Live music just continues to prove itself as being hugely beneficial to the Australian economy with a second study in less than a month confirming that it’s making the country a bunch of money.
Research conducted by Live Performance Australia (LPA) has found that live music contributed $1.51 billion to the economy in 2014 with 18.54 million tickets issued. That’s a 3.4% increase on 2013 when 17.93 million tickets were issued to events.
Of that 18.54 million tickets, 16.47 million of them were paid tickets which is again an increase from 2013.
While live music revenue dipped in 2011 and 2012, between 2008 and 2014 overall there has been a 42% increase, while attendance has increased 17%. It’s a phenomenal result given the government regulations and venue closures that have cast a dark cloud over live music in the last few years.
According to Chief Executive of LPA Evelyn Richardson, revenue has continued to rise despite a decline in the average ticket price.
“Despite lower consumer confidence, the arts and recreation industry recorded positive productivity growth in 2013-14, outperforming other market sector industries such as retail trade and accommodation and food services,” she said.
This report follows one of a similar nature conducted by the University Of Tasmania last month. That report found that the live music sector contributed a massive $15.7 billion to Australia’s economy in 2014 which was three times more than what it cost.
“Our research shows that for every dollar spent on live music, three dollars of benefit is returned to the wider community,” Dr. Dave Carter, Lecturer in Music Technology at Tassie Uni explained at the time. “This is a significant, and unrecognised, contribution that includes the dollars that flow to the national economy as well as the ways experiencing live music enriches people’s lives”.
As has become pretty apparent, the government likes to work with numbers and these kind of statistics are perfect examples of exactly how important live music is to not only our culture but also our economy. Calling all pollies:
Check out the full findings of the report here.
