Americans for the Arts today released a National Arts Index, with 12 years of data that show that arts and entertainment are on the decline, the LA Times reports.

In the most all-encompassing single measure that feeds into the index, the report says that inflation-adjusted spending on audio and video recordings, movie theaters, educational books, photography, live entertainment (excluding sports) and museum admissions was $157.7 billion in 2009, down 8.6% from its 2006 peak.

This is pretty fascinating stuff here:

In the commercial arts, the decline includes the collapse of the recording industry and smaller audiences for pop concerts and touring Broadway productions. Pop concert attendance, 40.4 million in 2009, was down 22% from a 2005 peak of 51.8 million. Moviegoing was up 73 million admissions from 2008 to 2009, but the 1.4 billion ticket sales remained 143 million shy of the 2005 peak. Musical instrument sales have fallen in seven of the last 10 years. Booksellers' revenues stayed flat in 2009 but are off 13% from their 2004 peak of $19 billion, measured in constant dollars

The number of degrees awarded in the visual and performing arts — from community colleges to doctoral programs — declined in 2009 for the fifth consecutive year, to 4% of all higher-education degrees. Also falling is college-bound high school seniors' intention to major in arts — from a peak of 7.2% in 2007 to 6.7% in 2009.

The report notes that 57.8 million Americans painted, drew, took pictures or played instruments in 2009, down 4.6% from the 2007 peak.