Latin music takes the lead as the U.S.’s fastest-growing genre

Halfway through 2024, Latin music is the fastest-growing genre on streaming services in the United States, according to a new report released Tuesday by entertainment data analysis company Luminate.

The burgeoning genre had nearly 51 billion streams as of June 27, a 15.1% increase over the same period last year, and is seeing a higher growth rate than rock, pop, country or Christian/gospel. Despite the increase, Latin music remains the fifth-most-streamed genre in the U.S.

“A huge part of that growth was driven by the continued rise of regional Mexican music, which is the largest Latin music subgenre so far this year with more than 13 billion U.S. On-Demand Audio streams and a +36.9% year-over-year growth rate,” Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s vice president of music insights and industry relations, said in a statement.

Of the biggest streaming Latin musicians in the U.S. to date, three of the four are regional Mexican acts — Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida and Junior H. Bad Bunny was the most streamed Latin artist in the country. All four acts have been streamed over 100 million times in the past six months.

Marcos Juarez, head of Latin music programming at Pandora, credits the rise in popularity to a bigger cultural movement where Latinidad is more visible than ever. Having worked at the U.S.-exclusive streaming service for over a decade, he says that Latin music has always been big for Pandora, but not to this extent.

“We haven’t seen this much penetration for this long or this consistent of Latin music into global music listening markets,” said Juarez. “Audiences have become more acculturated to Latin American culture. The listeners who listen to primarily English-language music were much less receptive to Spanish-language music and much less receptive to music in languages that were not their native tongue. But we’re seeing not so much of that issue anymore.”

Latin music’s shift to the mainstream is most apparent in markets like Los Angeles. As of this writing, tracks by Latin acts occupy 16 of Apple Music’s 25 most streamed songs in the region. “Gata Only” by FloyyMenor and Cris MJ holds the highest ranking at No. 3, with Karol G’s “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” and “Si No Quieres No” by Luis R. Conriquez and Neton Vega following closely in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

“There have been moments throughout popular culture where we see Latin explosions, but I think what’s unique about right now is the scale of it all,” said Juarez.