America Second? Why English-Language Music from Countries Like the U.S. Is Losing Global Market Share

Brace yourself, ultra-patriotic protectionists: English-language music from countries such as the U.S. is losing market share around the world — and even in its home markets.

Despite the U.S. owning the world’s most powerful culture machine, people in other countries want to listen to music performed in their native languages. According to Luminate’s 2024 year-end report, music from the U.S. and other English-speaking countries accounted for a lower share of global premium streams in 2024 than the prior year. The United Kingdom had the biggest drop in market share, falling 0.47 percentage points to 8.59%, while the U.S. dropped 0.44 points to 44.29% and Canada fell 0.39% to 3.34%.

In the Philippines, where English is spoken by roughly half of adults, music from the U.K. and U.S. were the biggest losers of market share while local Filipino music gained an astounding 3.32 points. In Japan, where local music has always outperformed English-language music, local music gained 1.35 points while the U.K., U.S. and Canada all lost market share. In Brazil, home to a thriving local music scene, homegrown music gained 0.78 points while the U.K. and Canada both lost market share.

The shift away from English-language music isn’t happening only in countries where English is not the primary language. In the U.S., homegrown music lost 0.2 percentage points of market share. The same dynamic is seen in the U.K., where homegrown music lost 2.7 percentage points. In English-speaking Australia, music from Australia, the U.S. and Canada all lost market share.

So where did English-language music’s market share go? Mexico was the country of origin with the biggest market share increase in 2024, rising 0.88 percentage points to 4.69% of global premium streams. Brazil owned the second-largest increase, rising 0.33 points to 4.47%. India, which has a distinct local music market and a large diaspora, was third, increasing 0.21 points to 1.42%.

Often, a historical connection between countries could help explain the increasing popularity of one country’s music. In the U.S., music from neighboring Mexico, a major cultural influence for regions far beyond the border states, was the top gainer with an increased market share of 0.56 percentage points. In the U.K. and Australia, both members of the Commonwealth, music from another Commonwealth nation, India, gained 0.13 points and 0.16 points, respectively. Importantly, people of Indian ethnicity account for 2.9% of the U.K.’s population and 3.1 % of Australia’s population.

Local music is also thriving in France, a country not singled out in Luminate’s report. Azzedine Fall, Deezer’s direct of music & culture, says more musical genres performed in French are hitting the charts in the country. “[French-language] rap music is still dominating everywhere in the charts, but we have room for artists doing this kind of Ed Sheeran kind of stuff,” he says. “There is Pierre Garnier, for instance. He’s like the French version [of Ed Sheeran], and it’s kind of a new trend, like the return of pop rock music.” French-language rap has been popular for decades, adds Fall, but pop rock music performed in French is a newer phenomenon: “You would never hear someone doing rock in French 30 years ago.”

The rise of local music in the streaming era is a relatively new phenomenon that was described in a 2023 paper by Will Page and Chris Dalla Riva titled ‘Glocalisation’ of Music Streaming Within and Across Europe. Glocalization—a portmanteau of “global” and “localization”—explains how local music became more successful in a globalized, digital economy. In streaming’s early days, English-language music often dominated charts at the expense of local artists. In 2012, local artists accounted for less than a fifth of the top 10 songs in Poland, France, the Netherlands and Germany, according to the paper. But a decade later, local artists owned 70% of the top 10 in Poland, Italy and Sweden and 60% in France (but just 30% in the Netherlands and 20% in Germany).

The trend toward successful local music is likely to continue, says Romain Vivien, global head of music & president, Europe at Believe. The tools available to music producers “allow for more creation, faster and wider distribution to reach audiences more directly and accurately, and for a wider and more diverse artist community,” he says. It’s a perfect recipe for local labels and producers who create music in many different genres, says Vivien, “while bigger and more global structures sign fewer artists, across fewer genres and invest a lot to try to make them global stars.”

That’s not to say music from the U.S. has fallen out of favor. Artists from the U.S. still had the largest global market share of premium streams in 2024 at 44.29%, and the U.S. ranked No. 1 on Luminate’s Export Power Score, a measure of a country’s ability to export music globally. In fact, the U.K. and Canada rank No. 2 and No. 3 on Export Power Score, topping No. 4 South Korea and No. 5 Germany. The U.S. also gained market share in some places, too, albeit in primarily English-speaking countries: U.S. music rose 2.4 percentage points in the U.K. and 1.7 percentage points in Australia. English-speaking Ireland also gained share in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, likely because of Hozier’s global hit “Too Sweet” (which was the No. 8 song globally in 2024 with 1.71 billion on-demand audio streams, according to Luminate).

As in years past, English-language music also dominated the Luminate report’s lists of top albums and songs. The lone non-English language song to appear in a top 10 list was “Gata Only” by Chilean artist FloyyMenor. The track was a worldwide hit and had great success in the U.S., too, reaching No. 27 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and topping Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart for 14 weeks in 2024 en route to ranking No. 1 on the year-end Hot Latin Songs list.

Still, the slight decline in English-language music marks a sharp contrast with present-day “America first” jingoism. Changes in music technology mean U.S. music won’t crowd out local music in other countries, and a catchy song can become popular anywhere in the world. Politicians can build a border wall, but they can’t stop music from coming in.

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