Get a Real Job - be a Music Teacher

Music education is a significant contributor to Australia’s music industry and national economy generating an estimated $10.76 billion in revenue in 2024-25, contributing an estimated $4.28 billion in direct Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Australian economy.

Music education spans a broad range of learning and professional development delivered across formal, and informal settings, including theory, composition, instrumental and vocal training, conducting, recording and live production, and music business skills.

Music education plays a critical role in the music industry value chain, contributing economic value while also delivering social benefits, contributing to lifelong engagement and future pathways.

It still isn’t that easy to be a musician and there are complex pressures facing the sector; rising costs, shifting audience behaviour and rapid technological change.

While music industry revenues grew by an estimated 5.2% from the prior year, growth in exports (1.9%), direct GVA (1.5%), and artist income (0.9%) was much slower.

Australian artists continue to rely heavily on live performance, which accounted for around 47% of artists’ music-related income in 2024-25.

Australians continue to prioritise live music despite rising costs associated with attending gigs and festivals and attendance at major venues and festivals is growing, while smaller venues and grassroots live music settings continue to face pressure.

The results were published in the latest edition of The Bass Line, Australia's only comprehensive annual analysis of the economics of the music industry produced by Music Australia and its companion report, More Than Notes on a Page: The Music Education Ecosystem in Australia.

The reports identify AI as an emerging issue reshaping how music is produced, distributed and consumed, with impacts evolving faster than current industry awareness and policy settings.

Director of Music Australia, Millie Millgate, said: “With two years of data, we’re beginning to see patterns that no single snapshot can show. We can see how value moves through the industry, where it stays and where it leaves, and what that means for artists and businesses.

“A clear finding of the research is, in addition to being culturally important, music education is one of the strongest contributors to Australia’s local music industry and the economy more broadly.

“One relationship we all instinctively know that the data is making increasingly clear: the consumption of Australian music by Australian audiences is directly connected to artist revenue growth. This kind of picture, built year on year, provides evidence-based signals to inform long-term local content considerations.”

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