SYDNEY, Australia — AC/DC, digital streaming and that loveable blue heeler Bluey helped push APRA AMCOS’s full-year revenue and distributions into unchartered territory.
The Australasian rights organization this week posted revenue of A$787.9 million ($511 million) for 2024-25, up 6.5% from the previous financial year, with net distributable revenue at A$683.4 million ($443 million), up 7.8% year-on-year, also an all-time result.
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For the reporting period, the group’s expense to revenue ratio was reduced to 13.26% from 14.32%.
Based on recent results, the A$800 million revenue milestone should be crushed in the next annual report, and the magical A$1 billion figure is on the near horizon.
Presented this week during the third annual SXSW Sydney, APRA AMCOS’s Year In Review is broadly solid, and in some areas spectacular, certainly for Subscription Video on Demand, which includes Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV, the “standout” category that grew by 15.7% to A$88.2 million ($57 million), fueled by increases in subscription charges and a rising base of subscribers.
Digital was the juggernaut for APRA AMCOS, generating A$404.3 million ($262 million), up 9.5%, while the business for public performance, the traditional cornerstone for APRA, lifted by 1.1% to A$133.9 million ($86.9 million).
Australian live music fans came out for local superstars Cold Chisel, Dom Dolla, Kylie Minogue, and The Kid LAROI, and for major international artists Coldplay, Luke Combs and Pearl Jam.
Music “exports” were another strong suit. Homegrown songwriters and composers are “still hitting the big time globally,” notes APRA AMCOS, pointing to AC/DC’s Power Up European tour and to Bluey‘s high-flying antics in the United States for helping lift international revenue to A$98.8 million ($64 million), up 14.8% year-on-year.
One painful point, however, is the ongoing evaporation of streaming share from local content, despite the clamor to streaming platforms in full year 2025. Revenue from television and radio licensing dipped, too.
Consumption of music in Australia, both on music streaming and User Generated Content (UGC) services, has grown by 50% since FY21, though, “alarmingly,” the percentage of consumption that relates to local songwriter and composer content in that same period has declined by 31% to just 9.5% of total music streaming over the past five years, APRA AMCOS reports, and 25.4% in UGC over the past three years.
The results “reflect our focus on service – growing revenue across every channel, sharpening operational efficiency, deploying smart technology that works for our business and members, delivering meaningful creative programs and celebrating our members’ incredible success,” comments Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS.
“They also confirm what we already know: Australians and New Zealanders are world-leading music fans. We consume more music per capita than almost anywhere else on the planet, yet the ability for our members to be seen and heard is becoming more difficult every year.”
Aussies are “hearing and discovering less local music,” reads a statement from the PRO, a reality that was brought into sharp focus with the full-year ARIA Charts for 2024, and triple j’s Hottest 100, both of which were dominated by trans-Atlantic artists.
The sharp “collapse” in clicks for local content on streaming platforms over five years “isn’t happening because our music isn’t good enough, and our surging export revenues prove our artists are among the best in the world,” Ormston continues. “They’re writing hits, filling venues internationally and competing at the highest level. The talent is undeniable. Our platforms are borderless, but algorithms favor scale and international repertoire dominate by default.”
The industry, he explains, “must continue to bang the drum as loud as we can for our members and advocate for their rights, from campaigning for live music tax offsets and the importance of being seen and heard to being crystal clear with policymakers: we will not accept any weakening of the Copyright Act when it comes to AI, and we will fight relentlessly for transparency, consent and fair remuneration when our members’ intellectual property is used.”
APRA AMCOS represents more than 128,000 songwriters, composers and music publisher members. Splitting the bodies, APRA passed the half-billion-dollar figure for the first time with revenue of A$521.3 million ($338 million), up from A$498.6 million ($323 million). AMCOS surpassed A$250 million for the first time, reporting A$266.6 million ($173 million), up from A$241.4 million ($156 million).
Read the full report at apraamcos.com.au/year-in-review.
