Aussie Report: COVID Wiped Out $1.4B From Live Entertainment

This represented a 70% decline, causing the association to call for the introduction of insurance and wage support for phase 2 of the industry’s recovery.

“Contemporary music combined with festivals comprised 60% of total industry revenue and 43% of attendances,” said chief executive Evelyn Richardson.

This sector’s suffering, extended for 20 months when the Delta variant disrupted the industry’s reactivation plans, is expected to continue for at least another 12 months.

“Our live music businesses have now lost their small window of opportunity to schedule international artists for concerts and music festivals in the final quarter of this year,” Richardson noted. “These events have now been cancelled or postponed until late 2022/early 2023.”

In 2020, the number of tickets issued to live performance events fell by 68% to under 8 million, ticket sales revenue declined by 69% to A$600 million ($449.2 million), and the average ticket price fell from A$92.89 ($69.55)  to A$87.14 ($65.24).

Contemporary music, remaining the biggest category with over 50% total revenue of live performance at A$309 million ($231. 3 million) and 37% of attendances (nearly 3 million), experienced an overall decline of 63% in revenue and 65% in attendance between 2019 and 2020.

 

Musical theatre, the second biggest category, lost 80% in revenue and 79% of attendances. In 2020, it contributed A$67 million ($50.1 million) in revenue, which was 11% of the industry total, and approximately 730,000 attendances, 9% of the industry total.

While musicians lost a considerable earnings from live work, the annual report from music rights group APRA AMCOS showed that its revenue to songwriters and composers was up 6.8% to a record A$506.9 million ($379.4 million) .

Members’ public performance royalties fell 14% to A$63 million ($47.1 million) from canceled or postponed shows, royalties from streaming and other digital sources rose 17% to A$241 million ($180.4 million).

Australian songwriters collected 10% rise to A$60 million ($44.9 million) from international royalties, with The Kid Laroi, Tones & I and Masked Wolf leading.