APRA AMCOS Posts Record Revenue, Rues Loss of 1,300 Music Venues

Record revenues and healthy gains are (part of) the story behind APRA AMCOS latest financial results.

Posted today (Oct. 19), the PRO unveils all-time high revenue of $690.5 million for its 2023 financial year, up 12% on the FY22 result.

At the same time, net distributable revenue, the sums that trickle down to songwriter and publisher members, affiliates and rightsholders, grew by 11.4% year-on-year to $595.2 million – a new record.

Also hitting a new peak was international income from affiliate societies, lifting 17.7% to $70 million, a figure that reflects “the global reach and success of our Australian and New Zealand members,” reads a statement.

The ongoing success of the digital market, growth in the PRO’s multi-territory licensing business and its public performance business, lay the foundation for the result.

“Music fans flocked to concerts despite inflation and cost of living pressures,” according to APRA AMCOS, pointing to the near $32 million accumulated from OneMusic, a “dramatic” 400% increase year-on-year generated from licence fees for concerts and festivals.

All is not rosy in Australia’s live music.

Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, OneMusic has recorded a loss of more than 1,300 live music venues and stages across Australia, meaning one-third fewer medium to smaller licensed premises where artists can perform.

The dearth of music venues, especially in the regional areas, was brought into focus in the Australian Live Music Census, published recently and commissioned by Cedar Mill Group.

“There remains cause for considerable concern regarding the decimated venue-based live music market,” says Dean Ormston, APRA AMCOS CEO.

Ormston recognises the establishment of the national music development agency, Music Australia, as a “landmark result,” and updated members and the wider industry on the PRO’s lobbying with "all levels of government to establish, at speed, special entertainment precincts to foster and protect new and existing venues."

Using the platform of the PRO’s annual results, APRA AMCOS calls on the federal government to commit to a live music venue tax offset to act “as a catalyst in jump-starting live music nationally,” Ormston says.

“For the current wave and the next generation of music creators to develop their skills and become export-ready, we need to provide them with the resources at home and build a sustainable live music ecosystem.”

Ormston will present the annual results during a breakfast at APRA AMCOS headquarters in Sydney on Thursday morning, part of the official SXSW Sydney programme of events.