Art Facts: Music, a new digital resource from the Australia Council for the Arts, tells the story of music in numbers. It brings together facts, figures and research from across the music sector and, through an interactive website, will inspire people to discover and share facts about music, sparking quality debate.

Art Facts: Music is structured around five key elements of the music ecosystem: creation; industry; global trade; participation; funding and public support. It brings together research from APRA | AMCOS, ARIA, PPCA, Live Performance Australia, Music Council of Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and others, allowing people to find it in one place and compare the figures in new ways.

There’s a wealth of facts and figures on the music industry out there, but it’s in so many different locations not all of which are readily known or accessible to everyone in the music sector, says Kathy Keele, CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts. Art Facts brings this together. It’s a rich resource for deepening our understanding of the sector learning more about its size, scope, issues and opportunities.

Art Facts: Music illustrates the enduring importance of the music industry to Australia both culturally and economically, says Kathy. And as new data is released, it can be added to Art Facts, creating a definitive gateway for research, facts and figures on the music industry.

Matthew Hindson, Chair of the Australia Council Music Board says there is a multitude of information here, a kaleidoscope of facts – each fact deserving its own analysis and provoking us to consider who makes music, who listens to it, who makes the money and who doesn’t.

You can really see the pervasiveness of music, says Matthew. Almost everyone makes music part of their everyday lives as listeners or performers, as audience members and hobbyists – all of which makes music simultaneously remarkable and something that is easily taken for granted.

Art Facts: Music also demonstrates the resilience of the music industry, how it defies recent tougher financial times with Australian households spending $2 billion on music each year, says Matthew. Australians are buying 100 million recordings per year and live music brings over 42 million fans into Australia’s pubs and clubs.

The music industry itself is going through a consumer-lead digital revolution, with spending on digital music set to overtake CD sales in 2012 as fans buy more music online, and embrace subscription services.

Seeing the sheer size and scale of the music industry laid out is impressive, says Matthew.  But in stark contrast, the median creative income for professional musicians is only $7,200 a year.

Music is the first sector to go under the spotlight in the Australia Council’s Art Facts project. The website will grow to include key facts about all artforms, with other artforms being added throughout 2013. Art Facts will become a permanent resource for learning more about Australian arts through data and analysis.

Art Facts: Music is available here.

Media contact

Cameron Woods
02 9215 9030 | 0412 686 548
c.woods@creative.gov.au