Ugly, polluting, fragile: it has been blamed for all the wrongs and yet the CD is experiencing a renewed vitality in France, as evidenced by the market in general and the success of OrelSan’s sales in this area.
The data of the Norman artist are eloquent. The party is over (his penultimate album released in October 2017) resulted in 235,000 CD sales. Civilisation (last opus released in November 2021) has so far totaled 250,000 CD sales, according to figures provided to AFP by the 3e Bureau label. That is more in a few months for Civilisation that in several years of operation for The party is over.
This is not an isolated case. The SNEP (Syndicat national de l’édition phonographique) underlined this in its report on the recorded music market for 2021 released on Tuesday: “Significantly up for the first time in 20 years (+10%)”, the CD sales “are still the second source of market turnover” behind the streaming.
This progression should not only be read as a mechanical rebound after CD sales weighed down in 2020 by the various confinements and the closures of points of sale. In 2019, for example, long before the health crisis, CD sales had fallen by 13%.
One-time increase
In Quebec, CD sales have also experienced notable increases, show data from the Observatory of Culture and Communication of Quebec (OCCQ), but they are punctual and linked to health measures.
For example, the CD is up 169% for the month of January 2022 (from 23,000 to 62,000 units sold) compared to the same period in 2021, but this is explained by the fact that non-essential businesses were closed at the beginning of 2021, reports Claude Fortier, of the OCCQ.
At Audiogram, we were even told not to observe an increase in CD sales, “quite the contrary”.
Marie-Sophie Desrochers, director of institutional affairs and research at ADISQ, believes that the reopening of performance halls (in October) could be linked to the resumption of CD sales.
“It may have played a role, because the closing of the rooms prevented the show from producing its driving effect and generator of the sale of albums. France, for its part, had fewer restrictions than us. If what is happening in France is a precursor, as is often the case in Europe, that would be good news for what is coming in Quebec. »
-With the collaboration of Cédric Bélanger and Sarah-Émilie Nault