Despite all the doom and gloom often spouted about the current state of the music industry, Australia’s industry is on track to return to growth for the first time since 2012.
As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, digital revenues account for more than two-thirds of sales this year and contributions from streaming services have doubled for the second year running.
ARIA chief executive Dan Rosen told Fairfax it’s likely that growth would return to the local recorded music market for 2015. “It will be small growth, but it is moving in the right direction,” he said.
“Overall revenues are trending up.” Sales have been helped by several homegrown acts who are now major players on the world stage, such as pop rockers 5 Seconds Of Summer and singer-songwriter Vance Joy.
In 2012, total recorded music revenues rose for only the second time in a decade, bolstered by a series of global hits, including Adele’s 21. However, they fell 11.6 percent in 2013 and slid 9.62 percent last year.
Easing back into growth will be a welcome change of pace for the industry, which has seen CD sales tumble over the past 15 years amid the widespread proliferation of internet piracy.
“The opportunity and the continuing challenge is to get more Australians signing up for the paid [streaming] subscription services. It’s the second wave of disruption,” Mr Rosen said.
Mr Rosen said telecommunications companies will play an integral role in pushing consumers towards digital services, such as Telstra partnering with Apple Music to offer customers 12 months of free subscription.
“There are still challenges ahead, we still need to make sure the digital revenues continue, we need to work with the government to make sure that IP [intellectual property] continues to be protected online so we can continue to invest in Australian content and new digital business models.”
“We’ve made a significant investment in our digital and social strategy, which saw last year the ARIAs not only was the No.1 trending topic but also trended globally,” Mr Rosen added.
“And this year, with our live Twitter vote we’ve already had over 1.7 million votes, it’s showing a great return on the investment we’ve made over the last couple of years and also demonstrates that music is a passion point for people.”
He said ARIA has not spoken to the government about specific policy ideas yet, but is considering asking for producer offsets similar to those that many local television productions and films get.
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According to Fairfax, some television dramas get a 20 percent offset, while feature films receive 40 percent. The TV industry is lobbying for its offset to be increased to 40 percent.
“The tax offsets that apply to film could apply more broadly to the creative industries. Music is a prime example. Let’s increase the amount of Australian voices and stories that we create here and export to the world,” Mr Rosen said.
“Australian music is enjoying incredible success overseas and with technology it’s easier than ever before for Australian music to be heard overseas, because you can get your music on global platforms, the global streaming services.”
