Music streams hit nearly 5 trillion in 2024. Women pop performers lead
the charge in the US
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[January 16, 2025]
By MARIA SHERMAN
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
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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.
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