This Thursday, May 22nd, the National Music Center (CNM) is publishing the certifications for international listening of artists produced in France, in partnership with the SNEP (French National Music Institute). This 2024 edition confirms the international influence of French music while distinguishing itself from previous editions, due to changes in methodology and the impact of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In 2024, 303 singles and 55 albums from 237 artists were certified Diamond, Platinum, or Gold. While this year marks the progression of many titles already certified in previous years, this edition also highlights many titles certified for the first time. The method for calculating certifications is evolving, in line with industry standards. In line with the evolution of certification procedures in France, carried out by the SNEP, and certifications carried out abroad in recent years, the National Music Center has updated its methodology for calculating export certifications. First, the scope of recorded streams now includes streams from video streaming services. Furthermore, a new counting method has been used, distinguishing between audio and video streams from paid subscriptions (known as “premium streams”) and audio and video streams from free, ad-supported subscriptions (known as “freemium streams”). A weighting ratio has been implemented, with seven freemium streams being equivalent to one premium stream. Finally, the “new releases” categorization now includes singles and albums released in the three rolling years up to the end of the certification period. All of these changes aim to better account for the changing usage of streaming services, while balancing the impact of different revenue sources on export certifications. Since the changes in the calculations are significant, any comparison between the export certification volumes of 2023 and 2024 is invalid.
Rap and Dance-Electro represent more than two-thirds of new releases and collaborations certified for export in 2024.
In 2024, 72 singles and 8 albums classified as “new releases” (released in 2022, 2023, or 2024) were certified, representing 22% of the year’s total certifications. Among the new albums certified for export (Gold category) are those by artists Hamza, ElGrandeToto, SDM, Mr. Tout Le Monde, Gregory Porter and Ninho. Overall, the most represented aesthetics among the new releases certified for export are Dance-Electro (35% of tracks), Rap (32%), Afro (14%), and Variety-Pop (9%). This year again, women unfortunately remain significantly underrepresented (only 22% of tracks are associated with a vocal tone identified as female, and 6% have a mixed tone).
Among the notable successes of 2024, Justice certified his album “Hyperdrama” Platinum in the context of an international tour that has been enjoying notable success for several months. Oxlade, with his album “Oxlade From Africa”, certified 2x Platinum, while his title “KU LO SA” passed a new certification threshold (8x Diamond), based his results on an effective localized development strategy, even making India his first market on certain streaming platforms (ahead of Nigeria, his country of origin, as well as the United States or France). In addition, among the 71 artists present, some have 2 titles certified for export this year, such as Lavern, Franglish, Ofenbach or The Blaze. Collaborations also feature prominently in the list of certified singles, and some even reach a new export threshold, such as Marnik x Naeleck x VINAI for “Boyz in Paris” (3x Diamond) or Jungeli, Imen Es, Alonzo, Abou Debeing and Lossa for “Petit Génie” (Diamond). More broadly, taking into account new releases and the “back catalogue”, 50 collaborations are certified for export in 2024, mainly from Dance-Electro (50% of the tracks), Rap (18%) and Variety-Pop (16%). The “back catalogue” represents more than three-quarters of export certifications in 2024. In connection with uses on social networks (like GIMS and the strong comeback of its title “Est-ce que tu m’aimes” notably via a Tik-Tok trend initiated by football content creators), with synchronizations, but also with the major events of 2024 such as the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the back catalogue (singles and albums over 3 years old) is popular internationally. In 2024, 231 singles and 47 albums released before June 2022 were thus certified for export. Among the artists achieving notable performances with their singles and albums released before June 2022, we find in particular GIMS (7 back catalog titles certified for export), Soolking (7 back catalog titles certified for export) and Stromae (7 back catalog titles certified in 2024 including two singles exceeding 10x Diamond). Jain, Aya Nakamura, Ofenbach and Yann Tiersen also saw one of their certified singles exceed the threshold of 10x Diamond. While the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games provided an opportunity to showcase new releases from artists like Kungs, David Guetta and Izzy Bizu for “All Night Long” (Diamond), they also helped to showcase older tracks by artists who had made notable performances during the various ceremonies, such as Aya Nakamura, AIR, Phoenix, Juliette Armanet and Gojira. Edith Piaf‘s “Hymne à l’Amour,” performed by Céline Dion from the top of the Eiffel Tower, thus became the oldest track certified for export this year (Platinum).
A variety of “made in France” projects acclaimed.
The titles certified in 2024 reflect a variety of aesthetics represented, with the predominance of Variety-Pop (30% of titles), Dance-Electro (29%) and Rap (20%), followed by Soul-R&B (6%), Rock-Metal (6%) and Afro (5%), with other genres (Reggae-Dancehall, Traditional & World Music, Classical Music, Latino and Jazz-Blues) representing 5% in total. The French language predominates (47% of titles) compared to non-French titles (42%) and instrumental titles (11%). However, the linguistic diversity of the titles certified for export and identified as multilingual (excluding French) is affirmed while revealing a wide variety of languages, often associated with particular aesthetics. While French remains the majority language in Rap, Arabic is the second most represented language, notably with Moroccan Darija: ElGrandeToto, through his tracks “Dellali”, “Blue Love” and “Mghayer”, thus becomes the first Moroccan artist singing in Arabic to enter this list of export certifications. His trajectory confirms the rise of multilingual collaboration projects anchored in rap and global urban music. With more than a billion cumulative streams and a strategy of international collaborations (Anglett, Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Quebec, France, Belgium), ElGrandeToto is now the most streamed export artist from the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). Dance-Electro is mainly associated with English. The Afro aesthetic stands out with tracks in Lingala, Yoruba, and Cape Verdean Creole, just as it can bridge the gap between the Caribbean, French-speaking, and English-speaking Africa, such as Aya Nakamura‘s track “Hypé,” featuring Nigerian star Ayra Starr (certified Gold).
Overall, the certified tracks generated a large number of streams on streaming platforms (21 billion equivalent streams, including 3.3 billion for new releases) internationally. The distribution of these streams reveals the preferred aesthetics by geographic region. For example, among the tracks certified in 2024, the United States, Latin American countries, and the United Kingdom listened more to Variety-Pop and Dance-Electro singles. North African and French-speaking African countries, on the other hand, focused their listening on traditional and world music, rap, and Afro. Linguistic proximity is undoubtedly an explanatory factor, with Belgium, for example, strongly favoring rap and pop music (more than three-quarters of the certified tracks’ streams).
To celebrate these excellent musical results, we invite you to listen to all the new releases certified for export in 2024 in our “CNM – Export Certifications 2024” playlist.
