Bad player ? Antoine Monin, general manager of Spotify France and Benelux, published an unambiguous post on LinkedIn on Wednesday, December 20. “Following the announcement of the implementation of a tax on music streaming in France, we regret to announce that Spotify France will stop supporting the Francofolies de La Rochelle and the Printemps de Bourges, from 2024 , financially and through activations on the ground in favor of emerging artists [le Chantier et les Inouïs]. » He adds, without further details: “Further announcements will follow in 2024.”
Gérard Pont, who directs these two festivals, did not wish to comment on this decision which should at least reduce his aid program for young artists by several tens of thousands of euros. Spotify will also end its other investments, which amounted to hundreds of thousands of euros, for these two events. The renewal of this partnership was to take place in the coming days.
For the first time since this tax intended to finance the National Music Center (CNM) divides the musical profession – between the representatives of the performing arts (who are already taxed, to the tune of 3.5% of the price of each ticket of concert) and those of recorded music which until now did not finance the CNM (the streaming platforms) -, Antoine Monin explains his position to World. “These are neither retaliatory measures nor pressure on the government – which would be useless since the finance bill which introduced this new tax of 1.2% on the turnover made in France of music streaming platforms was voted on »he says.
Spotify and Deezer, main contributors
This decision to cut aid to festivals comes, according to him, “a purely economic decision, our obligation to review certain investments”. The new tax should, according to the government, bring 15 million euros per year to the CNM and sustain its financing. Of this total, Spotify, the leader in France, and Deezer, number two, should contribute two-thirds. According to our information, Spotify should pay around 7 million euros per year for this new tax.
A simple calculation shows that the 1.2% tax paid on each Spotify subscription (the Premium price of which increased last July from 9.99 euros to 10.99 euros) will represent a cost of 13 cents per subscription. . But for Antoine Monin, it will cost Spotify much more since “ 20% will go to VAT [soit 2,6 centimes] “. And to add “that it will not be able to pass on all or part of this tax to the rights holders [notamment les majors] for contractual reasons.
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