Thanks to a Live Performance Australia survey, the results are now in for how the Australian economy affected the live performance sector in 2012.
See below for the stats. Sourced from The Music Network.
Revenue dropped by 8% to $1.2 billion, from $1.3 billion in 2011. This was due to a 6.2% drop in attendance from 17.3 million to 16.2 million as well as a continual drop in ticket prices as promoters and producers adjusted to the market. This is according to association Live Performance Australia’s 9th Ticket Attendance And Revenue Survey, released yesterday.
However, LPA chief executive Evelyn Richardson is not unduly concerned by these figures. “There was poor consumer confidence across the board in 2012,” she says. “The declines are modest compared to other sectors which are hurting, and live performance in Australia is still a $1.2 billion industry.”
Contemporary Music and Musical Theatre continued to be the two largest sectors, generating 40% and 16.9% of revenue respectively. Both dipped in revenue and attendance, they still account for 56.9% of gross revenue and 47.4% of total attendance. Contemporary Music grossed revenues of $482.1 million and with a total audience pull of 5,484,257.
The survey also covers musical theatre, opera, dance, classical, circus & physical theatre, comedy and special events.
Music festivals together grossed $98.3 million (8.2% share), up 2% share from 2011, while total attendance was up 18.7% as the likes of Splendour In The Grass, Future Music, Soundwave, Falls and Stereosonic were just some which put out the Sold Out sign and events as Bluesfest and Gympie Muster continued to draw huge crowds. Average ticket prices for festivals fell by 7.4% from $138.97 in 2011 to $128.71.
NSW’s live sector generated $446 million in revenue (40.1% share) and 5.7 million tickets (35.6% of share).
Second was Melbourne with $344.3 million in revenue (28.6%) and 4.9 million tickets (30.2% share).
Queensland generated $183.7 million (15.3% share) and sold 2.3 million tickets (14.1% share).
Western Australia turned over $134.1 million (11.1%) and shifted 1.7 million tickets (11%).
Revenue in South Australia hit $73.5 million giving it a 6.1% share while ticket sales of over 1 million gave it a $6.5% share.
The ACT had a 1.4% share with its population spending $17.2 million on live performances, buying 271,525 tickets to give attendance a share of 1.7%. Tasmania’s revenue was $4.2 million (0.4%) with ticket sales of 97,972 (0.6%).
Northern Territory’s revenues were $1.4 million (0.1%) and attendance amounted to 43,663 (0.3%).
Richardson points out that these figures are conservative, as the study does not, as yet, cover regional venues which would make a significant difference in sectors as Contemporary Music.
Audiences also were driven to Classical Music shows (up 19.7%) but producers in this genre were not smiling. Revenue growth was only a slight 1.3% due to average ticket prices falling by 12.3%.