Australia’s live music industry is going through a bit of a rough patch right now, with industry body Live Performance Australia (LPA) today releasing a new report which shows significant drops in live music attendance and revenue between 2014 and 2015.
LPA’s Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey for 2015 found that while attendance for live performance events overall only dropped by 0.9 per cent since 2014, attendance for live music declined by a whopping 27 per cent.
Overall, revenue from live music also suffered, with the live music sector suffering a 30 per cent decrease in revenue compared with only a 6.7 per cent decrease for live performance events as a whole.
Music festivals are among the areas to have copped it worst. The LPA report states that festivals overall experienced a 17.3 per cent decrease in revenue, while the average ticket price fell by 14 per cent. Looking at those figures, it’s not hard to see why organisers of Soundwave, Stereosonic and Future Music Festival Chose not to persist with those events beyond 2015, due to (but not limited to) poor ticket sales.
LPA Chief Executive Evelyn Richardson says the results of the survey are more than enough proof that Federal Government policy need to be better directed to ensure the industry keeps making solid contributions to Australia’s economy.
“These figures underscore the economic and cultural value of the live performance industry for millions of Australians – but the Turnbull Government hasn’t always matched this with policy direction or commitments,” says Richardson.
“Instead, we have seen cuts to Australia Council funding for small to medium organisations, and more recently massive and unjustified increases in visa fees for large international touring groups.”
Richardson has also criticised the Turnbull Government for a lack of consultation with industry figures when it comes to policy changes which effect the industry. “At the very least we require more effective consultation with Government Ministers and Departments well before any changes that may affect our industry are considered,” she says.
“We strongly believe that the Government needs to support greater investment in our industry which creates jobs, employs more than 34 000 people, generates significant economic activity and enriches the cultural lives of millions of Australians.”
You can check out the LPA’s new report in full, here.
