They Come From A Land Down Under: Australia & New Zealand’s Important Presence In The Global Live Sector

Consumers in Australia and New Zealand burst out of pandemic restrictions with buoyancy.

Live Performance Australia reported that in 2022, the revenue of A$2 billion (US$1.31 billion) and ticketed attendance of 24.2 million was the second highest since figures were collected.

This issue’s ANZ chart indicates in 2024 promoters were enjoying greater attendances and expanded audiences. Consider that 40% of those at Taylor Swift’s seven shows in February were attending a concert for the first time.

“I’ve seen some sales double the population or double the disposable or both,” Live Nation ANZ president Michael Coppel (see page 28) said. “We’ve seen phenomenal ticket sales and a great deal of excitement among fans for the tours that we and our competitors are doing.”

More touring acts in different career stages were successfully playing larger venues, noted Dion Brant, CEO of Frontier Touring which notched 112 tours in the last financial year.

“Things accelerated for those acts who connected to the crowds and made them feel part of the show, and had got into the pathway building their catalogues. It was fantastic to see when it happened.”

Three acts stood out in terms of generating phenomenal sales and a media storm.

Swift’s seven shows in Melbourne and Sydney through Frontier drew an estimated 640,000 fans. It was a phenomenon which a National Australia Bank report estimated boosted the economies of both cities by $300 million ($197.1 million). 

P!NK’s 20 stadium shows the same month sold 975,000 tickets, said Live Nation, a big jump from 635,000 on her last visit.

Fred again..’s pop-up guerrilla tactics sold 224,091 through Handsome Tours, Laneway Presents, TEG Live and Astral People.

It was the British producer’s second visit, after his debut at the 2023 Laneway Festival created unheard-of scenes.

It caused him to try an ambitious and unprecedented concept knowing it struck a chord with an audience that lusted for engagement and priority status, with 1 million digitally queuing for tickets.

“We knew the response to Fred’s surprise tour was going to be a phenomenon,” said Handsome Tours’ managing director Mark Dodds.

He confirmed not one marketing dollar was spent, as the act drove it through social media.

“We trusted Fred’s vision and we staked a lot on it. That said, the response was so organic, the excitement so uncontainable and the demand so bottomless, it exceeded even our wildest expectations.”

For Dodds, the tour’s success reflected how fervent and loyal modern day Australian music fans are.

“If there’s a clear live trend in Australia, it’s that fans are forming tight bonds with the acts who invest in coming out early,” he said. “Even putting aside the unicorn moment that was Fred again.., we were blown away by the response to rising acts like Chappell Roan, Raye, Black Country New Road, d4vd, Masego and Snoh Aalegra.”

Getting On The World

Australia, since the 1960s, has a reputation of being a reliable touring market for international acts. It was also a steady source of creating acts that went on to become international touring success stories, starting with the Bee Gees, the Easybeats and the Seekers.

The live scene thrived because of a number of factors: a cashed-up audience that supports new acts, good weather year round and an extensive network of music venues ranging in capacity from 100 to 5,000 that aided acts from early beginnings to breakthrough chart traction.

Festivals such as Big Day Out and Soundwave, which drew 100,000 each, broke acts and their rise was aided by music TV shows and influential broadcaster triple j. College radio and magazines were constant supports. 

The gamechanger came in the early ’70s when the drinking age dropped to 18 and pubs were giving longer serving hours; pubs became live music’s home. Bands had to play loud, write catchy singalongs, with dynamic frontpersons to sell the product. That was a formula for creating radio-friendly songs and multi-platinum albums.

“I wasn’t running around the stage to put on a show, I was dodging the bottles,” AC/DC’s Angus Young once said.

Icehouse’s Iva Davies once recalled, “When I started writing songs, I went to pubs and clubs to research, and worked out you had to get the girls dancing because the guys would then follow.”

Out of pub-rock came a generation of hungry entrepreneurs starting in agencies like Let It Be and Consolidated Rock. The late Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg set up Frontier Touring. Bruce Springsteen said in a tribute after Gudinski’s death, “I’ve toured the world for the last 50 years and never met a better promoter.”

The late Chris Murphy took INXS to the global stage, the late Glenn Wheatley did it with Little River Band, John Woodruff with Savage Garden, and Michael Browning with AC/DC, while Roger Davies helmed Tina Turner’s, Olivia Newton-John’s and P!NK’s careers. There was also Men At Work, Nick Cave, Keith Urban, Kylie Minogue, Hoodoo Gurus, The Church, and now, Tame Impala, Flume, RUFUS DU SOL and Tones & I.

Pollstar’s 2018 mid-year report noted, “This year’s survey saw a 12% jump in total gross from last year’s $1.97 billion ($1.29 billion) to a record-setting $2.21 billion ($1.45 billion).”

New Zealand, with 5 million people, through the years delivered (in addition to the influential Flying Nun Records) Crowded House, Lorde, Bic Runga, Kimbra, OMC, Split Enz, SIX60, L.A.B., Mi-Sex, Dragon, Broods, the Beths, Kaylee Bell, Flight of the Conchords and Benee to the world.

The country’s return from the pandemic was more subdued. In 2019 the live sector’s revenue provided its greatest contribution to the NZ economy, but in 2022, it was down 30% from that, according to PwCEconomic.

