How many songs will an average Australian have listened to in a lifetime?

Answer 1

This question is not so easy to answer because it depends on what you mean by "listen to music." It also depends on what time periods we are considering. But I will try to provide a simple answer, by tackling it from three different perspectives:

Attendance at Live Music Performances: Attendances at live musical performances are important cultural indicators. Research by the Department of Communications and the Arts conducted in 1999 shows that about 25% of Australians typically attend a popular music performance in a year. About 9% attend a Classical Music performance. A similar number attend a dance performance (9%) and 16% attend the Opera. Obviously these percentages cannot be added together because of the problem of double counting- that is to say, some of those who attended opera may also have attended dance or classical performances. These are conservative estimates.

Other research carried out by Sweeney in 2002 estimates that during any given year the number of Australians attending cultural musical performances is as follows: Musical festivals 35%; live bands 51%, rock bands 40%, classical music recital 19%, dance 12%, contemporary dance 11%, Ballet 11%, opera 11% and other types of concerts (including jazz) 31%. Based on these indicators, we can confidently say that more than one half of all Australians actively seek out live musical performances on some kind of regular basis.

Radio and TV: People may be exposed to music via TV and radio, even when they do not actively seek it out. The Australian market has one of the highest TV and radio penetration rates in the world 99.7% of all Australians have access to a TV). From radio survey data published by Nielsen, we know that about 75% of all Australians listen to radio at some time during any given week. From TV ratings published by OZTAM, we also know that about 90% of all Australians listen to TV at some time during any given week. We also know from commercial research (Sweeney) that some 85% of Australians attend the cinema. Whether exposure is by radio, TV or cinema, more than 99% of all Australians are exposed to some type of background music regularly.

Other Modes: Based on other research data, we also know that the majority of Australian households have access to hi-fi systems. Some 3.1 million Australians (out of a population of just 22 million) have purchased a digital media player or are otherwise wired for sound and we can assume that most Australians are exposed to ambient music.

In short, we can say that approximately 99.7 of Australians listen to music of an ambient or background nature and further that more than half of all Australians actively seek out live music peformances on a regular basis. Obviously, we never expect to see 100% since there will always be some people with hearing difficulties that prevent them from enjoying music.

Answer 2

18,645