Streaming Success
There has been a growing sentiment in recent years that the shift from physical music acquisition to digital has been a burden on independent artists. To contrary, it has only increased the popularity of music, specifically in France, but also amongst local artists.
In the first half of 2018, music streaming services in France grew almost 40% and make up almost 60% of the total music market in France according to SNEP, the country’s trade organization for recorded music. They reported that there were about 27 billion music streams in France in the 6 month period equalling out to more than 1 billion streams every week.
This stands in contrast to the almost 20 billion streams that were made during the same period last year. Keep in mind that in the first half of 2015, there were only 7.5 billion music streams. Those that may want to attribute this to platforms that do not compensate artists should note that nearly 70% of the streams were made through paid services.
Both physical recordings and downloads, however, have been hurt by the success of music streaming. Last year 48% of music sales in France came from physical recordings and 5% from downloads, and this year 40% of sales came from physical sales and 3% came from downloads.
To paint the picture of what is driving this surge is in what the French are streaming. According to SNEP, local music acts are leading the market. 19 of the top 20 albums this year were French. A total of 16 of the acts in the list are considered rap artists. These numbers should ease fears in the country that streaming would internationalize the industry in France at the expense of French recording artists, who make use of a quota system on the radio.
We hope you've enjoyed Streaming Success! While the shift has certainly helped French artists, do you think this shift from owning music to streaming will be positive or negative in the long run of the music industry? Join the conversation below!