The annual study of the French music production market in 2023 is timely. At the precise moment when Spotify announces that its subscriptions in France will become “the most expensive in Europe”the National Union of Phonographic Publishing (SNEP) underlines, Tuesday March 12, that “digital growth is lagging in France, compared to the top 10 global markets”.
The authors specify : “The 10% increase in subscription streaming revenues (to 468 million euros in 2023) remains too low to fully fuel development” of this market, especially since streaming “constitutes its primary source of value creation”.
According to the study, there is room for improvement, particularly among young consumers and seniors, while, for five years, paid subscriptions have not really taken off. Where France, with 12 million paying accounts, has a penetration rate of 16.5%, Germany is at 17.5%, the United Kingdom at 26.5% and the United States at 30%. . Spotify’s price increase – neither the amount nor the date of which is yet known – could further degrade this ranking since, in times of high inflation, the temptation to unsubscribe will increase. And head-on competition is intensifying more than ever between music, cinema, audiovisual and sport offerings.
However, Alexandre Lasch, general director of SNEP, supports Spotify’s commercial decision, which plans to increase the price of its subscription. He also continues to rail against “the harmful effects of the streaming tax” (1.2% of French turnover taken to finance the National Music Center). “We regret this situation which risks handicapping the development [de notre] streaming market »he said.
“Respect for intellectual property”
More generally, the recorded music market is growing for the seventh consecutive year. It certainly shows an increase of 5.1% to 968 million euros, but this result remains far from the peak of 2002. It only represents 53% of this historic record. In this total, revenues generated by physical media remain stable and constitute a quarter of sales; the lion’s share (75%) going to digital exploitations.
Providing its support to Universal Music, the SNEP notes that “TikTok, the platform whose popularity is based on music, which feeds 85% of its content, does not however remunerate it commensurate with this contribution”. This is precisely what opposes Universal Music to the Chinese platform today as part of the renewal of their contract. For this reason, the entire catalog of the major has been removed from TikTok. On the issue of artificial intelligence which also divides TikTok and Universal, Alexandre Lasch considers that artists must be “properly paid for their work. Respecting intellectual property is not an option ».
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