Latin music revenue in the United States increased 15% to reach a record $627 million, according to the RIAA’s mid-year Latin music report released Wednesday (Sept. 27). This new milestone comes after Latin music revenues reached an all-time high in 2022, surpassing the $1 billion mark with 24% growth outpacing the overall market.
According to the report, streaming continues to drive an “overwhelming” share of growth, accounting for 98% of revenue. Latin music’s share of total recorded music revenue in the United States grew from 7.1% in the first half of 2022 to a new high of 7.5% in the first half of 2023.
“The income of Latin music in the United States reached an all-time high in 2022, and the growth continues until the first half of 2023 and in society in general,” said Rafael Fernandez, Jr., senior vice president of state public policy and industry relations at the RIAA, in a statement.
The growth of Latin music in the last two years has been fueled not only by the success of Bad Bunny, who ended 2022 as the most streamed artist in the United States and in the world, but also by other artists such as Karol G, who made History earlier this year with Tomorrow is beautiful. The 17-song album became the first all-Spanish album by a female Latin artist to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
A new wave of Mexican music exponents, such as Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida, and Eslabon Armado, also contributed to establishing a record year for regional music in Mexico. At the beginning of 2013, Billboard reported that consumption of this genre had increased by 42.1% so far this year until May 25, according to Luminate.
The RIAA’s mid-year report further explains that revenue from ad-supported on-demand music streaming (from services such as YouTube, the free version of Spotify, and social media platforms) continues to represent a greater percentage of revenue from Latin music (23%), than music recorded in the United States as a whole (10%).
Meanwhile, revenue from digital and personalized radio services (such as Pandora, SiriusXM, and Internet radio services) grew 13% to $36 million, recovering from a 5% decline in 2022 and amounting to 6% of total Latin music revenue. However, physical formats increased less than 1%, with 4.7 million dollars, which represents a decrease of 37% in the first half of 2023.
