This is obvious when looking at the ten best-selling albums in 2019 in the ranking that we reveal exclusively with the Snep (National Union of Phonographic Production). Nine out of ten albums are French or French-speaking. The exact opposite of cinema, where nine of the ten most viewed films in France in 2019 are foreign. Second evidence, rap is essential for the second consecutive year as the most listened music in France, by adding the sales of CD, vinyls and listening in streaming. In the first 10 as in the 200 best sales, one artist in two is a rapper.
Queen Angela. As in 2018, it is the young generation that gives the "the" in 2019. Of the ten biggest sellers, six are under the age of thirty. There are eleven in the top twenty. And the queen of the year celebrated her 25th birthday a month ago! Driven by her first single, "Toutoubler", the Belgian Angèle had already sold 198,000 copies of "Brol" at the end of 2018. But "Balance ton quoi" and her sold-out tour made her a real social phenomenon. "Brol" now exceeds 730,000 sales. And it's not over, since his tour continues with four AccorHotels Arena in February.
Rap breaks the house. Despite Christmas sales favorable to Johnny, rapper Nekfeu retains his second place. He owes it to an innovative and profitable strategy, replacing since June a classic promotion campaign - he gave no interviews - with concerts and the release at the cinema then on Netflix of a documentary on the design of the album. Beyond the Nekfeu locomotive, rap trusts almost 50% of the top 100. PNL, Ninho, Soprano and Lomepal are in the top ten, Gims, Jul and Niska follow closely. And the next generation is coming in numbers, with Heuss L'Enfoiré (140,000 sales), Koba LaD (116,000), Zola (105,327), Naps (91,648), Maes, RK, PLK, 13 Block…
Times change, Johnny stays. Two years after his disappearance, it is still "le Taulier". If he is third in general sales in 2019, the rocker is first in the CD and vinyl department - with 424,000 copies. And he is the biggest seller of records if we add his last three albums - "My country is love", "The album of his life" and the symphonic orchestrated by Yvan Cassar -, with 572 630 sales. And still, we do not count the live of "Vieilles canailles", the trio he formed with Dutronc and Mitchell, which sold nearly 234,000 copies in less than two months.
Les Enfoirés are doing better, but ... This is one of the consequences of including streaming in sales. "Les Enfoirés" sold slightly more than in 2018 (238,722 against 234,247) and yet they are emerging from the top 10. A first for thirty years. Of all the figures of the French variety, it is, after Johnny, Renaud who resists the best with "Kids and children first". But his 175,560 copies sold (17th place) make a pale copy in front of the statistics of his previous album, at the end of 2016 (772,000 sales). For his part, Alain Souchon has something to be satisfied with 130,178 sales of his "Ame fifties". Like Patrick Bruel who sees his album "Tonight we go out" (109,459 in 2019, for 150,000 in 2018) continue to sell thanks to his triumphant tour.
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The Guégan and Luciani revelations. Make way for young people. And a big surprise: Jean-Baptiste Guégan is in 11th place with 243,772 sales. The vocal double of Johnny may well divide, it has made a place in the hearts of Hallyday fans. Clara Luciani is, by far, the female revelation of the year with her first album "Sainte Victoire" (149,324 sales) launched by "La Grenade". But two other new singers marked the year: the young Cannoise Eva (130,185 sales of "Queen") and the American popstar Billie Eilish (93,453 copies).
The disappointments Mika and Noah. Mika in 140th place with 27,000 sales is a bad surprise. Especially with an excellent record! Other international stars are far from their usual scores, such as Coldplay (85,000) and Céline Dion (77,000), and many do not even make it into the top 100, such as Pink (36,000), Lana Del Rey (31,000 ), Madonna (29,000) and Taylor Swift (21,200), who is clearly struggling to establish itself in France. On the French side, even if many envy him his 111,341 copies of "Infinite Letter", -M- is only 32nd in record sales while he is 1st in concert ticket sales (over 700,000! ). Another disappointment, despite a good album ("Indigo color"), Yannick Noah did not reach 34,000 sales. And despite its high visibility linked to Eurovision, Billal Hassani barely exceeds 20,000 sales. Media phenomenon, yes, but not commercial.
Best selling albums in 2019
1. Angèle, “Brol”: 532,111 sales
2. Nekfeu, “Les Etoiles vagabondes”: 449,545 sales
3. Johnny Hallyday, 433,656 sales
4. PNL, “Deux frères”: 402,854 sales
5. Ninho, “Destiny”: 379,843 sales
6. Soprano, “Phoenix”: 337,403 sales
7. Lady Gaga, “A Star is born”: 298,808 sales
8. Vitaa and Slimane, “Versus”: 273,207 sales
9. Lomepal, “Jeannine”: 263,459 sales
10. Aya Nakamura, “Nakamura”: 247,093 sales
Calculations, instructions: The sales figures for albums that we reveal with the National Union of Phonographic Editing (SNEP) are counted by GfK, an international institute for consumption measurements which also works in France on books. For each artist, GfK adds up its sales of physical discs (CDs and vinyls), its sales in downloads (which decrease as the subscriptions to streaming progress) and its listenings on these platforms (Spotify, Deezer…) .
How many online plays do you need for an album sale? The equivalence rule changed at the start of 2019. 1,500 “streams” are needed compared to 1,000 previously. The calculation has not changed. GfK adds all the plays of all the titles of the album and divides by two those of the most "streamed" title to avoid that the figures of the album are artificially inflated by a huge tube.