Album-first app Lume takes its New Zealand model to Australia
Lume, a New Zealand music app built around whole albums, is expanding into Australia. Five Australian acts released albums through the platform on 13 November 2026, and those records are available to buy there now.
The five are Ecca Vandal, Ocean Alley, DZ Deathrays, The Rubens and The Tullamarines. Ecca Vandal recently won the 2026 Australian Music Prize for her second album, Looking For People to Unfollow. The prize is an annual award for an Australian album.
Lume does not run a streaming subscription. It uses a direct-to-fan model, meaning listeners buy albums and own them, rather than paying a monthly fee for access. According to Billboard, the app pays 80% of its revenue to artists and rightsholders, the people and companies who own the recordings and songs.
The app was founded in 2025 and launched in July 2026. Its co-founders are Duncan Greive, Tim Harper, Sacha Judd and Justin Warren, and Harper is co-CEO. Early backing came from Lorde, whose real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor, along with Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie and Letterboxd co-founder and chief technology officer Karl von Randow.
For the Australian launch, Lume has an agreement with Brisbane-based distributor G.Y.R.O. A distributor gets music onto stores and platforms and handles the paperwork that comes with it. Lume's releases can count toward the ARIA charts in Australia, which are compiled by the Australian Recording Industry Association. In New Zealand, the company's sales are certified by RMNZ, the Recorded Music NZ body that awards certifications at set sales levels.
The launch drop also includes two catalogue releases. One is the 25th anniversary edition of Fat Freddy's Drop's debut album, Based on a True Story. The other is the complete Flying Nun catalogue of The Bats, the full run of older releases from the New Zealand independent label.
Lume is also building its own writing. It has launched a Substack publication, On Lume, led by Conor Lochrie, a former deputy editor of Rolling Stone Australia and New Zealand who has joined the company.
The app is available worldwide on iOS and Android, and at lumemusic.com. Because it sells albums rather than streams, its sales figures will be measured in purchases, which makes the chart and certification counts the clearest way to follow how the Australian launch performs.
