France: Radio stations rebel over French music quota

Radio stations want to be able to play the most popular French songs - but the government wants more variety

French radio stations have protested against government plans to make them play more French music - by ignoring current rules governing their playlists.

On Tuesday, a group of stations began a 24-hour boycott of an existing law which requires at least 40% of songs played to be in French, Le Huffington Post website reports. They're unhappy about plans to amend the law to state that there must be more variety in the French songs selected. A draft of the amendment says that the 10 most commonly played French songs can only make up half of the Francophone quota - forcing stations to branch out and play less well-aired content.

Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin has accused radio stations of failing to meet the existing quota, introduced in 1994, and dismissed the radios' protests that the changes would infringe on broadcasting freedoms. "In place of having the quotas filled by just 10 tracks, they will be filled with 11 or 12," she said. "I don't believe this will result in the calling into question anyone's fundamental liberties."

But the amount of music being recorded in French has plummeted in recent years, as artists aim for a more international, English-speaking market. The stations taking part in the boycott say the number of French-language albums being produced dropped by 66% between 2003 and 2014.

Radio stations also complain that the rules don't apply to online streaming sites such as Spotify. "It's like introducing a law whereby Renault cars can go through all red traffic lights but Peugeot cars have to wait through two red lights before they can move on," Tareq Mami from Sirti, a union of independent radio stations, tells The Local. "The law is already difficult for us without this new amendment."

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