Laura Carollo
Research expert covering cinema and film
Music industry in France - statistics & facts
The French music industry is confirming a trend that began over the last decade, namely the complete paradigm shift from physical to digital music. While the physical music industry income in France has been on a downward spiral over the past twenty years, digital revenues have been picking up the pace and exceeded physical ones for the first time in 2017. As of 2023, digital music income is almost thrice as high as physical revenue, signaling a deeper change both in regard to production and consumption.
As with many music markets around the globe, digital consumption has established itself as the preferred mode of audio content consumption for French listeners. Moreover, the French music industry is characterized by its strong domestic production, but also by the robustness of its live music market.
Streaming above all
The ever-growing prevalence of music streaming services and online radio stations is one of the factors that allow digital music to flourish as much as it does. Online music streaming is becoming more and more popular - in 2023, more than half of French consumers declared streaming music daily or almost. The number of digital music users is expected to increase in the coming years. Those users seem to favor streaming compared to downloading, and online music streaming platforms like Deezer, Apple Music or Spotify are now used by most French people. The French streaming platform Deezer accounted for about 3.7 million users in France only.Consumers’ preferences
The robustness of the French market is also demonstrated by its artists, who regularly top the sales charts. All the ten best-selling physical albums in France in 2023 were released by French-speaking artists, Werenoi's album "Carré" coming in first position with a total of 196,300 albums sold over that period. When it comes to digital consumption, almost 90 percent of French listeners reported consuming music and video clips lawfully, whereas almost half of users who admitted consuming audio content illegally did it through streaming websites.Live music is back
While live music attendance has slowed down during the pandemic, leading to the cancellation of the great majority of festivals in 2020, about a quarter of French people claim to attend a live concert at least several times a year. Live music is also a booming business, most notably music festivals. As of 2023, there were 7.75 million French festivalgoers, on par with pre-pandemic levels. The Festival Interceltique de Lorient was by far the largest music festival in France, followed by Hellfest.As with many music markets around the globe, digital consumption has established itself as the preferred mode of audio content consumption for French listeners. Moreover, the French music industry is characterized by its strong domestic production, but also by the robustness of its live music market.
