Australian music fans continue to embrace online streaming and subscription services. According to ARIA’s wholesale figures for 2014, released today, both doubled in revenue in the year since 2013.
Subscription service income jumped twofold to $23 million. Revenue from streaming services was up 111% from 2013. Digital subscription and free ad-supported models now make up 10% of the total market. The message from music fans continues to be clear: give us an inexpensive alternative, and we won’t download illegally.
Revenue from these sources will rise through 2015 as new premium services from Apple and YouTube get set to enter the market, ARIA said.
Digital music products make up 59% of the total market, at $187.7 million. The physical market, led by CDs, shifted 13.7 million units to a value of $130 million.
The increasing shift by Australian consumers from owning music to “renting to listen” is clearly shown in the drop in downloads. Digital albums were down 0.38% to a value of $67 million, and digital tracks were down 10.20% to a value of $85.1 million.
The lessening consumer interest in physical sales continues. CDs continued to freefall, down 11.69% to sales of 12.5 million and a 18.6% drop in value of $115.3 million. Music videos/DVDs continued in their decline to irrelevancy. Sales were down by almost half (46.5%): last year these only sold about 758,000 to a value of $7.5 million.
The only exceptions are vinyl albums. Their resurgence in recent years saw their 2014 sales value up 127% to $6.4 million.
Last year was also an awesome year for Australian acts. 16 local singles and albums topped the ARIA chart, led by the likes of Chet Faker and Justice Crew. 36 albums and 18 singles were in the 2014 Top 100; four singles and three albums were among the Top 10 best sellers. In the meantime, Sia, 5 Seconds Of Summer and Iggy Azalea were major sellers globally.
Whilst streaming services were an area of growth for the industry in 2014, the overall digital market was down 2.36% and physical sales were down 18%. This resulted in an overall decrease of 9.62% in annual recorded music revenue to $318 million – slightly better than last year’s 11.6% decrease.
According to ARIA, local record companies continue to expand into management, merchandise, synchronisation licensing and touring to beef up their income.
Dan Rosen, ARIA Chief Executive Officer, said today, “The remarkable success of Australian artists in 2014 is exciting news for the future as the music from our homegrown talent is enjoyed by music fans here and around the world.
“As the industry continues to transform itself, we remain committed to embrace our digital future. Our goal as an industry is to make it easier for music fans to support the artists they love by developing innovative new ways to sell music. The continued growth in the subscription market shows that the local music industry is leading the way in streaming digital content.
“It is an exciting time, as the consumption of music grows through an ever-expanding range of options– whether through subscription services, digital downloads or visiting the local record store to buy vinyl.”
