Often questioned on the remuneration considered too low than the artists draw from streaming platforms, Spotify responds in its own way by being transparent. The world leader in music streaming, which has been unveiling global figures for two years on the way in which it donates nearly 70% of its income to the rights holders, engages for the first time in the exercise on the French market.
In 2022, artists produced in France thus generated nearly 225 million euros in revenue, a figure up 21% compared to the previous year and an amount three times greater than five years ago. Similarly, the number of French artists who have generated more than 100,000 euros in royalties on Spotify is 3.5 times higher than it was in 2017. “This is proof that streaming and Spotify in particular generate more and more revenue for music,” said Antoine Monin, CEO of Spotify France.
Made possible in particular by the dynamism of listening abroad, which represents more than 50% of total revenues, the growth in revenues generated by French artists is much higher than that of the French market for recorded music, which has growth of 6.4% in 2022 according to Snep. This performance owes a lot to the worldwide popularity of French electronic music with David Guetta, DJ Snake and Daft Punk, who occupy the first three places of the top 10 artists produced in France most listened to outside our borders.
Streaming tax
But other genres find their audience abroad, such as urban music – Jul, Gims, Aya Nakamura – or “world” (Manu Chao, Indila…). No less than 59% of Aya Nakamura’s streams come from abroad, specifies Spotify, which also notes, in a different style, the success of Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, both in the top 10 artists who generate more 10 million streams per month outside France. After France, the United States, Germany, Belgium and Canada are the countries where French artists are most successful.
“It’s Spotify that contributes the most to the export of French music,” insisted Antoine Monin, recalling the recent debates on the missions and funding of the National Music Center (CNM). To finance this public body, which has made export support one of its main missions, the Bargeton report recently proposed the creation of a 1.75% tax on the turnover of streaming services.
As its competitors, Spotify, which is not still not profitable and has just cut 200 posts in its podcast activity, is opposed to it. On the parts of innovation and export support, two of the missions that the CNM has set itself, “we are doing our part” declared Antoine Monin, who wonders about the financing needs of the Centre.
In the world Spotify, which now has 210 million subscribers and 515 million regular users, has paid nearly $40 billion in royalties to the music industry since its inception.