2023-12-13 20:49:38
The government announced, Wednesday December 13, the implementation from 2024 of a tax on the turnover of online music listening platforms, requested by President Emmanuel Macron. This obligatory contribution, which must finance the sector, will be based “on a very low rate of levy on the turnover of the platforms” streaming platforms concerned, the Ministry of Culture reported to Agence France-Presse.
The exact terms of the tax have not yet been revealed, nor the annual amount it should bring in. The question of a streaming tax has divided the French music industry for more than a year. It was already the subject of a positive vote in the Senate in November, during the examination of the 2024 draft budget. Six organizations in the sector welcomed the Senate vote at the end of November, while platforms like Deezer and the number one Spotify are fighting this measure, a “new production tax”according to them.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Music streaming: “Waiting for platforms to become profitable is to endorse a dysfunctional system”
“After government arbitration, the finance bill for 2024 will confirm the creation of a contribution from streaming platforms”, specified the ministry. Objective: finance the National Music Center (CNM), a body created in 2020, to support the French music industry, like the CNC for cinema, but which has so far been mainly financed by performing arts companies .
On June 21, the day of the Music Festival, Emmanuel Macron raised the prospect of a tax on streaming revenues if the music industry did not agree on new ways of financing creation, and had posed the September 30, 2023 as the deadline.
The presidency relied on a report from Senator Julien Bargeton (Renaissance), delivered in April. The latter recommended a tax of 1.75% on revenue from paid music streaming and free music streaming financed by advertising. In the fall of 2022, the debates focused on a mandatory contribution of 1.5% of revenue from paid subscriptions on music platforms.
Opponents of the tax for their part pleaded for a voluntary contribution, affirming again on Wednesday in a joint press release that they had reached an agreement, bringing together Apple, Deezer, Meta, Spotify, YouTube and TikTok, to mobilize “more than 14 million euros” in 2025.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Music streaming: the idea of a tax fractures the sector
#revenues #streaming #platforms #taxed