Spotify drops support for Francofolies and Printemps de Bourges

bad player Antoine Monin, general manager of Spotify France and Benelux, published a blunt post on LinkedIn on Wednesday, December 20th. “Following the announcement of a tax on music streaming in France, we regret to announce that Spotify France will cease to support Francofolies de La Rochelle and Printemps de Bourges financially and through on-site activation from 2024. emerging artists [le Chantier et les Inouïs]. » Without further details he adds: “Further announcements will follow in 2024.”

Gérard Pont, who directs the two festivals, did not want to comment on the decision, which should reduce his aid program for young artists by at least several tens of thousands of euros. Spotify will also complete its other investments, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros, for these two events. This partnership was supposed to be renewed in the coming days.

For the first time since this tax, intended to fund the National Music Center (CNM), divides the music profession between the performing arts (which are already taxed at 3.5% of the cost of each concert ticket) and recorded music, which was not previously funded by the CNM. s (streaming platforms) – Antoine Monin explains his position. the world. “These are neither retaliatory measures nor pressure on the government – which will be useless, because the finance bill was voted on, which introduced this new tax of 1.2% on the turnover of music streaming platforms in France.he says.

Spotify and Deezer, major contributors

According to him, the decision to reduce aid for festivals is coming. “It is a pure economic decision, our obligation is to review certain investments.” According to the government, the new tax should bring the CNM 15 million euros a year and maintain its funding. Of this total, Spotify, the leader in France, and Deezer, number two, should contribute two-thirds. According to our information, Spotify will have to pay around 7 million euros per year in this new fee.

A simple calculation shows that the 1.2% tax paid on each Spotify subscription (the Premium price of which rose from €9.99 to €10.99 last July) represents a cost of 13 cents per subscription. . But for Antoine Monin, Spotify will cost a lot more because ” 20% goes to VAT [soit 2,6 centimes] “. and to add “That he will not be able to transfer this tax in whole or in part to the owners of the rights [notamment les majors] For contractual reasons.