Music Streaming Hits 4 Trillion in 2023 with a Surge in Regional Mexican Music

The global music industry hit a new milestone in 2023 with an outstanding 4 trillion streams, marking the highest record in a single year, as reported by Luminate's year-end data. As music tastes diversify and barriers reduce, worldwide music streaming witnessed a 34% increase from the prior year, suggesting a blossoming international market.

Growth in Music Genres

In the United States, specific music genres experienced significant growth. Country music saw a 23.7% increase, Latin genres overall grew by 24.1%, and world music, which includes J-pop, K-pop, and Afrobeats, rose by 26.2%. The rise in non-English music listenership in the US is underscored by the 3.8% increase in Spanish music amongst the top 10,000 streamed songs, while English music's share fell by the same percentage.

Regional Mexican Music Skyrockets

Under the umbrella of Latin music, regional Mexican music genres, comprising mariachi, banda, corridos, norteño, and sierreño, have seen a remarkable 60% surge in audio streaming demand in the US, totaling 21.9 billion streams. Notably, four Mexican acts - Peso Pluma, Eslabón Armado, Junior H, and Fuerza Regida - broke the billion streams milestone in the US and made it to the top 125 streaming artists list. Hits such as 'Ella Baila Sola' by Eslabón Armado and Peso Pluma soared past a billion Spotify streams in under a year, while Bad Bunny's collaboration with Grupo Frontera, 'Un x100to,' reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 across all genres.

Taylor Swift and Music Consumption Trends

Time's 2023 Person of the Year, Taylor Swift, accounted for 1.79% of the US market, meaning she commanded 1 in every 78 audio streams in the US. Her influence is further highlighted by her domination of Luminate’s top album list, where five of her albums were in the top 10 in the US. Despite this, and with the rise of genres in languages other than English, hip-hop continues to rule the overall US music consumption, making up 25.5% of all streams. Notably, the hip-hop genre celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, which saw a slight shift as R&B and current hip-hop act streams fell by 7.1% from the previous year, whereas catalog streams of older material rose by 11.3%.

music, streaming, growth