“The idea is to create new impetus for French music”, rejoices a producers’ union

The government announced on Wednesday the implementation of a tax on the turnover of online music listening platforms from 2024.

“The idea is to create a new impulse for French music”, rejoices, Guilhem Cottet, general director of the Union of Independent French Phonographic Producers (UPFI), invited Thursday December 14 on franceinfo. He reacted to the announcement of a new tax on music streaming platforms.

The French government confirmed on Wednesday December 13 the implementation from 2024 of a tax on the turnover of online music listening platforms, intended to finance the National Music Center (CNM), a body created in 2020 to support the French music industry, like the CNC for cinema.

franceinfo: Does this tax correspond to what you asked for?

Guilhem Cottet: We do not have the details at this stage since the compulsory streaming contribution project is the subject of extensive discussions between the government and parliamentarians, so we are awaiting the final vote which should take place shortly.

“But generally speaking, this project meets our expectations in terms of financing the National Music Center and, more broadly, financing the ambition for the music sector that it intends to support.”

Guilhem Cottet, general director of UPFI

at franceinfo

At this stage, what are the contours of this tax?

This is a very low tax but it concerns all digital players who distribute music online. It ranges from platforms called pure players (for which this is really the core business) to platforms for which it is rather one activity among others. I’m thinking of Gafa in particular, but also everything related to social networks, etc. In the same way that these players are already taxed to finance audiovisual creation in all its diversity at the CNC, we will also tax them to fuel music support programs.

What will this tax be used for?

The idea is really to create a new impulse for French music. Today, local creation needs a boost to encourage investment, to promote the international distribution of our artists, to gain market share. France really has a role to play and we needed a public establishment to carry out this action, to allow the sector to structure itself, to unite since today, it is a little fragmented between the different actors and different interests.

“We need to find a common voice to express ourselves and the CNM’s primary purpose is to fulfill this role.”

Guilhem Cottet, general director of UPFI

But this tax does not please platforms like Spotify and Deezer. Their argument is to say that they already finance musical production. What do you answer them?

This is the case for certain platforms, it is a little less the case for others. It has great disparities. It is clear that on the side of pure players, like Spotify or Deezer, there is real virtue in the remuneration system for creation. Here, it is a question of reallocating a little bit of this money to musical genres which today receive very low remuneration in streaming because very low remuneration means low capacity to finance itself behind it, with a real risk in the long term that that harms the diversity of local creation. Somehow, what we are trying to aim for is the renewed vitality of the French sector, of the French production fabric. Otherwise, everyone will go towards musical genres which are few in number but extremely profitable in streaming.