France’s population is now pressing play on music streaming services more than a billion times each week – over three times the volume the format was witnessing in 2015.
That’s according to new market statistics from local trade body SNEP, which show that France saw 27bn on-demand music streams take place in the first half of 2018.
That was up 39% on the 19.4bn seen in the same period of 2017, and more than double the 12.8bn witnessed in H1 2016.
Three years ago, in H1 2015, France saw 7.5bn music streams in the six month period.
What’s more, SNEP says that two-thirds of all audio streams in H1 came on paid services.
The SNEP report, which you can read in full through here, also shows that 19 of the 20 biggest-selling albums in Jan-June were from French artists, led by Ceinture Noire by Maitre Gims (pictured).
The sole non-French artist in this Top 20 was Ed Sheeran with his record-breaking album Divide at No.7.
As you can see below, the list was dominated by French rap music.
Although France counts ‘streaming equivalent’ albums in its album chart, the only streams which contribute to the list are premium (ie. paid for) – a new ruling brought in by SNEP/GfK in April.Music Business Worldwide
