As a prelude to the new edition of Paris Electronic Week which, until Saturday September 24, will offer conferences, debates, master classes and evenings at several sites in the Parc de La Villette (Paris 19e), before concluding with the parade of the 24ᵉ Techno Parade, the Technopol association, organizer of the event, presented the results of a study devoted to professionals in the electronic music industry in France.
Produced from February to May by the Symbial agency, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sacem, this inventory of the situation of structures, artists and technicians in the “electro” sector demonstrates the dynamism like insecurity.
From a sample of 2,652 contacts provided by Technopol, 1,208 people or companies responded to a questionnaire attempting to assess their situation and their needs. Although the sector is active, particularly in the Ile-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côté d’Azur regions – alone bringing together more than half of the structures and artists – its fragility has revealed all the greater during the Covid epidemic which, in 2020, hit hard an economy based mainly on live performance.
Lack of structure
While other sectors of musical activity have been able to benefit from aid (partial unemployment, extension of intermittent work, subsidies, etc.) put in place by the State, the study reveals that the lack of structuring of music professionals electronics, their reluctance (through mistrust or ignorance) to “to appropriate the specific tools of French cultural policy” were particularly damaging at the time of the pandemic.
This was the case for structures, two-thirds of which were set up as associations (the remaining third being shared between companies and individual structures), with reduced staff (six out of ten having no employees), the majority of which do not have entertainment contractor license, although this activity generates a large part of their income. But especially for artists, with the status of DJ or producer, who saw, in 2020, their paid dates divided by at least half.
If live performance represents two thirds of their activity, these artists, often structured in companies, would only be 27% to benefit from the intermittent regime. “The reality of these structures far from any logic of social protection was cruelly felt during the pandemic, many artists being unable to have access to the aid put in place by the State”underlines the Technopol report, recalling that three quarters of artists have not been able to benefit from partial unemployment.
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