Last week in Paris, Spotify released its first report showing how Francophone content is doing globally on its platform – and it’s thriving. The report says the platform’s audience for French content numbers more than 100 million users around the world who are not located in Francophone countries.

According to the report, Spotify has been seeing this trend growing for several years, with more than a sixth of global users having listened to French content on the platform.

Francophone streams for music have grown by 94% from 2019 to 2024, with 83 billion hours of French music played during the time frame covered by the report (August 2023 to July 2024) by users not located in Francophone markets. Over 39 million users not located in a Francophone country added French-language music to their personal playlists during that time.

In Canada, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Patrick Watson’s Je te laisserai des mots is the most-listened to Francophone track across all non-Francophone markets. Quebec rock, folk and country group Les Cowboys Fringants are the most-listened to Francophone artists in North America, followed by the Belgian artist Stromae.

Words also travel. Growth in listening to French-language podcasts has exploded by 2,687% since 2019. The most popular podcast is Legend, Guillaume Pley’s conversational podcast, while Chroniques criminelles, leans into the true crime phenomenon by managing to captivate a global audience. The third most popular podcast, InnerFrench, demonstrates Spotify users’ attraction to French since it helps listeners learn the language. In total, non-French-speaking users now listen to more than four hours of French audio content each month.

Just 100 days after the launch of free audiobooks for Premium subscribers in Canada, listening to French titles on Spotify had increased by 2,461%. Among the top five most listened to titles in Quebec, three are by Quebec authors. Additionally, it was found that Quebecers appreciate science fiction and true crime stories.