ARIA Reports Sixth Straight Year of Gains, Australia Outpaces Global Result

Thanks to streaming brands and Aussies’ ongoing love affair with vinyl, Australia’s recorded music industry continues its ascent.

ARIA posts wholesale results of $717 million in 2024, up 6.1% year-on-year, for the sixth consecutive year of growth. That outpaces the global growth rate of 4.8%, reported overnight by IFPI.

Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and the various competing subscription services are, of course, the dominant revenue stream in Australia, generating some 71% of the total market, ARIA confirms, a figure that tops half-a-billion-dollars, up 8.9% from the previous year.

In line with global data shared by the IFPI during a conference call in London late Wednesday, ad-supported streaming models are proving less effective in Australia.

Indeed, the rate of growth from those businesses slowed “dramatically,” according to ARIA, to 1.9% in 2024, down from a year-on-year figure of 15.3% in 2023.

Vinyl albums continue to spin a merry tune. As the price of wax heads north, revenue from this segment improved by 5.6% last year to $44.5 million, despite a dip in the number of units, by 0.5%.

Call it: vinyl is the king of physical product at almost 73% of total physical sales in 2024 by dollar value and 45.7% of physical sales by volume. CDs and cassettes make the up rest.

“Market conditions have been anything but stable over the past year, so for the Australian recording industry to achieve a sixth consecutive year of growth speaks volumes about the enduring connection Australians have with music,” comments ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd.

“While digital dominates, the sustained demand for physical formats like vinyl shows that fans want to engage with music in multiple ways. This isn’t just a resilient music listening market, it’s a thriving one, and that’s something to be proud of.”

Annabelle Herd

Growth is good – no, great – for an industry that, during its darkest days in the 2000s and 2010s, saw two-thirds of its revenue pile stripped away by P2P file-sharing. But the joyful numbers do mask the hurdles Australian artists are faced with in today’s all-you-can eat singles and albums market.

Homegrown artists were few and far-between on ARIA’s and IFPI’s year-end charts, and triple j’s Hottest 100 poll was hardly stacked with local heroes.  

Luminate’s recently published full-year report contained one telling paragraph – the United States in 2024 was the world’s largest exporter of music, with Canada, Australia and New Zealand importing the most from the US.

Great for America’s music scene, not great for domestic talent north of the border and here, in Australasia.

And despite its solid report card, Australia, for so long a top 10 market, has dropped out of the IFPI top 10. Mexico takes Australia’s place.

“In this fiercely competitive market, Australian music must be better than it’s ever been,” adds Herd.

“We have incredible talent and numerous success stories from the past year, but our challenge is how to make more of our artists and their recordings stand out on a local and global stage. Now is the time to try new things and be bold.”

ARIA’s focus “is squarely on promoting initiatives and programs designed to grow audience, grow export, and develop a highly skilled and innovative local music industry. These initiatives will take time to come to full fruition, but the opportunity is there and it is big,” she remarks.

“Connecting local success stories with Australia’s passionate music fans remains our focus and our mission.”