Australians are streaming more music than ever – but homegrown songs are being skipped

Australian musicians are headlining stages all over the world – and Australians are streaming more music than ever before. Yet an annual review from Apra Amcos shows a lack of harmony between Australia’s online music listeners and its homegrown tunes.

In its yearly review released ahead of Australian music month, Apra Amcos, the organisation that represents Australian songwriters, reported the local market saw approximately 640m more music streams in 2026 than in 2025. In that same period, the proportion of Australian songs that were streamed suffered its largest annual fall in four years – from 9.5% in 2025 to 8.5% in 2026. The reality offline is no better, with the report finding there are now 182 live music venues in Australia per million citizens – down from 206 venues per million citizens in 2018.

The pattern isn’t only in what we consume, but in what we create. User-generated content (UGC), when platform users upload their own videos accompanied by a band or artist’s song, is a market that has grown by 28% in the past 12 months, totalling 746.2bn streams – yet the amount of UGC featuring Australian songs has nearly halved.

It’s not all doom and gloom: Apra Amcos is calling for minimum local music requirements for streaming platforms, similar to those of commercial and community radio stations, with levies for the platforms that don’t comply. It is also lobbying for a federal tax rebate for live music – to the tune of 30% – to help cover expenditure incurred by venues and artists when staging live music. Tasmania is leading the charge, becoming the first state to trial such a rebate.

• Are there any Australian artists or bands you think people should be listening to more? Share your tips in the comments