Stats on Guitar Equipment Sold in Australia

Source: Australian Music Association

The Australian Music Association provide industry statistics on musical equipment sold in Australia. The following figures for the year 2020 are publicly available on their website.

• Overall music products market increased around 2% over 2019 while volumes fell by 4%.
• There was strong demand in consumer demand for guitars, keyboards, music technology and DJ gear
• School instruments and PA experienced a significant drop in sales due to schools and face to face teaching curtailed due to the pandemic. Likewise, live music venues, churches and public places were closed. If you could play with it at home, there was strong demand.
• Imports hit an all-time high of $338 million in 2020 compared to $237 million in 2014.
• Guitars sold strongly through in 2020, however the overall volume imported was flat year-on-year. Value was up by nearly 5% and average unit value up 6%.
• Average value for electric guitars continued to increase up 10% on 2019 and 21% on 2018. 166,000 acoustic guitars were imported and around 11,000 made locally.
• Guitar and bass amp imports rose 11% and average unit value a similar amount.

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In a major announcement, the owners of CMI Music & Audio Pty Ltd have sold 100% of the companies shares to Australis Music Group. Australis distributes major brands in Australia such as Gibson, Epiphone, Behringer, Ibanez, Mesa Boogie, Kramer, Orange, Tama, Sabian, Tannoy, Seymour Duncan, TC Electronic and more. With the acquisition of CMI, AMG have now added more iconic brands including, Aguilar, Blackstar, ESP, Korg, Arturia, Native Instruments, Tascam, AKG among many others.