Chronic. Good news, music is going better. If on stage the return to normal is still not completely at the rendezvous, with still cancellations of concerts and offbeat tours because of COVID-19, in the bins and on streaming platforms, the artists find voice. Even the CD benefits from a pretty renewed shape. The numbers of the National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing (SNEP), published on Tuesday, March 15, testify to this spring before the time, with a 14% increase in the music market recorded in 2021, the first two-digit since 2002 and the long purgatory linked to piracy and the decline of physical media. A shared embellish, the British and German music industry also recording strong growth.
Some 22 million French people are currently listening to streaming music, mostly through pay subscriptions. Unsurprisingly, rap and urban music remain the most listened kinds. A constant, year after year. The reasons are known: Rap artists are popular with the 10-20 years old, the same who use the most platforms like Spotify, Deezer, YouTube or Tiktok and which turn the loop titles in their atria. Basic, but not so simple. Because the loop has nothing totally virtuous. On the contrary, it raises a number of questions, which range from the distribution of rights … to piracy, through the diversity of music highlighted on listening sites. And shows how to change the changes in cultural practices and their ownership depending on the physiognomy of a sector.
The temptation to swell the numbers
In a study unveiled in January, the regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication (ARCOM, the new CSA) has seized the subject, criticizing what it considers as a lack of diversity detrimental to all the Faculty. “Ten percent of the most listened titles concentrate up to 60% of the listening”, thus notes the ARCOM. A stone in the garden of music producers, who fear to see regulated streaming like radio, with its share of quotas supposed to ensure musical pluralism on the waves. In our columns, the boss of the SNEP does not want to hear about what he would consider as a censorship. With 73% rap titles listened to Apple Music in France and only 2% French variety, however, it is understood – at least the general philosophy – to promote a rebalancing of plates on the platforms.
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