Budget Backs The Arts But Leaves Live Music Behind
Australia’s Arts and Cultural sector will receive a $1.1 billion funding injection courtesy of the latest Federal Budget.
It’s a sizeable and much-needed financial boost, but will it be directed to where it is really needed? The government’s definition of arts and culture is a broad umbrella under which live music historically struggles to secure coverage.
Since being gutted by the pandemic, limited government resources have been allocated to reviving our ailing live music industry, which once generated $3 billion in annual revenue for the national economy prior to COVID.
The new investment totals just one third of that, to be distributed between multiple arts organisations and agencies across the sector, the keyword here being “arts”. Major commitments have been secured for museums, archives, screen production, and First Nations initiatives.
Creative Australia, the country’s official arts council, have been granted a $14.7 million increase in base appropriations, rising from $311.8 million in 2025–26 to $326.5 million in 2026–27. The agency’s expenses are forecast to reach $339.3 million next financial year, including $286.9 million in grants and investment programs.
Other major beneficiaries include national collection agencies such as the Australian National Maritime Museum, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, and the Museum of Australian Democracy.
Additional funds have been allocated for two Holocaust museums in Queensland and Tasmania as well as ongoing support for the Regional Arts Fund and Indigenous language initiatives, among other programmes. Funding for Screen Australia will decrease slightly from $114.3 million to $113.6 million.
There is no mention of rebuilding the live music industry, which, despite experiencing record revenue from international stadium tours, is still struggling on a local and grassroots level.
The collapse of countless festivals over the past few years, including Bluesfest, demonstrates just how bad the situation has become.
That contradiction is now the central story of Australian live music: headline numbers look strong, but much of the growth is being driven by blockbuster tours and rising ticket prices rather than a healthy local ecosystem.
Live Performance Australia reported record ticket revenue of $3.4 billion and 31.4 million attendances in 2024, yet those gains were concentrated in major contemporary music events and a limited number of markets, masking a far weaker picture for pubs, clubs and independent promoters.
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Small and mid-sized venues remain in crisis. Industry reporting and broadcaster coverage have pointed to the loss of more than 1,300 live music venues and stages nationally since the pandemic, wiping out a large part of the infrastructure that develops emerging artists.
These rooms are where local acts build audiences, refine their craft and create the communities that later sustain larger careers. When they disappear, so does the pipeline that feeds Australia’s broader music economy.
Cost-of-living pressure is another major fault line. Audiences still value live music, but many are becoming more selective, buying fewer tickets and waiting until the last minute to commit.
That uncertainty makes it harder for venues and festival organisers to budget, pay deposits and judge demand early enough to proceed with confidence. It also hurts bar sales, which have historically helped cross-subsidise local programming in pubs and clubs.
At the same time, the cost of putting on a show has surged.
Venue operators and festival promoters have faced steep increases in insurance premiums, security, wages, freight, power, artist fees and, in some jurisdictions, policing and medical charges.
Those expenses have made many events financially fragile even before a single ticket is sold. For regional tours, the problem is amplified by distance, transport costs and a thinner spread of suitable venues, making it harder for artists outside the major capitals to build sustainable careers.
That is why festival collapses should not be dismissed as isolated business failures. The repeated cancellations of major events such as Splendour in the Grass, alongside the announced end of Bluesfest, point to a business model under sustained stress.
Festivals do more than sell tickets; they create touring circuits, casual employment, regional tourism and breakout opportunities for Australian acts. When they vanish, the damage spreads well beyond a single weekend.
If the federal budget is serious about cultural recovery, then live music cannot remain an afterthought inside a broader arts package. The sector’s problems are now structural: it needs targeted support for grassroots venues, relief on insurance and regulatory costs, stronger backing for regional touring, and policy settings that recognise live music as cultural and economic infrastructure rather than optional entertainment.
Without that focus, Australia risks preserving the institutions around music while allowing the conditions that make music scenes possible to deteriorate further.
