Lobbying pays. The music streaming platforms – Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music but also YouTube Music, helped by the major labels (Universal Music, Warner or Sony Music) – have been in action since the threat of taxing them to finance the National Center has loomed. of music (CNM). Very effectively since, for the moment, these actors seem to have succeeded in blocking, or at least pushing back, measures which were going to hinder them.
On June 21, Emmanuel Macron affirmed that if no agreement emerged within the music industry before September 30, the government would adopt the proposal of former Paris senator Julien Bargeton (Renaissance) to levy 1.75%. of the French turnover of all music streaming platforms.
A way to finance the CNM in the long term, to the tune of around twenty million additional euros per year. Today, only a tax of 3.5%, levied on each concert ticket, and a contribution from collective management organizations abound this establishment born on 1er January 2020, in the middle of a pandemic. In its missions, the CNM must support musical creation, innovation, ecological transition and export.
Fragile recipes
But the CNM’s revenues, fragile, risk being insufficient. With the organization of the Olympic Games in 2024 alone, the six-month cessation of major concerts at the Stade de France, the Accor Arena or the Paris La Défense Arena will result in by a “shortfall of more than 8 million euros in the CNM budget”, warns Olivier Darbois, president of the National Musical and Variety Union (Prodiss). Thanks to the remainder of exceptional aid linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CNM will benefit from a budget of 65 million euros in 2023. A windfall which risks falling to 15 million euros next year if nothing is decided.
The entire profession expected that Rima Abdul Malak, the Minister of Culture, would announce on Friday October 13 the tabling of a government amendment in the finance bill for 2024, aimed at taxing the streaming giants. It has not happened. Contacted, the rue de Valois ministry did not respond. However, several amendments were tabled on this subject on Monday October 16, one of which came from the MP for Indre-et-Loire Fabienne Colboc (Renaissance). He is supported by a group made up of several of his colleagues from the majority and defends the principle of a tax. Discussions in the Hemicycle will start from Tuesday October 17.
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