Paris, France. Photo Credit: Jennifer Bryan
Thanks mainly to solid streaming growth, the French music industry generated €1.07 billion (up 3.9% year over year) in recorded revenue during 2025, when local artists dominated the airwaves and on-demand platforms alike.
These and other newly released figures come from France’s Syndicat National de l’Edition Phonographique (SNEP), which, on one hand, pointed to slower digital growth of 5.4% YoY to nearly €711 million (currently $823 million).
Amid paid streaming’s well-documented plateau in established music sectors, the percentage – and the mentioned 3.9% YoY across-the-board revenue improvement, compared to 6.4% globally – doesn’t come as a surprise.
Nevertheless, paid on-demand streaming itself brought in a respectable $639.97 million/€553.03 million (up 5.9% YoY), according to the French music industry revenue breakdown. And contrasting ad-supported listening’s slump in different nations – worldwide, the IFPI identified 4.3% YoY ad-supported growth for 2025 – France turned in an even 12% YoY freemium boost with $97.39 million/€84.17 million.
The French market’s free listening revenue hike was “driven by younger audiences,” the organization elaborated.
Incidentally, at 27.1% of the population (up 1.2% YoY), France’s 2025 subscription streaming penetration rate (including individuals on multi-user accounts) remained “significantly lower than those of other major global music markets,” SNEP acknowledged.
And in terms of subscribers’ ages, as of last year, over 70% of France’s paid music listeners fell into the 15-49 category, per the report.
Another positive: vinyl revenue jumped 14.8% YoY to $130.29 million/€112.61 million in France, which, SNEP emphasized, “generates nearly 20% of all recorded music revenue within the European Union.”
Furthermore, a YoY sales slip for CDs (down 2.4% to $103.07 million/€89.07 million) didn’t stop the nation from posting its largest physical revenue total in four years, $238.05 million/€205.39 million (up 5% YoY).
By physical sales method, e-commerce delivered $76 million/€66 million during 2025, with label-operated artist-specific webstores having raked in about $15.6 million/€13.5 million (up 29% YoY), according to the report.
The latter point factored into France’s top-selling vinyl of 2025: Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, Damso’s BĒYĀH, The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, respectively.
Like the relevant market’s 2025 digital growth, those vinyl projects aren’t especially surprising when considered on their own. But they are noteworthy in light of local artists’ initially highlighted commercial prevalence.
As some will recall, domestic talent likewise played well in (among different nations) Italy last year. However, homegrown professionals put out 16 of France’s top 20 albums of 2025 – with five of the efforts being debut albums to boot.
The feat was “unmatched in other major European markets,” SNEP underscored. “[O]nly a single debut album by a local artist managed to crack the top 20 in the UK, German, and Spanish markets. And none at all in Italy,” the organization wrote.
Meanwhile, French-language releases in 2025 also accounted for: roughly 75% of the top 200 albums’ sales; 53% of the top 100,000 tracks by audio and video streams; 55 of the top 100 tracks by radio spins (“[n]ever, since the introduction of this metric 20 years ago, has such a high level of representation for the French-language repertoire been observed”); 64% of the total streams on new releases (having become available within the past three years, that is); and 71% of Gold, Platinum, and Diamond sales certifications (up 12% YoY).
“[N]ine of the ten albums certified Diamond (500,000 copies) this year share a common trait: they are rap albums produced in France,” SNEP added for good measure.
With all that said, French music exports declined slightly in 2025 (following 2024’s Olympics-powered improvement) to about $171 million/€148 million, the report shows.
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