Latin Is the Fastest-Growing Music Genre in the U.S.

Latin music is the fastest-growing core music genre in the U.S., according to Luminate’s 2024 Midyear Music Report, released last week. And the power driver behind the growth is regional Mexican music.

When ranking by share point growth for the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023, Latin music outpaced genres like country, pop and rock. Latin — which is not a genre per se, but is the name given to music performed predominantly in Spanish — registered a 15.1% growth in on-demand audio streaming volume. This resulted in a total share point growth of 0.51% for the first half of 2024, far more than rock and pop (whose share growth was less than 0.3%) or country and Christian (with a less than 0.2% share growth).

Latin music’s growth has been fueled by two major factors. One is the growth of regional Mexican music, which is now the largest Latin subgenre in the U.S. The other is the fact that new music releases are streamed at a far bigger scale in Latin than in any other genre of music, suggesting that young Latin listeners are over-consuming music, a fact that has been measured by Luminate in different Latin countries before.

According to Luminate, on-demand audio streams of regional Mexican music for the first half of 2024 stood at 13.2 million streams. That was more than Latin pop (12 million streams), Latin rhythm (10.8 million streams) and Latin tropical (2.4 million streams).

When looking at Luminate’s comparison of the “release age” composition for genre, Latin’s consumption of current music — music released within the prior 18 months — outpaces all other genres significantly. Latin genre streaming leans the most current at 35%, followed by country at around 30%. In comparison, R&B/hip-hop current streaming is at 25%. By the same token, deep catalog streaming — defined by Luminate as music older than 60 months — is lowest for Latin (close to 40%) when compared to other genres; in rock, for example, 70.5% of streams come from music older than 60 months.

The stats for Latin music are even more remarkable considering that 32% of its streams come from ad-supported on-demand video or audio, more than all other genres. This means the number of average streams needed to equal an album equivalent is higher for Latin than for other kinds of music, whose streaming consumption of premium streams is higher.

Regional Mexican, which encompasses a broad range of Mexican music subgenres, including norteño, banda, mariachi and corridos, had been the leading subgenre of Latin music in the U.S. for decades, in part because people of Mexican descent account for the vast majority of the Latin population in the country. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2022, there were approximately 37.4 million people of Mexican origin living in the United States, making up nearly 60% of the country’s Hispanic population, a percentage that’s remained relatively unchanged for decades.

But when reggaetón took over Latin music’s charts 20 years ago, the popularity of regional Mexican declined. Now, fueled by an infusion of brash new acts, regional Mexican is dominating charts and consumption.

According to Luminate, four Latin artists earned more than 100 million U.S. on-demand audio streams through the first half of 2024. Outside of Bad Bunny, who is the No. 1-streaming Latin music artist overall, those other three were Regional Mexican artists: Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida and Junior H.

The growth of regional Mexican in the U.S. reflects a broader international trend. According to the report, Mexico is the top country to grow in global audio streaming share (based on artist country of origin), jumping from 5.29% in 2023 to 6.03% in 2024.

This suggests the base of Mexican music, and Mexican fandom, is not only strong, but has vast room for growth, continuing to fuel consumption in the U.S. and beyond.