The numbers don’t lie: Australia is an important market in the global electronic music ecosystem.
When you talk about worldwide electronic music, does Australia come up? If not, it probably should. Streaming and live event figures suggest that dance music is the most prominent genre in the country — and for that matter, dance music originating in Australia is popular in outside markets.
Sounds Australia, an organization funded by the Australian government, partnered with Mixmag Australia/NZ to compile a cross-section of data suggesting as much. It released its report in tandem with the 2024 debut of its Australia House event concept on October 16-17 at Box Sociaal Jordaan during Amsterdam Dance Event.
According to Sounds Australia, 23% of the country’s festivals are dedicated to electronic music. Figures recently published by SoundCloud also suggest that 33% of streams on the music platform in Australia are of uploads belonging to the genre. This is 50% higher than the global average of 22%.
The report doesn’t only shine a light on Australian electronic music fans’ habits, but also its influence on the industry worldwide. It notes that Pollstar included three Australian promoters in its list of the top 50 around the globe: Frontier Touring, Untitled Group, and Handsome Tours. This has landed Australian dance music artists on the lineups of such prominent festivals as Creamfields, Tomorrowland, and Ultra Music Festival.
As a result, Spotify royalties paid out to Australian artists reached almost $275 million AUD in 2023 — 10% more than the 2022 figure. Only a fifth of these streams came from Australia itself. Germany, Brazil, and Mexico stand out as key consumers of Australian music, and Australian artists were discovered for the first time on Spotify by listeners 2.7 billion times thanks to the placement of over 4,000 Australian artists on the platform’s editorial playlists.
“The stats don’t lie,” said Australia-born, Berlin-based breakout talent Upper90 during a panel talk at Australia House. “Hearing that Australia draws so many streams is kind of bizarre, but I’m also not surprised. A lot of artists I talk to in Europe say their biggest audiences are in Melbourne and Sydney.”
Nina Las Vegas, an Aussie act who established herself two decades ago, pointed out that artists aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit. “There are a lot more opportunities behind the scenes,” she said during the Australia House panel. “I think now more than ever, we have people doing big stuff behind the scenes. The biggest example is Dom Dolla, who’s outrageously big and now has a very big team as well.”
All that is to say, don’t underestimate Australia as an emerging electronic music superpower. At a time when we tend to look at some of the genre’s biggest watershed moments in the rearview mirror, the next big culture revolution could be happening under our very noses.