You might not think much of Aussie music, but it actually contributes much more to the nation than you think in terms of GDP growth.

The arts - music, creative expression, theatre, film, etc - are often maligned as luxuries in an economy focussed on profit-making endeavours that have more direct and tangible outputs. Especially in economies like Australia's. We're world-leaders in digging stuff up and selling it abroad. And when we're not doing that, we're inventing stuff like Wi-Fi and insect repellant for the world to monetise. So what's a long-haired group of teens thrashing their instruments or a DJ filling a dance floor with their latest remixes supposed to contribute to the economy? Quite a bit, it turns out.

The Federal Government's task force on the promotion and investment in the arts - Creative Australia - teamed up with some boffins to calculate exactly how much the nation's music industry contributes to GDP annually. In a new report today catchily-titled "The Bass Line", the task force created a way to define and measure music's contribution to the GDP, and then did exactly that. They measured. 

As it turns out, the nation's music industry contributed almost $3 billion in direct gross value added in 2023-24 from a whopping from a whopping revenue figure of $8.78 billion. Music exports alone (not just Eurovision and Kylie Minogue albums, we promise), netted almost $1 billion on its own in the same period.

Here's how that breaks down.

Live shows are still the main event

Despite recent challenges, live music remains the biggest driver of revenue and economic value. 

Australians bought enough tickets and drinks to account for $4.83 billion in revenue — more than half the industry’s total. That equated to $1.44 billion in direct gross value added (GVA), the report shows.

But the report highlights that value is spread across the chain:

• Music retail — including instruments and recorded music — brought in $2.73 billion in revenue and delivered $515 million in GVA.
• Recording, production, distribution and labels contributed $790 million in revenue and $350 million in GVA.
• Publishing, composition and songwriting added $470 million in revenue and $155 million in GVA.
• Artist management generated $195 million in revenue and $92 million in GVA.

It's interesting to see, considering Australia's live music scene has struggled to regain momentum following massive stumbles after COVID closed venues and after policies like Sydney's infamous "lockout laws" torched the areas where bands used to convene in favour of high-rise developments and luxury retail.

Why it matters

This report isn't a one-off headline-grabber. Creative Australia says it will reuse the methodology to continue to measure the output and contribution of the Australian music scene for years to come. What's more important than putting a number on it, however, is putting a framework around it. Until now, there hasn't been a well-agreed upon format and methodology for measuring this sort of output from creative industries. 

Now for the first time, Australia has a nationally consistent definition of what makes up the music industry: from gig workers and venue staff to digital aggregators and publishing rights reps. It doesn’t just put a number on the music industry — it defines it. By drawing on hundreds of thousands of data points from more than 1,000 contributors across industry and government, it establishes a credible benchmark for how we track, value and support Australian music from here.

This matters for funding, policy, and long-term investment planning - things the industry sorely needs if it wants to grow these figures year-on-year.

For policymakers and investors, it takes what was once on the secret tracks list and puts it out as a chart-topping single they can't ignore. And for artists and industry workers, it’s a new way to show just how central their work is to Australia’s cultural and economic life.

Hey Siri, play Horses by Darryl Braithwaite.