Music streams surpass 4 trillion in record-setting year
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The global music industry had a record-setting 2023 with more than 4 trillion on-demand audio song streams, according to a new report.
Driving the news: The figure represents a 22.3% increase from 2022's 3.4 trillion streams, per data in a year-end report from Luminate, a music and entertainment data analytics firm.
- R&B/hip-hop continued to dominate all other music genres, representing over a quarter of total U.S. streams in 2023.
- Rock, at nearly 20%, followed closely behind among U.S. listeners, while pop songs accounted for 12% of streams, per the report.
- World, Latin and country ranked as the three fastest-growing genres in 2023 by on-demand audio streams among U.S. listeners.
- The report also found Millennial and Generation Z listeners in the U.S. are more likely to put on foreign language music.
Between the lines: Regional Mexican music — a broad term to describe genres such as corridos, norteñas, mariachi and ranchera — solidified its global explosion in 2023, with a 60% increase in U.S. on-demand audio streams this past year.
- For the first time ever, two regional Mexican hits were nominated for the Latin Grammys song of the year award in September 2023, Axios Latino's Marina E. Franco reports.
Zoom out: The report also offered more evidence of Taylor Swift's preeminence, after she charted one of the biggest years in pop music history.
- No artist was streamed more last year on Spotify. In the U.S., one of every 78 audio streams in 2023 was a song of hers, per Luminate.
Go deeper: CDs are making a comeback thanks to Gen Z
