“ Interest in streaming especially subscription audio streaming – continues to grow, thanks to the ability of listeners to have their favorite songs and artists available ”. In its latest annual report, the IFPI applauds the popularity of streaming worldwide. The time spent listening to music through audio streaming services has increased by 51% globally.
In France, the weekly duration of listening to music is 12, 6 hours, i.e. almost three hours more than in 2019. “ Or the equivalent of 333 3-minute songs each week ” calculates the representative of the majors. Between 2019 and 2021, it records 97% progression of the duration of music listening via the paid subscription to streaming.
This increase is nothing more than the mirror of a generational change, that of a consumption of flows, not of stock. Change which is struggling to manifest itself in the yields of private copying, still at the highest level despite the health crisis.
The global study ensures that 12% of respondents (43 000 consumers in 16 countries) bought an audio CD last month. 8%, a vinyl. Still on the whole of this population, in 2021, “ 30% resorted to the violation of the Copyright ”and 21% used a stream ripping solution.
According to the music majors, “ stream ripping is the illegal practice of creating a downloadable file from content available online. It is today the most widespread form of copyright infringement in the field of online music ”.
In France, rights holders consider that these practices carried out directly from YouTube fall within the scope of private copying. A reading grid that convinced the Council of State, whose DNA is not really intellectual property.
In any case, this lever allows these beneficiaries to increase the use studies intended, upstream, to determine the collection scales. And this, even if the YouTube license prohibits these practices.