Live Music Dollars Boost The Australian Economy Three Times Over 

“Our research shows that for every dollar spent on live music, three dollars of benefit is returned to the wider community. This is a significant, and unrecognised, contribution that includes the dollars that flow to the national economy as well as the ways experiencing live music enriches people’s lives.” – Dr. Dave Carter, Lecturer in Music Technology at University of Tasmania.

National research conducted by the University of Tasmania and released August 2015 by the Live Music Office shows the live music sector contributed $15.7 billion of value to the Australian community in 2014, providing vital commercial, individual and civic benefits.

The report, The Economic and Cultural Value of Live Music in Australia 2014, set out to value the economic, social and cultural contribution of the Australian live music industry with both a national consumer survey undertaken alongside a survey of venues in Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. This is the first research of this scale completed since 2011.

This research was undertaken in partnership with the University of Tasmania, City of Sydney Council, City of Melbourne, The Government of South Australia via the Music Development Office, and The Live Music Office.

Results for South Australia include:

• Live music contributed $263.7 million to the South Australian economy in Gross Value Added terms, or around 0.3 per cent of Gross State Product.
• Live music ticket sales in South Australia totaled $59.7 million (around 6 per cent of national tickets sales) with attendance at live music events around 3.51 million (around 7 per cent of national attendance).
• Total employment (full time and part time jobs) from making live music in South Australia was estimated to be 4,100 persons (around 6.3 per cent of the national figure).
• Proportion of consumer expenditure on live music at the national level showed the majority was spent on food and beverages (29.3 per cent), ticket purchase (19.2 per cent), travel (17.6 per cent) and accommodation (12.4 per cent).

Read the full report on the Live Music Office website here.