#ICYMI: 7 music business stories you may have missed last week

1. 3.9% FOR AUSSIE MUSIC SPEND

PwC’s latest Entertainment & Media Outlook report forecasts Australians’ spend on music in 2023 will be 3.9% of the total $45.4 billion spent on filmed entertainment, books, newspapers, subscription TV, gaming and magazines.

Interestingly, the 3.9% spend remains unchanged from 2018.

2. ‘ROCKETMAN’ MAKES $3.41M IN SECOND WEEK

In its second week in Australian cinema, Rocketman generated 3.41 million at the box office, and unable to dislodge Aladdin from the top spot,

Altogether Elton’s fantasy biopic has earned $10.50 million in Australia, or an average of $6,548 across 521 screens.

3. 94% OF SPILT MILK TICKETS SOLD

After general admission ticket sales went on sale at 8 am on Thursday, June 13 for the Spilt Music festival in Canberra, and its inaugural show in Ballarat in Victoria, organisers announced by early afternoon that 94% of tickets had sold.

Pre-sales on June 12 sold out, helped along by a deal with Tinder which gave fans the chance to swipe right on a Spilt Milk profile to gain presale tickets, and a pop-up ticket office in a café in Braddon, Canberra.

Usually the Canberra event has sold out in less than 30 minutes every year since launching in 2016.

4. SIX FIGURES FOR FEMALE MUSIC LEADERS

The Victorian government has provided an extra $100,000 for the Cultivate program, which supports female mid-level to established managers and leaders by matching them with inspirational mentors from outside the music industry, providing workshops, masterclasses and tailored training opportunities coordinated by Music Victoria.

The funding announcement was made as Cultivate’s five 2018 participants graduated this week at the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne.

Sarah DeBorre, Cultivate’s project manager, told TMN that the funding would not only allow a second round of the program, “but it will allow me to make room for an extra participant, and this will likely be a spot designated specifically for a First Nations participant.

“I’ll also be able to run the program over a longer time frame and include some extra masterclasses and activities for the new group and alumni.”

5. TWO MINUTES FOR U2 SELL-OUT?

New Zealand media estimated that U2’s first Auckland show sold out in two minutes.

Live Nation would not confirm, saying it does not comment on time windows of sales of its shows.

A second Sydney show was also announced last week.

6. WILL AUSTRALIA BE TIK TOK’S 11TH OFFICE?

Chinese company ByteDance’s video-sharing app TikTok could set up its 11th office around the world in Australia.

It’s already noted its popularity among content creators, and representatives have been taking a close look at this market.

“Australia is a key market for TikTok, and we’ll be exploring opportunities to establish a stronger presence in the market as our business continues to grow,” a TikTok spokesperson told AdNews.

Among the cities where it has offices are Beijing, London, Los Angeles, Moscow and Mumbai.

7. 76 MORE PIRACY SITES BLOCKED

The Village Roadshow-headed consortium of studios have used last year’s change in Australian copyright law to get the Federal Court to instruct Aussie ISPs they have 15 business days in which to take “reasonable” steps to block 76 overseas hosted websites that linked, streamed, or torrented” movies and TV shows.

Other studios in the consortium include Disney, Columbia, Universal, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Warner Bros and Madmen Anime Studios.