Each Saturday, in "Zoom out", Axel de Tarlé returns to an economic or societal fact that marked the week. Today, he looks back on the remarkable public offering of the record company Warner, a return through the front door of the world of music on Wall Street.

Warner (the record company of Fleetwood Mac, Ed Sheeran, Phil Collins, or Christophe Maé…) saw its share price soar by 20%, Wednesday, for its first day of listing on Wall Street. 

A triumphant return of record companies, when they were given for dead, not so long ago because of piracy. Moreover, by the way, this IPO made the fortune of a Ukrainian businessman, Len Blavatnik, who had bought Warner in 2011, for a mouthful of bread: three billion dollars anyway. But finally, over the course of today, Warner is valued at fifteen billion dollars, five times the tumble. 

And besides, all this also does the business of another billionaire, French this time: Vincent Bolloré, the boss of Vivendi. Vivendi, which wholly owns Universal. Universal which is, by far, the first record company in the world, with 30% of market share, twice Warner. A real nugget with Lady Gaga, Rihanna, The Beatles, Stromae or Johnny Hallyday. 

Does that mean that we no longer hack music? Do people agree to pay to listen to music on the Internet? 

Exactly, it's the streaming revolution. You pay ten euros per month, and you have access to all the artists at will. The world leader, Spotify has 124 million paying subscribers, plus 30% in one year. You also have Apple Music, and the little French Deezer, seven million paying subscribers. 

This is the end of the free internet myth. It has long been thought that the Internet was the realm of free, it is wrong. People agree to pay, we also see it for the cinema. After years of hacking, see the success of Netflix today, 180 million paying subscribers worldwide, including fifteen more with confinement. 

Does that mean there is hope for the print media? We know that paper newspapers are selling less and less. Is there a sustainable economic model for the press on the Internet? 

Music shows us that there is no fatality. In the United States, the New York Times has nearly four million paid digital subscribers. In fact, we realize that people end up subscribing, when they are tired of juggling fake-news and advertisements that spring up. In France, it is true that the written press suffered a lot with confinement, even if the audiences for websites exploded. It is hoped that this will result in new paid and sustainable subscriptions.