PwC Report: Live music market to grow by $13m

The live music market is readying a $13 million growth spurt in the next five years.

That’s according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' 14th Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook, which offers a five-year forecast for ad revenues across 11 industry sectors including radio, music and magazines.

PwC projects that despite Australia's cooling festival climate, the live music market will grow from $807m, where it sits today, to $820m in five years. 

It also predicts an increase in the growth of streaming with the market forecast to increase to almost a third of digital music revenues by 2019.

Physical sales will continue to decline with PwC noting sales will fall from $245m today to $131m by 2019. Unfortunately digital sales won’t offset the decline, PwC reports digital music sales have largely plateaued.

Digital will be the big winner of the Australian advertising market in the next five years though, with internet advertising set to account for more than half of the total market by 2019.

PwC predicts the local ad spend on media will be $16bn by 2019 and that internet advertising will represent $8.2bn (or 51%) of paid marketing spend. The internet advertising market is increasing at a compound annual rate of 13% out to 2019 and it’s good news for radio; the sector will reach $1.33bn up from $1.17bn  – compared to $1.5bn for newspapers and $3.8bn for free-to-air TV.

Falling in line with PwC’s last report, the print sector’s decline is projected to continue. Advertising revenue from newspapers will fall from $1.93bn this year to $1.47bn in five years, a 23.8% drop. Ad revenue from consumer magazines will fall 8.7% in the next five years, from $503m to $461m. It’s predicted that digital ad revenues won’t offset this fall.

Megan Brownlow, Editor of PwC’s Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook said a subdued economy and continued industry challenges are responsible. However, non-traditional, digitally-supported strategies are playing an important role in keeping businesses above water.

“Look at what the traditional television and radio companies are doing with streaming services, or the agencies with brand-funded content – all of these are digitally supported but they represent much more fundamental shifts in business model.”

PwC’s entertainment and media industry leader, David Wiadrowski said now is the time for traditional players to adopt a ‘start-up mindset’ and innovate themselves back into growth.

“Our own research shows the Australian start-up sector has the potential to contribute $109 billion, or 4 percent of GDP, to the economy by 2033 – so we know the opportunity is there, the question is how you apply that start-up thinking across the sector.”

Image: Soundwave 2014's crowd for headliners Green Day at theSydney leg.