Business labels. For the sixth consecutive year, the French recorded music market is growing. Despite a delicate economic context, it grew by 6.4% in 2022 according to the report unveiled on Tuesday by the National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing (Snep), which reports a turnover of 920 million euros. . A growth “significant despite a complex environment marked by economic uncertainty” et «l’inflation». Sales revenue recovers “their level of fifteen years ago, but only reach 52% of the historical peak of 2002”, the organization said.
Sales (therefore, excluding neighboring rights and synchronization of films, advertisements, video games), amounting to 766 million euros, are based “three quarters” on the “digital operations”. Or 569 million euros including subscription streaming and ad-supported streaming. Physical media, CDs and vinyl, constitute the remaining quarter compared to digital, “is exactly the opposite of ten years ago”. Subscription streaming (426 million euros) is in “11% increase compared to 2021” notes the Snep who points out that if “16 million users have adopted paid streaming, the use is still far from reaching the goal in the conquest of all audiences”. The “major challenge” for platforms and producers is therefore “convincing consumers, young and adult, to take the plunge into subscription” to reach “the levels of other major music markets”. For example, digital represents 74% of revenues in France, while it is 84% in the United States.
The very fashionable vinyl
Among the other challenges, the managing director of Snep, Alexandre Lasch, points to the need to “redefining the place of TikTok, whose massive use is distracting consumers from subscription offers, drivers of the music business model today”. He also looks back on the fight “to curb the manipulation of streams which distort the rules of the game”. France put words to this scourge with the publication in January of the first study in the world of its kind for music streaming. In France, between 1% and 3% of online listening is fake, according to 2021 data released by the National Music Center, which oversees the sector.
As for physical media, CDs, the second source of sales despite a 25% drop, are closely followed by vinyl. The latter, up 13%, represents “now 45% of physical sales, against less than 1% ten years ago”. And the global trend. For the first time since 1987, there were more vinyl records sold in the United States in 2022 than CDs, proof of the enthusiasm for this very fashionable retro format.