French music industry trade group SNEP has published its mid-year 2019 report.
Earlier this year, the National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing (SNEP) revealed that digital revenue accounted for 57% of the market in France.
In 2018, digital sales reached €335 million ($380 million). Also, the country’s recorded music market grew 1.8%, marking three years of consecutive growth.
Streaming revenue alone grew a whopping 23%. Paid streaming subscriptions also generated 41% of music sales. In turn, streaming subscriptions accounted for only 8% of music sales five years ago.
Now, SNEP has updated its report for the first half of 2019 (H1 2019).
Streaming on the rise.
For the first six months of 2019, the trade group revealed that recorded music revenue totaled €277.2 million ($309 million). This marks a 12.7% growth compared to the same period last year.
Breaking that figure down, streaming revenue grew 28.3% year-over-year to €175.3 million ($195.3 million). This means streaming alone now makes up over 63% of France’s overall recorded music revenue. Paid streaming subscriptions jumped 25% to €138.1 million ($153.9 million).
Overall, labels and artists generated €31.2m ($34.8 million) more than the same period last year.
SNEP also revealed that roughly 160 domestic artists ranked among France’s Top 200 best-selling albums. In addition, 40% of the Top 200 were ‘French urban music.’ Seven hip-hop albums scored top spots in the Top 10 albums of H1 2019.
PNL’s latest release, Deux Frères (Two Brothers), scored as the highest-selling album of the year so far. In its first week, the album moved over 113,000 sale equivalents (sales and streaming). At the end of June, the album moved 264,000 sales equivalents.
The French rap duo’s indie success explains why Apple Music signed PNL to a wide-ranging partnership deal. Under the much-maligned ‘exclusive’ strategy, the company will provide the rap duo with promotions in exchange for co-branded videos and ‘exclusive’ tracks. This, in turn, will likely drive users to Apple’s music streaming platform.
On June 28th, Apple Music subscribers had access to ‘Ryuk,’ ‘Like No Two,’ ‘Siberia,’ and ‘Bang.’ These songs then dropped on other streaming services a week later. All four songs quickly topped Apple Music’s French charts on the day of its release.