Australian recorded music industry figures for 2020

The Australian recorded music market grew by 7.3% in 2020 according to new wholesale figures released today by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). The growth was driven by a rise in revenue from streaming services and vinyl, which offset a drop in revenue for digital downloads and CD sales.

It is the sixth straight year of growth for the recorded music industry which now generates $542 million in revenue per annum.

Vinyl albums saw a 32% rise YOY and now make up 5.4% of the music market. CD wholesale figures show a drop of 17% YOY and now make up 5.6% of total revenue.

Streaming services saw a rise of 14% YOY and make up 82.3% of the total market in 2020 across all services, including subscriptions, ad supported models and video services, down from growth of 30% in 2019. Digital sales were once again down, decreasing 27% YOY to 6.0% of the total market in 2020.

The growth in the recorded music market reflects the important role that music played for Australians going through a very challenging year with numerous lockdowns and widespread uncertainty due to COVID-19. Despite the growth in recorded music, it has been a very challenging year for the music industry as a whole with live music shut down in March 2020 and still running well below capacity.  

Key highlights from the 2020 results:

• Vinyl is $1m short of overtaking CD in wholesale revenue and is projected to overtake CD value in 2021.
• 2020 marks six consecutive years of growth in recorded music revenue.
• The growth in the Australian music revenue is in line with the 7.4% global growth announced by IFPI.

See the full ARIA statistics.