Pump up the volume (Turn up the sound) chanted in 1987 the group Marrs. An injunction followed by the French recorded music market with double-digit growth for 2021 (+14.3%), a first for 20 years. This good news for the sector was unveiled on Tuesday by the Snep (National Union of Phonographic Publishing), with the presentation of its annual report at a press conference in Paris.
These results “give little opportunity for celebrations because of the events in Ukraine“, however, commented Alexandre Lasch, general manager of Snep. And the music industry is still far from the golden age before the start of the record crisis: music sales in France (digital and physical) only find “a level of turnover equivalent to more than 50% of its historical level of 2002“, insists the Snep.
But how to explain thesegood numbers“, expression of Bertrand Burgalat, president of Snep? The turnover of 861 million euros is driven by streaming which “consolidate its performance“, with some “subscriptions up 15%“, underlined Alexandre Lasch during the presentation. For audio streaming, Snep now lists “nearly 10 million paid subscriptions, which together with family accounts bring together 14 million users of premium offers“. With “the 8 million users of free offers, 22 million French people today listen to music via audio streaming“, continues the representative body.
While weekly music listening has increased in France by nearly three hours in two years, “listening time via subscription streaming doubled at the same time“, or 3:36 a week now, still mentions the union of the sector.
Alexandre Lasch also salutes the producers who “actively work to increase partnerships with platforms, invest in new technologies, new applications“. Marie-Anne Robert (CEO of Sony Music France and member of the union council of Snep) also describes an “éexciting time for music, with close dialogue (thanks to new technologies and social networks) between artists and fans“.
Snep also welcomes the “restructuring of the recorded music market“: this sector”is thus among the cultural and creative industries, one of the first to have made digital the growth driver that it is now“. In 2021 “for the first time, digital exceeds the 500 million euro mark, i.e. the market value of 2015 alone“, establishes the union. Its contribution “in turnover is 70% compared to 20% just 10 years ago“, in terms of sales (digital and physical, without taking into account neighboring rights and synchronization).
In detail, the digital therefore weighs 506 million euros, against 223 million for the physical (CD, vinyl). Add to that 109 million for neighboring rights (different from copyright, they remunerate, among other things, music producers) and 23 million for synchronization (combining music and audiovisual work). 2016 (and up 50% from 2020).
The still sustained increase in revenues generated by streaming is combined in this way “remarkable resilience of physical sales“, further exposes the union. “There is a complementarity between streaming and physical“, dissects Bertrand Burgalat. Antoine Monin, manager at Spotify, confirms that “consumption patterns (streaming and physical) are not opposed” among music lovers today. Snep thus points to a “21% rebound in revenues generated by physical media (CD, vinyl)which were down 10% before the pandemic“.
In “significant increase for the first time in 20 years (+10%)“CD sales”are still the second largest source of market turnover“, behind streaming, can we still read in the 2021 report. Finally, with 5.2 million units sold in 2021, vinyl remains a niche market (a third of physical sales) but in full health, with a turnover tripled since 2016 (and up 50% compared to 2020).
Ugly, polluting, fragile: it has been blamed for all the wrongs and yet the CD is experiencing a renewed vitality in France, as evidenced by the market in general and the success of OrelSan’s sales in this area.
The data of the Norman artist are eloquent. The party is over (his penultimate album released in October 2017) resulted in 235,000 CD sales. Civilization (last opus released in November 2021) has so far totaled 250,000 CD sales, according to figures provided to AFP by the 3e Bureau label, a structure associated with the rapper. That is more in a few months for Civilization that in several years of operation for The party is over.