Australia’s Recorded Music Industry Posts Double-Digit Growth In 2023

Australia’s recorded music industry enjoyed a fifth consecutive year of growth in 2023, as wholesale revenue climbed to $676 million – a double-digit year-on-year spike.

That result, published Friday (March 22) by ARIA, is broadly in line with the global growth rate published just hours earlier by the IFPI.

The hero? Streaming — in particular “paid” subscription models — and, to a lesser extent, vinyl.

For the calendar year, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and the myriad subscription platforms generated more than $467 million, up 13.86%. Ad-supported models, which the industry sees as the carrot to entice music fans into making a monthly financial commitment, posted revenue of more than $68 million, up 15.25%. Video streaming platforms contributed upwards of $62 million in 2023, up 3%.

Vinyl albums continue to spin a good-news story for the record business. More than $42 million was generated by wax, up 14% from the year-before period.

Remarkably, the market for vinyl albums is worth more than twice that of CD albums which, for decades, was the king of the jungle that is the record industry.

Indeed, the market for digital downloads, for which only the most one-eyed optimist holds out hope, generates a sum almost on a par with that of compact discs ($16 million, down 14.85%).

“The data paints a clear picture: music is a big business in Australia,” comments ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd.

Growth is good, though sending homegrown acts into global sales and consumption charts remains a mighty challenge.

“Five years of growth for any media business is exceptional in this market, but we need to be careful to draw the distinction between growth of Australians consuming music overall, and the growth of Australians consuming new and local music,” Herd continues.

“While we should be excited that music continues to be a great business, we are focused on ensuring more of that pie comes back to Australian artists.”

Australia remains a top 10 market, holding down 10th position, according to the IFPI’s latest Global Music Report.

Behind the gains, notes Herd, “it remains harder than ever for our local artists to reach these audiences. The end of year ARIA Charts paint a clear picture of this, with only four Australian albums in the top 100 for 2023 and three singles, none of which were released last year.”

As previously reported, global revenue marched to US$28.6 billion in 2023, up 10.2% from the 2022 result, according to the IFPI’s Global Music Report, as the number of paid subscriptions passed 500 million for the first time.

Subscription price increases were said to contribute “significantly” to total revenue growth.

“Achieving cut-through becomes increasingly difficult for artists as the growth rate of subscription and ad supported streaming models continues to increase year on year,” Herd explains, “while nearly all other growth rates have eased compared to 2022.”

There’s more work to be done. “We look forward to working with the industry and government to ensure that message is heard,” concludes Herd, “and that value is increasingly used to support our incredible local talent.”