Paris (AFP)

Hard to hear, but no, music streaming did not jump at the start of confinement. A situation that does not arouse the concern of platforms that bet on their playlists related to life in a vacuum and plan for the longer term.

There have not yet been any global studies communicated on the digital consumption of music since the passage of France in confinement on March 17. But some players in the field disclose some data. "At home, in terms of listening volume, there was a drop of 10% the first week of confinement," said AFP Alexis de Gemini, managing director of Deezer France.

A fall which he explains by "the fact that people no longer go to work, but it is estimated that an hour and a half on average the journey time from home to work". Or a section of the day that could be dedicated to listening to music called "on the move".

During the first week of confinement, the music platforms also suffered competition from television channels, whose "audience has exploded" underlines this official. "During Emmanuel Macron's speech on March 16, the music streaming curves tended to zero". Apart from this particular peak - "extreme phenomenon" - Mr. de Gemini suggests greater "consumption of videos" in homes.

- "Normalize" -

But no stress at Deezer: the number of subscribers - the price paid is fixed and does not vary according to the number of listenings - "has not weakened and sales have even increased", continues Mr. de Gemini. And, to come back to the volume of listening, the leader assures that the situation is "normalizing. We are going up again, people are finding certain habits".

Questioned by AFP, Thomas Duglet, director of Amazon Music France, also does not see "a decrease for subscriptions". As for the volume of listening, he called for caution: "we have not yet had enough perspective, there is not yet a global analysis". The head of Amazon highlights the fact that some labels have postponed record releases, "because it is not obvious at the moment and they no longer have the usual levers". In other words, in addition to the classic promotions with the media which are frozen, the impossibility of turning clips does not allow any more to rely on the passages on YouTube to boost an exit.

- "Everyday hero" -

But other albums have still been released, such as the "Gigaton" of Pearl Jam, veteran grunge group, which has "worked" well with Qobuz, assures AFP its president Denis Thébaud. "If we only talk about those who can listen to music, it's a blessed period, we have the rarest thing, time", continues the owner of this platform which focuses on high-resolution sound.

Qobuz is even doing well, according to house statistics distilled by the platform. The average number of hours listened to per subscriber each week has dropped from 4.27 to 4.53 since containment. For wiretapping, the time slot from 12:00 p.m. to 5:59 p.m. notably increased by 20%. And in the breakdown by genre, there is an increase in jazz, from 10.86% of downloads to 14.24%.

The common point for all platforms is to offer thematic playlists related to containment. At Qobuz we find "Stay at home, Blues" or "Work from home". "Home gym" or "Family" can be found at Amazon. At Deezer's, under the generic title "We stay at home", in addition to the expected "Working in peace", we access "Daily Heroes", with titles that give in the positive register.

© 2020 AFP