Pour une meilleure diffusion de la musique bretonne en Bretagne
This article was published by Brieg Gueverno on October 17, 2025 in Le Télégramme and Tribune. The translation is ours.
Brieg Guerveno, author, composer, performer, pleads for the dissemination of Breton music and local artists in department stores, city streets, public transport, “wherever possible”.
Drastic drops in record sales, difficulties for artists using the languages of Brittany to perform on stage, reduction of public aid to culture... music in Brittany is not well. Artists struggle to make a living from their creations. However, it is Breton musical creation that makes our culture and the Breton and Gallo languages live every day.
Music in Brittany brings people together, it bridges differences and offers moments of sharing and connection across regions. There are solutions to help Breton artists make a living from their music and capture people’s hearts. These require the will and commitment of economic and public actors. A key aspect is the promotion of local music and artists wherever possible. In department stores, the streets of our cities, public transport, parties and major events where music broadcast offers artists visibility and royalties essential to the economic success of their creation. To make the choice to broadcast local artists is to support and make known their art, allow them to have an audience and to fill venues. It also supports a whole sector: technicians, recording studios, theaters, hotel and catering, etc.
There is an urgent need to take action to support artists. Committing to broadcasting Breton artists makes it possible to make the culture and languages of Brittany heard, to affirm Breton cultural identity, to create jobs and to overcome the lack of national promotion of regional artists.
For this, I propose to create a multi-level charter in the same spirit as Ya d’ar Brezhoneg, where economic, political and cultural actors would commit to broadcasting a percentage of Breton music. This charter could be carried by a public body or an association such as ‘Produit en Bretagne’ and its network of companies. Because things are played out in the private sector.
In 2024, Sacem (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music) issued 51,197 broadcast authorizations in Brittany, for an amount of 28.3 million euros of which 17.7% went to dance, 39.4% to shows and 42.9% to play in shops and public spaces. This represents 12 million euros of broadcasting rights that do not return to the local economy and which mainly benefit Francophone artists who are already widely distributed, as well as record companies that do not produce their music in Brittany.
Like the Toubon Act (Toubon mandates the use of the French language in France and requires that content written in a foreign language be translated), which imposes a quota of 40% songs in the French language, this charter is a simple act, at no additional cost for companies or local authorities because Sacem rights under it are unaffected, whether international artists or local artists are broadcast. But it would still be a choice that could change the future of music produced in Brittany.
Photo Guillaume Fauveau
