in the January 26 Honours List.
Among them were the late INXS manager Chris Murphy, Melbourne artist manager and promoter Alan Evers-Buckland, community radio icon Kath Letch, APRA AMCOS and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy’s Milly Petriella.
So honoured were Australian Songwriters Association chair Danny Burgess, Adelaide Fringe CEO Heather Croall, saxplaying founder of Newcastle’s Dungeon Jazz Club Rodney Barnes, Australian Idol Music Director John Foreman, and Jane Haley, CEO of Tasmania’s Ten Days On The Island festival.
P = POWER LIST
The Australian Financial Review’s 2024 Power List (topped by Anthony Albanese) included Troye Sivan and Kylie Minogue among financiers, sports folks, painters and politicians.
Q = QUEENSLAND NIGHT-LIFE ECONOMY COMMISIONER
Quipping he’d spent “most of my working life at night”, musician, venue owner and activist John Collins started his state-wide part time role on September 30.
He has a three year contract to speak to the live sector to come up with ideas to bolster the after-dark economy, and advice businesses and the government, and setting it up for the influx of tourists arriving for the Brisbane Olympics.
R = REPULSED BY DIDDY
Streaming activity around P. Diddy’s sex trafficking and assault charges were strange.
In May, when the leaked security camera video emerged of him brutally assaulting singer Cassie Ventura in a hotel in 2016, streams of his catalogue went into freefall, down 51.8%.
Radio dropped him, and his business interests took a tumble with 18 brands pulling out.
Subsequent
But subsequent reports in Forbes and The Guardian showed that through the year, as accusations of sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation piled on, his streams actually rose.
In the week before his arrest on Sept. 16, he generated 3.2 million streams in the US.
The week after it doubled to 4.8 million (although it dipped to 4.3 million this month) while on TikTok, hashtag #FreeDiddy has 12,000 users.
Phenomenon
It had been a similar phenomenon for R Kelly, Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, Marilyn Manson and Axl Rose.
Various analysts suggested the reasons for rising streams were people checking out the in-the-news star’s music out of curiosity (do his lyrics indicate his behaviour?).
Or they just don’t believe he’s guilty, that it’s a conspiracy to bring down a rich, famous and powerful person, and that accusers are gold-diggers trying to make money.
S = SPOTIFY
2024 was a turning point for the world’s – and Australia’s – largest streaming service.
It’s finally went into profit, to the tune of $1.5 billion. Engagement rose to 252 million subscribers and 640 million users.
T = TIKTOK
8.5 million Australians joined TikTok’s billion-strong global community and Peking Duk & Bunnings was one of the biggest trends on TikTok Australia.
What started as a TikTok remix of the Bunnings jingle by Sydney producer Kaila became the company’s first rave in its car park in a Melbourne outlet in August, with the Duk and What So Not.
The tag @pekingduk had 91.9k followers, and 2 million likes.
Music Discovery
Meantime, TikTok’s branding as pukka in music discovery was reaffirmed with the platform claiming in its end-of-the-year report that 16 tracks that elbowed their way into the US Hot 100 began as TikTok trends.
Of the eleven tracks that reached #1 in the UK this year, ten began as TikTok raves.
That’s because 30% of TikTok daily users discover new artists before they’re popular and 60% have music on as they go about their day.
Stand-Outs
Among the standout TikTok hits globally were Artemas’ “I Like The Way You Kiss Me”, “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone, “End Of Beginning” by Djo and Myles Smith’s “Stargazing”.
Artist Of The Year was Sabrina Carpenter, and Myles Smith named Breakout Artist Of The Year.
Central Cee was the biggest British artist on TikTok in the UK, then Charli XCX and Coldplay.
TikTok’s global Top Song of 2024 was the reggaeton hit “Gata Only” by FloyyMenor and Cris Mj. It has more than 50 million creations on TikTok and 1.3 billion Spotify streams.
In second place was “Pedro” by Italy’s Raffaella Carrà (with a remix by German producers Jaxomy and Agatino Romero) and third place was “Alibi” by Iranian-Dutch artist Sevdaliza, featuring Brazilian singer Pabllo Vittar and French singer Yseult.
U = UK Music
UK music injected £7.6 billion (AU$15 billion) into the British economy, a total from live, record sales, publishing, merch, brand endorsements and public performance.
A-listers Harry Styles, Adele, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran helped British music exports climb to a record high of £775 million ($1.53 billion).
But the industry warned that despite a healthy appetite for Brit music, it was facing increasing competition from other international markets, tough financial conditions for grassroots artists and music venues, and risks from generative AI on music creation.
V = VOLUME OF AUSSIE STREAMS
The country streaming Aussie artists the most outside of Orstrailia, on Spotify, was the USA.
Next: the UK, Germany, Canada and Mexico.
W = WOMEN GUITARISTS
The number of women guitarists is rising, with Fender continuing to estimate that 50% of those who pick up the instruments are female.
This is due to more female guitarists out there for them to be inspired by, social media playing a role in posting videos, gigs and collaborations by rising shredders, and the growing amount of associations and online forums and workshops to provide support and promotion.
X = XMAS
Weather changes in the northern hemisphere in the run-up to X’mas has a direct bearing on streaming consumption of Christmas songs.
A survey by The Economist found more dark hours in December saw a 1.5% jump in consumption.
Cold
A drop in 20-degree Fahrenheit leads to a 0.1% rise, and snowfall by 2%.
Mariah Carey’s song “All I Want For Christmas”, first released in 1994, makes her $10 million a year since.
Y = YOUTUBE
For the first time ever, YouTube’s subscription and advertising revenues surpassed $50 billion over a calendar year.
In Q3 alone, ad revenues hit $8.92 billion, with revenue from Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices rose 27.8% Year on Year to $10.66 billion.
And while YouTube Music is a key part of the platform, but its parent Alphabet is focussed on turning into a Netflix and traditional TV rival.
Z = ZOO, THE
All round the country this year, grassroots venues were collapsing or struggling.
There is a move by the Australian music industry to get the Government to set up a levy on all tickets sold in stadiums and arenas, to go into a pool to share with grassroots venues.
Loss
The Zoo in Brisbane, which in June closed after 32 years, operated at a loss for three years.
There was a wave of sympathy and sadness from punters and from the industry. In November the operators of the punk/metal Crowbar re-opened the space.
Cranker
Similarly, in Adelaide, in another high profile case, the Crown and Anchor aka The Cranker, looked set to close because a developer wanted to build a multi-storey students accommodation next door.
A lobby group was formed, a petition begun, and rallies held.
Finally the state government stepped in with a deal to save the venue and passed legislation to protect other grassroots spaces in the same predicament.
You can read the full Artists as Workers report from May here.
