Although it may seem like an unlikely revelation with a blog post every other day about the “death of the music industry”, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has recently reported a rise in revenue in 2015 for the Australian music industry.

Releasing the news through their wholesale figures for 2015, this marks the first upward swing for the industry since 2012. ARIA has also noted that this positive trend is largely due in part to the uptake of digital delivery systems, with music streaming service revenue doubling over the course of 2015. This jump in revenue includes subscription based services such as industry mainstays Spotify and Google Play, along with heavyweight newcomer Apple Music and on-demand streaming like YouTube and Vevo.

ARIA CEO Dan Rosen states, “Australian music fans are consuming more music than ever before and did so across an unpreceded number of formats”, and with 62% of the overall market by value accounted for through digital delivery, the rise of streaming is a clear trend to watch in the Australian music industry. Although digital download revenue dropped just shy of 13% over the course of the year, the willingness of the Australian public to embrace streaming services has still resulted in digital formats rising in total value by 10.6%, to a total of $207.6 million.

This presents an interesting dilemma for artists, as streaming services have seen significant criticism for their low royalty payments through such avenues. Quoting Death and Taxes, the ABC reports that Spotify pay $0.00521 per song stream, with this revenue largely passing through management and record labels before artists see a profit. However, this large uptake of streaming services may mean that the potential for artists to gain a wider audience services could very well prove to be the most profitable method of sustaining a living in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Article written by Jonty Simmons