Australian Recorded Music Industry Grew 7.3% in 2020

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) says the Australian recorded music sector grew by 7.3% in 2020.

According to ARIA, the recorded music sector of the music industry was worth $542 million in 2020 despite another drop in CD sales.

CD sales account for 5.6% of revenue. The drop is CD is made up in the rise of vinyl sales with that sector now accounting for 5.4% of recorded music sales. Vinyl is now within $1 million short of overtaking CD as the predominant revenue area in the physical format. However, that figure is deceptive.

3,291,333 CD albums sold in Australia in 2020. 1,147,649 vinyl albums sold. The closeness in earnings is due to the much more expensive vinyl retail price (around $40) compared to CD (around $10).

Vinyl was up 32.02%. CD was down 17.26%

Streaming services now make up 82.3% of recorded music revenue. That is a 14.29% rise in 2020.

Downloads took the biggest retail tumble. Digital singles fell 26.8%. Digital albums fell 28.95%.

Physical sales were worth $61,473,590 in 2020. Streaming earned $505,052,250.

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