By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer
More music, more listeners, no problems.
The global music industry hit 4.8 trillion streams in 2024, a new single-year record, Luminate’s 2024 Year-End Report found. That’s up 14% from 2023, which held the previous record.
If you streamed a lot more music in 2024 — and in particular, a lot of women pop performers — you are not alone.
In the U.S., on-demand audio streams grew at a rate of 6.4%, totaling 1.4 trillion.
Contemporary music is fueling the growth. The overwhelming majority of U.S. plays – 79.5% — were from songs released in 2010 or later. Songs released between 2020 and 2024 accounted for nearly half of all streams.
And Taylor Swift, 2024’s most-streamed songwriter worldwide, is only partially responsible.
Pop rules
Midway through 2024, Luminate determined that Latin music had become the fastest growing streaming genre in the United States — up 15.1% from summer 2023 — followed by pop, rock and country.
A lot can change in half a year, because now pop leads, followed by rock and Latin.
“We saw some interesting trends within the U.S.,” said Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s vice president of music insights and industry relations.
“Latin was the fastest-growing U.S. streaming genre in the first half of the year based on growth of genre streaming share. However, due to a shift of streaming activity in the second half of the year, pop took the No. 1 spot … Female solo artists led this surge in pop consumption, as streams of their music were responsible for nearly two-thirds of all audio streams amongst the top 100 pop artists in the U.S.”
The shift is led by six women who dominated pop’s streams in the U.S.:
1. Taylor Swift with 12.8 billion streams
2. Billie Eilish with 4.46 billion
3. Sabrina Carpenter with 3.71 billion
4. Ariana Grande with 3.12 billion
5. Olivia Rodrigo with 2.76 billion
6. Chappell Roan with 2.49 billion
That’s at least partially reflected in the top 10 global streaming songs as well:
1. Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things”
2. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”
3. Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Father”
4. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control”
5. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars,” “Die with a Smile”
6. FloyyMenor, “Gata Only”
7. Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
8. Hozier, “Too Sweet”
9. Taylor Swift, “Cruel Summer”
10. Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”
Regional Mexican music continues to grow
Even if pop has replaced Latin music as the fastest growing streaming genre in the U.S., the music is not slowing down in popularity. In 2024, regional Mexican music overtook Latin pop as the largest Latin subgenre in the U.S.
“Latin still grew by both volume and its share of total U.S. audio streaming during the course of 2024,” Marconette said. “When looking at Latin subgenre activity, Regional Mexican dominated in terms of growth.”
Regional Mexican music — a catchall term that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norteño, sierreño and other genres — has become a global phenomenon over the last few years, topping music charts and reaching new audiences as it crosses borders.
The genre reached 28.57 billion streams in 2024, followed by Latin pop with 24.09 billion.
Rap and R&B are forever
Pop rules, but just like 2023, when it comes to overall music streaming in the U.S., R&B and hip-hop still lead, accounting for more than one in every four streams stateside.
In 2024: Rap and R&B accounted for 341.63 billion on-demand audio streams, followed by rock with 234.22 billion, pop with 165.49 billion, country with 117.58 billion and Latin with 113.02 billion.