For 4 years now, the French music market has been doing well. If this is of course due to paid streaming, we see that physical formats still resist!
On February 25, the SNEP (Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique) confirmed that for the fourth consecutive year, the music market was growing. This resulted in +5.4% between 2018 and 2019, bringing total revenue to €772.5 million. This is the best result since 2010.
Digital format VS physical: growth VS resistance!
This will come as no surprise: this impressive growth is due to the streaming and paperless markets. The latter represent more than 50% of the overall turnover of the music market in France.
However, physical media are far from completely obsolete! It seems that the France still resists the digital invader, remaining fairly faithful to the material media. Certainly it is a market that is losing feathers (just see the graph above), but it is clear that France stands out from many countries, by its attachment to physical supports.
Well of course, if we compare the resistance of the physical medium to the explosion of Streaming, there is something to pale … 18.5% growth in 2019 for dematerialized media and the main source of revenue for the music market. It must be said that paid subscriptions leave little chance for the rest of the market in terms of flexibility.
Vinyl: a fashion that is running out of steam?
A few years ago, we saw the vinyl format come back in force. In addition to the fact that the sound is generally better than on CD format, the vintage aspect of this object has made it come back into fashion quite unexpectedly. But for the first time since 2015, the value of it fell by 3%.
Could this be the end of a temporary craze? The end of a fashion for vintage? Not really! In fact, vinyl records sold much better in 2019 than in 2018 (+12%, or 4.1 million instead of 3.9 million). But we must take into account the fall in prices for the iconic black disc. A bad for a good in short, since it becomes more accessible to aficionados of this format.
It must therefore be believed that the music market has found its balance in France! Just like in the world of cinema and series, the industry has decided to embrace streaming, rather than fight it. A wise choice, which should continue to bear fruit in the coming years.
