Australian Music Biz

Bleak predictions were made by PricewaterhouseCoopers regarding the next few years for the recorded music industry in Australia. Starting with the recent past, just last year along, the recorded music market declined by a full 10%+. The market is expected to drop another 6.8% this year to be worth a mere US$729 million by the end of this year. The market is then expected to drop another 1.5% per year through 2012.

Apparently the Australian government is well aware of this trend. In a recent blog, I wrote about the Queensland government’s wonderful plan to begin putting money behind exporting their top bands to music festivals around the world. Perhaps this will expand the international appeal of the bands which will lead to more touring income for these bands, and thus money coming into the Australian music industry. It probably won’t help recorded music sales, but the Australian government is smart to start getting into alternative revenue streams.

The fact that recorded music sales are declining in any country is not newsworthy. What is important though is to look at how musicians, labels, and even governments are handling the decline.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com