The stark numbers that spell grim news for Aussie musos

West Australian

a day ago

Aussie music lovers feel a sense of pride when they hear Australian music, but their playlists are actually dominated by pop from the US and Britain.
While 71 per cent of listeners love to hear Australian tunes, and two thirds want to hear more, only one in three music fans make an effort to seek out new Australian music.
It's a big contradiction revealed in landmark research by Music Australia, the federal government's music development and funding body.
A massive 98 per cent of local listeners discover musicians via streaming, but more than half (51 per cent) don't think about whether an artist is Australian when they are looking for new tunes.
Of the top 10,000 artists streamed in Australia during 2024, just eight per cent were Australian, while more than half were from the US, according to entertainment analytics firm Luminate.
It seems the sheer convenience of personalised playlists delivered via an algorithm might be stopping music fans discovering Australian artists - and that's a problem for musicians like Sara Storer.
The ARIA-award winning country musician is releasing her eighth solo album titled Worth Your Love, and says the music industry has completely transformed since her first release back in 2001.
"For a young person, especially a young Aussie artist trying to get out there, I'd be terrified. Where do you start?" she said.
Despite building an inter-generational audience over decades, the Darwin-based musician can no longer rely on album sales, and even solid streaming figures don't add up to a viable income.
"There's no income from streaming. It looks good on paper and you think, well, I should be making a few bucks, but you don't see anything," said Storer.
"All my money is made through live performance. I rely heavily on ticket sales, which is like a roller coaster."
The contradiction between listener sentiment and behaviour could be the basis of a campaign for actively discovering local music - a bit like the 'Life. Be in it' health campaign of the 1980s - suggested Music Australia director Millie Millgate.
"We can remind Australian audiences what these bands are doing overseas and encourage them not to miss out - like, don't miss out on your own party," said Millgate.
"There's no one single bullet, but if audiences can be mobilised to do their part and really seek out Australian new music, it would go an incredible way."
And the Music Australia research suggests we could potentially Aussify Spotify: listeners like the idea of a dedicated Australian music streamer, with 42 per cent saying it's something they would pay for.
Melbourne rock band Amyl and the Sniffers are one act making it big on the global stage, and when the band appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon recently, singer Amy Taylor's top was made from two classic Aussie thongs.
It's a big effort to demonstrate a sense of national pride - but it seems many Aussie musos are actually getting more love overseas, with more than 80 per cent of royalties for local musicians coming from international listeners in 2024, according to figures from Spotify.
The research also found radio still plays a role. A quarter of music fans still tune in to discover new music, with ABC station triple j a popular source.
An economic snapshot of the local sector showing a direct contribution of almost $3 billion to the national economy was part of three industry research reports released on Thursday.