ARIA report indicates the Australian recorded music market grew by 7.3% in 2020
Subscribe
X

Subscribe to Mixdown Magazine

31.03.2021

ARIA report indicates the Australian recorded music market grew by 7.3% in 2020

Words by Will Brewster

The growth was primarily driven by huge increases in digital streaming.

While Australia’s live music sector shows no signs of recovering any time in the near future, a newly released report from ARIA has reported that the national recorded music market has experienced significant growth over 2020, marking the sixth year straight that the sector has grown.

Overall, the recorded music market in Australia grew by an impressive 7.3% over the course of 2020, with the sector now generating $542 million in revenue per annum.

Catch up on all the latest Industry News here.

This growth was primarily driven by – surprise surprise – a boom in revenue from subscription-based streaming services. Streaming services experienced a rise of 14% of year-on-year growth to now account for 82.3% of Australia’s recorded music market after growing by 30% in 2020, with the sector showing absolutely no signs of slowing down in the future.

Audiophiles will be stoked to hear that vinyl sales experienced a significant growth of 32% year-on-year, and now make up a respectable 5.4% of the recorded music market in Australia.

That’s only 0.2% less than CD wholesale figures, which dropped by 17% year-on-year and account for 5.6% of revenue in the domestic market. It’s also predicted that by next year, vinyl sales will totally take over CD sales in Australia as they did in the US last year, marking a massive swing in how the public consume physical music formats.

Predictably, digital music downloads also saw another decline, sliding down by 27% year-on-year to account for 6% of the total market in 2020.

ARIA’s report findings correlate with recent reports from the IFPI and Midia Research that show similar growth for the recorded music market; however, considering that the Australian live music sector generates between $1.5 – $2 billion annually, it’s fair to say that we’re still very far from returning to normality.

Check out all the findings from ARIA’s report here.