Revenues in France’s recorded music market rose 7% year on year in 2024, the country’s recorded music industry group, boosted by double-digit growth in music exports thanks to last year’s Paris Olympics, industry group SNEP said in a new report.
Total revenues – including digital, physical, sync, and neighboring rights – came in at EUR €1.031 billion, or USD $1.12 billion at the average exchange rate for 2024.
SNEP noted that recorded music revenues have now grown by 58% since 2015, when France’s music market began to emerge from the crisis triggered by music piracy. However, when adjusted for inflation, last year’s revenues matched those of 2007, and amounted to just 54% of the record level of 2002.
Of the 2024 revenue total, €664 million ($718.6 million) came from streaming, up 9.5% YoY. As in other markets, the vast majority of that – €522 million ($565 million) – came from paid streaming subscriptions, which were up 11.4% YoY. This was the first year that subscription revenues surpassed the half-billion-euro mark, SNEP noted.
Ad-supported streaming grew 6.0% YoY to €75.2 million ($81.4 million).
However, SNEP called the streaming revenue data “positive but misleading,” as French consumers have been relatively slow to adopt music streaming, meaning the large increase comes off a relatively low baseline.
The music streaming penetration rate in France was 25.9% in 2024, “close to that of other Mediterranean countries but far removed from other major music markets,” SNEP noted.
“In the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, the penetration rate remains significantly higher. The rate at which the number of users is growing remains too slow: up 7.3% year-on-year, [which is] 3.3 [percentage] points below the global average.”
In all, some 27 million people in France streamed 138 billion songs in 2024, with 80% of streams coming via paid subscriptions.
The flipside of France’s relatively slow adoption of streaming is a relatively large physical music market, which in 2024 accounted for nearly 19.0% of total recorded music revenues. (In the UK, it accounted for 16.5%.)
Total physical revenue came in at €195.6 million ($211.7 million), up 1.3% YoY, driven by a 5.4% YoY increase in vinyl sales to €98 million ($106.1 million) and a 4.8% YoY drop in CD sales to €91.2 million ($98.7 million).
SNEP noted that 2024 was the first year that vinyl sales revenue exceeded CD revenue since 1987. “However, CDs remain more popular with 10 million units sold, two-thirds more than vinyl,” the industry group said.
Physical sales were driven by growth in direct-to-consumer channels such as artists’ online stores, which were up 33% YoY and have grown fivefold in five years. SNEP attributes this to the growing connection between artists and fans that digital media have made possible.
“The ‘armies’ of K-pop artists have indeed led the way: across all genres, exclusive experiences and content offered through D2C are building fan loyalty,” SNEP’s report stated.
“These ambassadors are making strong recommendations to the public through word-of-mouth, which is more influential than ever, at school, at work, or on social media.”
“The ‘armies’ of K-pop artists have indeed led the way: across all genres, exclusive experiences and content offered through D2C are building fan loyalty.”
SNEP
One notable statistic in SNEP’s latest report: Exports of French music soared 19% YoY in 2024, to €162 million ($175.3 million).
The industry group attributes this to last year’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics, along with labels’ efforts to increase the popularity of French music abroad. Additionally, “the growth of global streaming is a key driver of this dynamic,” SNEP said.
French music is becoming increasingly popular inside France as well. Local artists “dominated” the charts in 2024, taking three-quarters of the spots among the 200 best-selling albums, and 18 of the top 20 biggest-selling albums.
“Streaming drives this success,” SNEP said.Music Business Worldwide
