A number of French radio stations are in revolt against a 1994 law that requires that 40% of the songs played on radio stations be in French.
The law, aimed at protecting local talent against the increasing popularity of Anglo music, was the subject of a 24-hour rebellion, in which a number of stations and DJs ignored the law, and encouraged listeners to protest to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture.
The issue has intensified because the Culture Minister imposed new rules, allowing the most popular songs to count for no more than half of the 40%; the minister’s complaint is that stations were just playing the same songs over and over to meet the rules.
The problem is, the stations say, that there just isn’t that much new music in French, and not much older music that people want to listen to. Not only have U.S. and British musicians continued their popularity, but many French musicians, conscious of a world audience, have issued recent work in English, which doesn’t count.
Stations are concerned that if they are subject to too much regulation, rather than being able to play whatever is popular, they will lose ground to streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer, which are not bound by any content rules. For more, from TheLocal.fr, click HERE
