This was according to Live Performance Australia (LPA)’s annual Ticket Attendance & Revenue Survey 2013 which was released this morning. The entire live performance sector – which covers contemporary music, musical theatre, opera, comedy, classical and children’s – posted a record $1.479 billion in revenue (up 22.7% from 2012) and a record 17.9 million tickets sold constituting a 10.2% rise. LPA attributed the rise mostly to a growth in consumer confidence.
The contemporary music sector was, nationally and through Victoria, the most successful sector. Nationally it generated 42.5% in revenue to $628.1 million – a 30.3% rise. This was due to major tours through 2013, including Pink, Beyonce, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, One Direction, Taylor Swift, Rhianna, Ricky Martin and Justin Bieber.
In real terms, NSW’s across-the-board live performance industry produced 33.6% of revenue with a value of $497.46 million with a 32.7% of attendance with 5.87 million tickets sold. Victoria’s on the other hand had 32% share of revenue ($473.52 million) and 31.3% share of attendance (5.61 million tickets).
But LPA points out that per capita, Victoria is the most successful music state, followed by West Australia which had 13.1% share of revenue ($194.31 million) and 12% of attendance (2.15 million tickets).
Victoria had the highest spend per capita, with $81.77 per person.
Victoria showed the biggest increase in revenue (up 37.5%) of all the states and territories. This was due to growth in contemporary music, circus & physical theatre and musical theatre.
NSW and Victoria combined had a revenue of $970.98 million, or approximately two-thirds of the entire Australian live performance industry.
The reasons are that some of Australia’s largest performing arts companies are based in New South Wales and Victoria and stage the bulk of their performances in Sydney and Melbourne. Destination NSW and The Victorian Major Events Company are particularly active in the major events market and were successful in attracting major live performance events to these states.
In terms of revenue, after NSW and Victoria were Queensland (13.5% share), WA (13.1%), South Australia (6.3%), ACT (1%), Tasmania (0.2%) and NT (0.1%).
