“Spotify Premium subscribers in France” will “soon” experience a price increase “due to” additional costs “imposed” by the streaming tax, the platform announced, without giving further details, on Thursday.
The world leader in music streaming says it has “done everything to avoid reaching this point, unfortunately the French government has decided otherwise”. The implementation in 2024 of a tax on the turnover of online music listening platformswanted by Emmanuel Macron and which divides the music industry, “should bring in 15 million euros”, the government announced at the end of 2023.
The tax contribution of subscription streaming platforms and free content sharing platforms will be “at a rate of 1.2% of their turnover generated in France”, the Ministry of Culture then specified in a press release. . Objective of this tax: to finance the National Music Center (CNM)an organization created in 2020 to support the French music industry, like the CNC for cinema.
“The highest package in the European Union”
Spotify assured Thursday that it had “proudly defended French artists over the last 15 years”. “We certainly did not wait for the creation of the CNM in 2020 to help artists find success in France and abroad.”
“We have always been very clear on this matter: we simply cannot absorb additional taxes », Underlines the platform. “All our French premium users (package currently at 10.99EUR/month, Editor’s note) will see their subscription increase, and will now pay the highest package within the European Union,” concludes Spotify.
Opposed from the outset to the streaming tax, Spotify France had already announced at the end of 2023 that it would cease its support for the Francofolies de La Rochelle and Printemps de Bourges festivals, from 2024, again due to this measure.
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