Concerts soar as the CD wanes

Monday 28 January 2008

As album sales in France and the rest of the world continue to drop in the face of illegal downloading, concerts and new releases by French artists are soaring. Why?

Album sales in France and around the world continue to drop under the pressure of prolonged global downloading fever. And yet, concerts and new releases by French artists are skyrocketing, particularly in the realm of French electro, which has been going from strength to strength.

The worldwide album crisis has spread panic among record labels. International sales of French albums are no exception to the trend, going down from 42.6 million albums in 2003 to 27.6 million albums three years later.

“That doesn’t mean French music is finding less and less international listeners,” explains Sophie Mercier, director of the Bureau Export de la musique française (French Music Export Bureau) in Paris. “On the contrary; even if the number of albums sold worldwide is dropping, the number of releases is booming and supply remains very significant.”

According to figures published by the Bureau Export on Monday at MIDEM in Cannes, export sales of French music dropped 7% in 2006 – a smaller figure than the 19% and 14% drops in 2004 and 2005. The figures need to be put into context, considering the global drop in CD sales, says the bureau. In 2006, exports made up nearly 29% of the French music sector’s total sales.

But when it comes to concerts, the atmosphere is far less morose. Singing in the language of Shakespeare seems to have become a passport to the stage in all four corners of the globe. The number of concerts literally boomed in 2007; last year, the French Music Export Bureau registered nearly 7000 concerts by French artists (up 40% from the previous year), notably in Europe and the USA. And French CD releases are thriving in 2007; over 1900 international releases were recorded by the bureau.

“International touring is the key to success,” says Sophie Mercier. Apart from Carla Bruni, every one of the five international best-selling French artists has staged dozens and dozens of concerts in the USA, Europe and Japan. It’s an enormous investment for record labels, but that’s the way you manage to create a buzz.”

Electro – the French Touch

French electronic music, which earned its credentials some ten years ago, continues to gain popularity. Riding the crest of the French electro wave, baptised “the French Touch” by the English media, is the group Daft Punk, which has sold over 6 million albums since the international release of its first album in 1997. Not far behind, Air and their spaced-out electro pop feature among the 30 international best sellers. ‘Pocket Symphony’, the Versailles duo’s most recent album, sold over 200,000 copies in 2007. A successor has been assured in the youthful group Justice, whose festive electro pop and abrasive groove has had journalists feverishly scribbling away all the way from Paris to Tokyo.

Their biggest feat lies in having successfully seduced the rigorous British press. “The London media has a huge influence, particularly in rock and electro,” says Sophie Mercier. “For the last two years, a whole generation of electro artists have been speaking about nothing else.It’s the return of the French scene, the scene of French electro, which includes Air, Gotan Project, David Guetta and Digitalism.”

In any case, in every album promoted abroad, the English language dominates - setting aside Manu Chao , a singer of French and Spanish world music (with over 400,000 copies of his most recent album ‘La Radiolina’ sold outside France) and Edith Piaf with the soundtrack to the film La Môme’ (released in English as: ‘La Vie en Rose’) directed by Olivier Dahan in 2007 (over 150,000 sales). Feist, an Anglo-Canadian singer discovered and produced in France, currently tops export sales with over 700,000 copies of her album ‘The Reminder’ sold internationally in 2007. ‘Pocket Symphony’ by Air and ‘No Promises’ by Carla Bruni, both in English, sold 200,000 copies. “That’s particularly astonishing for 2007,” says Sophie Mercier. “The explanation is simple: it’s easier to make yourself known on the international scene if you sing in English, because then you get through to the greatest number of people.”

For Jean-Benoît Dunckel, a member of Air (which notably signed up for the soundtrack of the film Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola), the group is above all “universally human”. English, therefore, has imposed itself of its own accord. “It’s the universal language,” says the artist. “In French, you feel all the weight of French literature and poetry. It’s hard to compare! With English, there’s more emphasis on the sound, unlike in French, where the texts are more important.”