Consumer activity has intensified in 2023/4.  Auckland’s Spark Arena had its biggest ever attendance with 655,000. In March P!NK set a new attendance record at Eden Park in Auckland with 100,000 fans over two nights.

The Rhythm & Vines festival drew 88,000 and 20 million TikTok views of its hashtag, with an abundance of brands coming on board.

In August 2024, Electric Avenue announced expanding to two days next February, with promoter Callam Mitchell expecting 60,000 through the gates of Christchurch’s Hagley Park.

Right Here, Right Now

In 2024, most factors that put Australian music on the stage are in place. But grassroots venues are closing at an alarming rate, victims to escalating operational bills, insurance premiums and cost of living.

Cost of living increases led to drops in attendance of up to 30% to major festivals, right below financial viability. The lack of headliners was crucial. 

With tighter margins, Secret Sounds/LN’s Splendour In The Grass (50,000) and Cattleyard’s six-city touring festival Groovin’ The Moo (100,000) pulled the plug within weeks of ticket sales going on the market and proving slow.

About a dozen festivals were cancelled or delayed through 2024. The latest, in August, was Secret Sounds’ two-day Harvest Rock in Adelaide, which generated 25,000 attendances and an economic impact of $16.5 million ($10.8 million).

A week earlier the casualty was the four-city Spilt Milk, which since 2016 sold out in minutes. It had its highest attendance last year, Kick Entertainment said at the time, to an unofficial 140,000 and generating a total $54.4 million ($35.7 million) for its local economies.

While the numerous cancellations cast a doom-and-gloom pall over the industry, other promoters told Pollstar they weren’t panicking.

They put it down to an inevitable cycle of events, and the collapse of a long-time model with younger audiences now moving away from large multi-genre events (see page 30).

TEG group CEO Geoff Jones maintained, “There’s been a plethora of festivals, so we’re just seeing a correction. We’re competing with the world for headliners, so their prices are up, and we’ve been paying too much.

“Cost of business post-COVID is up 30% to 40% and crowds are doing it hard.”

Bluesfest director Peter Noble observed, “People still want to go to festivals. But the challenge is to get headliners which are not the same-old-same-old. 

“We’re not producing enough new talent quickly enough. This is not the time for agents and managers to go for the money. This is the time for them to support our events with careful planning and exclusivity so the same acts are not headlining.” 

At press time, the famed Byron Bay Bluesfest announced its last hurrah in 2025.

As Pollstar’s ANZ charts (see page 41) show, companies working on tighter bills are growing.

Untitled Group, Australia’s largest independent promoter, “experienced tremendous growth over the past 12 months” said general manager Andrew White (see page 33), with over 500,000 tix sold across its festivals, tours and club brands.

He added, “I do see a bright future for those willing and able to pivot and remain responsive to the ever-changing market. 

“The term ‘innovation’ is often misunderstood. In reality, it’s the sum total of our efforts to adapt and change the way we do things, the way we collaborate with community and culture, the way talent connects with their fans, and the new ways we deliver unforgettable experiences to Australian audiences.”

Destroy All Lines had a 250% rise in business from 2023, with 65 tours this year including Simple Plan, James Blunt, Bring Me The Horizon and Maria Bamford, and hard rock festivals Good Things and Knotfest which each shifted 110,000 over three cities.

Managing director Chris O’Brien attributed its success to “the way we work differently in our approach to marketing and programming” and the way the company utilises experts as it expanded into the indie, rap, country, comedy, podcast and ‘80s spaces.

“That we were surprised by the amount of the opportunities which came our way. That we were surprised by the people who wanted to work with us was a reflection of our environment of creatively always wanting to try new things.

“The trick when expanding, obviously, is not to rush it, but wait until you get the right team around it and make sure the timing is right.”

Steps Ahead

Looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the Australian market in 2024, TEG’s Geoff Jones commented, “People are always willing to have a go, which is a very Australian thing. But the weakness is we tend to talk ourselves down a bit, which is also an Australian trait.”

Fuelling the ideas is the confidence that the audience is still there. In Tixel and Bolster Group’s Big Ticket Items report from last November, 53% of those surveyed from Australia and New Zealand were attending more events than before, 59% had concerts listed as priority, and rising ticket prices was not a deterrent for 78%.

Australia has shown a remarkable resilience with new attitudes and experimenting with different business models promising a reboot.

By putting aside traditional rivalries for a united front, constant discussions with governments saw live music added to tourism projects. 

Last November, the Western Australia government paid $8 million ($5.28 million) for two exclusive shows by Coldplay in Perth to 140,000 fans, and marketed heavily in SE Asia. “43% came from interstate or outside the country,” Live Nation’s Coppel reported. The economic impact exceeded the $68 million ($44.6 million) the government and tourism bodies expected, according to local media.

Suggestions have included an arena tax for grassroots venues, mandatory marketing of Aussie supports on international tours, culture passes for 18-year olds to encourage them to go to gigs, tax incentives for investors and a concerted effort to open up regional touring networks.

“I’m very optimistic about the new festivals and ideas coming through,” Evelyn Richardson, chief executive of Live Performance Australia, said at a summit in Sydney.

 “What we do know about audiences is that they are changing, and this reflects a new emerging experience economy. 

“The industry is full of entrepreneurs and creative risk-takers. I’m optimistic that new types of festivals and new ideas will emerge, genre-specific.”