Recorded music returns to 2007 levels


Go back fifteen years. Revenues from the sale of recorded music (streaming platforms, CDs, vinyl, revenue generated by music in films, advertisements or related rights paid for radio broadcasting, etc.) recovered, in 2022, exactly their level in 2007, according to the annual study by the Syndicat national de l’édition phonographique (SNEP), published on Tuesday 14 March. This 6.4% improvement is part of a market that continues to rise for the sixth year in a row.

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However, this turnover represents only 52% of the historical peak of 2002. Sign of a particularly violent downturn, after this golden age, linked to the lack of anticipation of an industry which had not seen it coming the surge of digital. Today, however, subscription streaming remains by far, with 426 million euros, the main source of revenue for recorded music and its main growth driver.

If the SNEP notes that the number of subscriptions to paid streaming (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Qobuz, etc.) has increased by one million in 2021, to reach eleven million in 2022, France remains proportionally very lagging behind other major music markets.

TikTok Concerns

The penetration rate of subscriptions reported to the population is only 18% in France, against 29% in the United States, for example. In a ranking of the eighteen main countries concerned, France is in 16e place. In addition, ad-supported streaming, like video streaming, is certainly progressing steadily, but still generating modest revenues.

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Return of nostalgia, the craze for vinyl is undeniable. To the point, moreover, where these black cakes which are becoming fashionable again now total 45% of physical sales. Against 1% just ten years ago. Records are almost on a par with CDs, which continue to fall inexorably.

One of SNEP’s concerns is the spectacular breakthrough of TikTok: 45% of 16-24 year olds say they spend more time there than on online music services. However, Alexandre Lasch, director general of SNEP, judges “very insufficient” TikTok’s compensation for music creation. He also fears that “massive use” of this mobile video-sharing application, developed by the Chinese company ByteDance, “divert consumers from subscription offers”, which constitute, in his view, “the main economic engine of music today”.

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