Musicians have the lowest salaries of the Australian creative sector

A report released today by the Australian Government’s Creative Industries Innovation Centre (CIIC) has revealed Australian music and performing artists have the lowest average weekly salaries of all creative industry professionals.

The report, which measures the economic value of the music and performing arts sector, found only 6% of employees earned $2,000 or more per week, where the average weekly earnings for an industry professional amounts to $972.

The report was based on the incomes of 34,000 people in the music and performing arts workforce who identified themselves as artists, musicians, writers, performers, music and theatre producers, ensembles, and operators in 2011.

The music and performing arts sector is one of three creative sectors to have grown in the past three years, recording the highest seven-year average growth of all sectors at 6%. The report reveals 12% of creative industry businesses are classified as music and performing arts with 5,887 registered in NSW, 4,156 in VIC, 2,348 in QLD, 1,099 in WA, 783 in SA, 224 in TAS and 73 in NT.

Click here to view the interactive infographs.