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In 2014, the Contemporary Music category experienced modest growth in total attendance, but a decline in total revenue. Although total attendance increased by 1.9%, gross revenue fell by 3.7% from $628.13 million to $604.96 million. The fall in gross revenue can be explained by the 2.6% decrease in the average ticket price and an increase in the number of zero priced tickets. Larger declines would have been experienced in this category if it were not for the inclusion of new ticket providers in 2014. In particular, the inclusion of Oztix data captured more local artists and smaller performances that were previously under-reported. This also helps to explain the fall in the average ticket price.
Despite the generally weak result, the Contemporary Music category continues to be the biggest in the Live Performance Industry, commanding 40.1% of revenue and 34.5% of attendance of the Live Performance Industry’s share. Comparatively, in 2010 Contemporary Music commanded 49.6% of revenue and 40.8% of attendance of the Live Performance Industry’s share. However, the annual variability of this category strongly reflects the number of big-name artists which tour in any given year, particularly the number of stadium tours. These figures do not include music festivals, which are categorised under Festivals (Single-Category).
In 2014, major tours included Katy Perry, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen. However, none of these tours matched the scale of Pink’s 2013 tour (with 48 Australian shows), which helps to explain the weaker result in 2014. Other international artists which toured Australia included Eminem, Michael Bublé, Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams and Kanye West. Australian artists that toured in 2014 included Keith Urban, Nick Cave, Bliss n Eso, Hunters and Collectors, and Jimmy Barnes.