Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand’s peak music rights body APRA AMCOS has called for urgent collaboration with global streaming services after new research confirmed a rapid decline in Australian music consumption on digital platforms.

A report released by the Australia Institute, Reversing the Decline of Australian Music, supports findings from APRA AMCOS’s own Year in Review, which recorded a 31 percent drop in local content streamed between 2021 and 2025. Using IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) data, the report shows Australian artists’ share of streaming consumption fell from 12 percent to 8 percent between 2021 and 2024, with the number of Australian acts in the top 10,000 most-streamed shrinking from 932 to 773.

“This isn’t just an Australian problem, it’s a failure affecting English-speaking markets globally, but we’re experiencing the worst of it,” APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston said. “While European markets see local artists dominating their charts, and even small countries like Denmark enjoy 80 percent domestic content, Australia is going backwards.”

The report warns of a “one-way valve dilemma” in which Australians increasingly consume international music while local artists struggle for visibility – an opposite trend...