Can Australian Music Survive in the Age of Spotify?
New ANA research has implications for up-coming National Cultural Policy
Think tank A New Approach has released its latest Big Picture report, and the headline numbers should reshape how the live music sector pitches for public money.
The Big Picture: Expenditure on Artistic, Cultural and Creative Activity by governments in Australia in 2007–08 to 2023–24 tracks how all three tiers of government (federal, state and territory, and local) actually spend on arts and culture, drawing on the ABS Cultural Funding by Government survey.
In 2023–24, the three tiers combined spent roughly $8.6 billion on cultural activities. Federal contributed 36.2 per cent, state and territory governments 38.8 per cent, and local government around 25 per cent. Total spend was up 3.5 per cent on 2021–22, but that lift was carried entirely by state and local governments. Federal spending actually went backwards by 1.6 per cent.
That’s a structural first. State and territory investment has formally pulled ahead of federal investment, and the trend has been building for years. Australia’s cultural funding centre of gravity has shifted toward the states.
For music, this matters enormously. Music sits inside the broader ‘Arts’ category in the data, where state and territory governments already shoulder well over 70 per cent of public investment. The federal share dominates Film, Radio and Television, but for live, performed and contemporary work, the states and territories are doing the heavy lifting.
The data also surfaces two trends working against grassroots live music. Australia ranks 26th out of 33 OECD countries on government investment in ‘recreation, culture and religion’, and per capita cultural funding has actually gone backwards over the long sweep of the data. Capital expenditure (buildings, fit-outs, redevelopments) has also climbed from 11 per cent of total cultural spend in 2007–08 to 19 per cent in 2021–22. Capital builds hardware. It generally doesn’t pay artist fees, fund touring, or sustain a small live music room.
Federal policy work under Revive (including Music Australia and Revive Live) is real and welcome. But the wider numbers suggest sector advocacy increasingly needs state premiers, state arts ministers, and state agencies in the room. NSW already moved first with its $2.25 million Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund, and The Big Picture suggests more state-led interventions are on the way.
