Paris (AFP)

If the music market, recovering, shows a growth of 5.4% in 2019, it owes it mainly to a paying streaming which will crescendo, and now concerns 9.4 million French people, according to the figures released Tuesday by National Union of Phonographic Publishing (Snep).

This is the fourth consecutive year of recovery since the start of the crisis, in the 2000s. No reason to cry victory, however: with 625 million euros for physical and digital sales, "the market is barely catching up with that of 'y ten years ago (628 million euros) and still represents only 44% of that of 2002 (1.4 billion euros) ", noted Alexandre Lasch, director general of Snep, during the presentation results in Paris.

However, the level of growth is comparable to that of 2016 (+ 5.4%) after the last two slightly positive years in 2017 (+ 3.9%) and 2018 (+ 1.8%). This "encouraging result is the fruit of the dynamism of streaming (59% of sales)" and especially paid subscriptions, "first source of income before the CD, they grew by 18.5%," added the official.

The number of digital subscriptions has "significantly increased (+1.7 million) and crossed the 10% mark for the first time in 2019" of the French population. These are now "with family offers, 9.4 million French people who listen to music via paid streaming", further detailed Mr. Lasch.

- Call to the CNM -

Important detail: if 96% of 16-24 year olds listen to music in streaming, a quarter of the users is over 55, a statistic which undermines a certain number of "preconceived ideas", as highlighted the director general of Snep.

In addition, Snep predicts a rebalancing at a time when urban music has a good share in France (44% of the Top 200 albums). "The enlargement of the population of streaming subscribers will gradually correct the phenomenon of overexposure of the rap, hip hop & R&B repertoire, reinstalling in the rankings a diversity more in line with the reality of music consumption, regardless of generation" , decrypts M. Lasch.

About streaming - "a fairly recent use and an evolving consumer base" - Olivier Nusse, president of Snep (and chairman of the board of Universal France), recalled his desire to "find everything that can be profitable for better remuneration for artists and a diversity (of musical genres) ". Platforms like Deezer or Spotify are sometimes accused of favoring urban music and drying up other musical genres with their playlists. "Digital brings me nothing," lamented Thomas Fersen recently in Le Monde.

Olivier Nusse appealed to the CNM - National Music Center, placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and which must support musical creation, in place for six weeks - to "have access to data from different platforms and analyze them" .

- "Anticipate deviations" -

Bertrand Burgalat, vice-president of Snep (and creator of the Tricatel label), spoke on behalf of "the majority of artists, ie those who never pass from a Trianon to four Bercy in a lifetime ". He called for his wishes to "anticipate possible deviations" from the evolution of consumption.

The president of the CNM, Jean-Philippe Thiellay, present at the presentation of the results, committed "to an analysis (of streaming) and a public document in the summer". One of the subjects of the debate is: Do platforms, through playlists, guide users' choices? Antoine Monin, one of the directors of Spotify France and vice-president of the ESML, the union of publishers of online music services, also present, denied it. "The vast majority of listening is done at the request of users. There are editorial platforms, to share news, or algorithmic playlists, again to promote discovery, but the majority of playlists are made by users", he insisted.

© 2020 AFP