Dean Ormston had good news and bad news for Australian and New Zealand songwriters this week.
APRA AMCOS, the music rights organisation he heads, reported record group revenue of $857.4 million in 2025-26, up nearly 9% on the previous year.
But buried among the big numbers was a much more sobering one for New Zealand music: just 4% of the music streamed in Aotearoa in ersh loves streaming: 'We're going to end up with a musically literate populace'
Things aren’t much better on User Generated Content (UGC) platforms like TikTok. Consumption grew, but New Zealand members’ share fell to just 1.7%.
As Anthony Healey, APRA’s head of NZ operations, told RNZ’s Checkpoint: “What we’re seeing is revenues growing across the board but New Zealand’s share, here in New Zealand at least, is declining.”
Jan Hellriegel, an experienced New Zealand singer-songwriter with multiple top 40 albums to her name, isn’t surprised.
“For APRA to be celebrating growth in income while musicians’ earnings are being depleted feels incredibly out of whack,” she says. “The contrast is stark.”
Digital now accounts for 53% of APRA AMCOS’ revenue, far outweighing revenue from radio, public performance and TV. But the issue isn't just whether streaming pays musicians enough.
Now that streaming has become central to how people listen to and learn about music, a different question has emerged: how easy is it for New Zealanders to discover New Zealand music in the first place?
‘I don’t ever want to take my music off Spotify’
By streaming metrics alone, songwriter and producer Lontalius, aka Eddie Benjamin, is one of New Zealand’s most successful artists of the past 15 years. He has 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify; his biggest song on the platform, ‘Sleep Thru Ur Alarms’, has been streamed more than 144 million times.
“I have one song that sort of went viral in its own way and that has paid my bills the last few years,” he says. “I mean, it’s definitely diminishing, but I’ve been one of the lucky ones.
“Streaming’s a fascinating beast. It has pros and cons. I’m generally of the opinion that I don’t ever want to take my music off Spotify because that is where people listen to music, and I want to be wherever people are listening to music. If someone’s listening to music on the bus, on the way to work, I want to be part of that, even if it is only 4%.”
Benjamin’s experience also reveals the distinction between getting streams and building an audience.
“One of my songs from my album got put in some sort of acoustic playlist on Apple Music that has been getting lots of plays, which is great, but none of those people listening know who I am,” he says. “They’re not getting driven to go follow my Instagram, or to go to my shows.”
In other words, a playlist placement can produce plays without necessarily producing fans.
That points to a broader issue for artists in English-speaking markets such as New Zealand. A 2025 report by former Spotify chief economist Will Page argued that streaming algorithms can recognise language but struggle with geography, leaving local artists competing with the vast US catalogue.
Follow-up research commissioned by the Victorian Music Development Office found AI-generated Australian playlists relied heavily on global listening patterns and were less likely than human-curated playlists to surface diverse or regionally specific music.
‘Social media is queen for me’
Auckland pop artist Jason Parker offers another view of what reaching an audience now requires. His new single ‘One Week Sober’ has achieved chart success, but he doesn't credit Spotify for driving it.
“I believe the chart performance is largely thanks to my fans purchasing digital copies of the single on Bandcamp and iTunes,” he says.
For Parker, building that audience requires a direct relationship with listeners.
“Social media is queen for me, especially during a release campaign. My debut album, ‘What Makes A Man’, comes out on November 13, so I’m posting almost daily across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to reach potential listeners.”
Parker’s approach relies on turning listeners into fans willing to seek out, follow and financially support him.
He believes considerably more could be done to support local musicians.
“These streaming companies should also be contributing their fair share through tax, with that revenue going back to the artists by helping fund musicians to tour, perform and create more music. Streaming is a powerful tool, but we need to make sure it supports a thriving local music industry, not just the platforms themselves.”
Hellriegel has also found value away from streaming. She says her main sources of income include sync licensing, where songs feature in films, television and advertising, and physical sales.
“A single book sale, which includes my album, earns me considerably more than I make from streaming. I really see streaming platforms as a marketing tool rather than a viable source of income. But I live in hope… maybe my next album!”
Are the big names forcing Kiwis out?
Dr Jesse Austin-Stewart, a music lecturer and researcher in Massey University’s Creative Futures research cluster, has seen the warning signs before.
“Trends across the sector have shown a consistent decline in New Zealand’s engagement with local music and APRA’s recent streaming news is in line with these numbers,” he says.
“APRA’s report is another piece of evidence demonstrating the dominance and power that gigantic international artists have over our local sector.”
Austin-Stewart says streaming services have become the main mode of music discovery for New Zealanders since 2020, while the last decade has seen “big drops” in the impact of radio airplay and live performance. At the same time, UGC platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have increased in prominence.
“In short, global tech companies have had a growing impact on the way Kiwis discover new music relative to the local industry,” he says.
“These global tech companies have no incentive to promote New Zealand music, and it means that gigantic international artists with global marketing strategies are enabled to outcompete Aotearoa artists at home.
“It’s not that New Zealanders don’t support local music, it’s that the market doesn’t allow them to discover it in the first place.”
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