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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.
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Luminate
Courtesy of Luminate
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.
Luminate
Courtesy of Luminate
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.
Kobalt has elevated Bob Bruderman to the role of Chief Digital Officer, the company announced today (July 24). In the new role, he will continue to lead overall global digital strategy for Kobalt, including commercial partnerships with companies such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, Pandora, Snap, Soundcloud, Spotify, TikTok and YouTube, among others. He will also […]
Don’t be surprised if Spotify decides to further raise prices on its premium subscription plans.
Although CEO Daniel Ek and interim CFO Ben Kung didn’t provide a timeline for future price increases, they sent numerous signals during Tuesday’s second-quarter earnings call that additional price increases are possible.
Spotify waited more than a decade to raise prices in the U.S. and many other markets in 2023 — from $9.99 to $10.99 a month for an individual plan. In 2024, the rate was bumped up to $11.99 per month. If those price increases were poorly timed, Spotify would have seen subscribers leave and revenues would suffer. Neither happened.
In the second quarter, the company added 7 million subscribers from the prior the quarter — 1 million more than it told investors it expected — and revenue reached 3.8 billion euros ($4.15 billion), up 20% year over year, the company announced Tuesday. Higher prices, combined with extensive layoffs, helped Spotify turn a 247 million euro ($269 million) operating loss in the second quarter of 2023 into an operating profit of 266 million euro ($290 million) — a swing of 513 million euros ($559 million).
Following widespread price increases in 2023 and additional price hikes this year in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, “We’re seeing less churn in this round of increases than we did in our prior one, which was already very low by any measure,” Ek said. The churn rates following the second round of increases were “better than expected,” added Kung.
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Following the two rounds of price hikes, Spotify is “very encouraged by what we’re seeing in the three major markets where we’ve taken price now, that’s basically about two times in the last 12 months,” said Kung. “And so I think we see that as a great data point for … what might be possible … in the rest of our territories.”
Why are subscribers not leaving? Ek attributes its churn rates to “the tremendous value we’ve added to the service over the last several years.” That includes features such as the year-ending recap Wrapped and Discovery Weekly, a personalized playlist of new releases. More recently, the company invested heavily in podcasts and audiobooks. Spotify is now a well-rounded audio platform, not the music-focused streaming service of its early years. “Access to all of this content would cost a user approximately $26 — significantly more than a Spotify subscription,” said Ek. “Spotify remains a pretty outstanding deal.”
Engagement is important for subscriber retention. As long as Spotify can keep listeners listening, it believes it has an ability to raise prices. “The most important thing in the near term is just making sure that audiobooks are driving incremental engagement for the platform, and we’re seeing this happening in a way that makes us feel good about the path that we’re on here,” said Kung.
The U.S., U.K. and Australia appear to have absorbed two rounds of price increases without missing a beat. Spotify executives didn’t say what to expect in other large, mature markets, but Ek suggested that listeners in developing markets, which currently skew more toward ad-supported listening, could stomach paying more. “The high engagement in [developing] markets gives us tremendous confidence in our ability to raise prices,” he said.
Separately, Spotify believes a subset of its subscribers are willing to pay substantially more for an elevated experience. Spotify first announced a high-quality audio tier, called HiFi, in 2021 but delayed its launch. Now, it appears HiFi is back on. “The plan here is to offer a much better version of Spotify,” said Ek. “So, think something like $5 above the current premium tier, so probably around $17-$18 price point, but sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all the benefits that the normal Spotify version has plus more control and quality across the board.”
Influence Media has launched a new frontline label, called SLANG, with Will Smith among its initial signings, the company announced today (July 24).
The company, which has been backed by the Warner Music Group and BlackRock, is launching the new label with its partner and founding advisor Rene McLean at the helm. SLANG, in partnership with TRIBL Records, released Smith’s latest single, the Gospel track “You Can Make It” feat. Fridayy and Sunday Service, on June 28, which has racked up 1.13 million on-demand streams in the U.S. so far, according to Luminate.
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Joining Smith on the SLANG roster are producers Camper (Big Sean, Mary J. Blige) and 30 Roc (Cardi B, Roddy Ricch), as well as the Underachievers, Leaf, Truththebull, Isaia Huron and more.
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“I’m proud to lead SLANG’s efforts to partner with quality artists and invest in their growth, regardless of genre or where they are in their respective careers,” McLean said in a statement. “In a quickly-changing music industry, SLANG artists will be surrounded by a team of like-minded strategists who will stop at nothing to further their trajectory and help them meet their goals. Our commitment to culture comes first, and we consider our SLANG roster family.”
Influence Media launched in 2017-2018, initially using bridge financing from Morgan Stanley to acquire assets from artists and producers Jeff Bhasker, Shane McAnally and Ben Rector, before selling those rights to Tempo Music in 2019. Two years after that, it launched its Fund I with $100 million in backing to acquire some copyrights from songwriter Ali Tamposi (Kelly Clarkson, Camila Cabello) and singer/songwriter Julia Michaels (“Issues,” Justin Bieber).
The backing from WMG and BlackRock, announced in February 2022, was intended for purchasing new assets and as an investment in Influence’s platform; at the time, Influence was said to have deployed some $300 million of the $750 million it had raised overall on songwriting catalogs from Tainy, the Stereotypes, Jessie Reyez and Skyler Stonestreet. Since then, it also acquired parts of the publishing catalogs of Future and Harry Styles songwriter Tyler Johnson, and partnered with Enrique Iglesias for a rights management deal and acquired Blake Shelton’s master recordings.
McLean, a 2023 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Power Player, led several of those acquisitions; he has served as a manager for the likes of Cam’ron, LMFAO and Kelis over the years, and had a hand in the careers of artists such as Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Pharrell and Timbaland, according to a press release.
Tones And I is the latest addition to the lineup of speakers for Bigsound 2024, Australia’s music industry summit and showcase event.
A one-time busker who was discovered performing in Byron Bay and landed a global smash with “Dance Monkey,” Tones will discuss her vibrant musical journey for an in-conversation with Australian TV personality Myf Warhurst.
Since she unleashed “Dance Monkey” in 2019, Tones (real name Toni Watson) has smashed records with monotonous regularity. The track ruled the ARIA Singles Chart for an all-time record 24 weeks, and held top spot on the Official U.K. Singles Chart for 11 weeks, a record for a solo female artist.
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Earlier this year, “Dance Monkey” clocked three billion streams on Spotify, making her the first female artist to pass that threshold.
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Written by Tones and recorded with Brisbane producer Konstantin Kersting, “Dance Monkey” ruled charts in at least 30 territories and crashed the Billboard Hot 100, landing at No. 5 and securing for Tones top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters Chart. Earlier this year, Tones opened for Pink on the U.S. pop superstar’s Summer Carnival Tour, which sold 970,000 tickets (second only to Ed Sheeran’s Divide tour) and played to 20 stadiums — a national record for a single tour.
Also announced today (July 24), Garrwa and Butchulla songman Fred Leone will deliver a Bigsound keynote on the importance of honoring his role as a custodian of his tribe’s traditional songs, while Emily Copeland, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s new head of music, will deliver her own keynote, recounting her career in media and how its future will connect with the Australian music landscape.
They join the daytime conference lineup that includes previously-announced speakers such as Kelis, Amy Taylor, singer with Amyl and The Sniffers; VibeLab co-founder Lutz Leichsenring; Billboard’s Lyndsey Havens; Vinyl Group CEO Josh Simons; and Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd.
Meanwhile, ARIA Award-nominated indie band Beddy Rays is added to the 120-strong bill of homegrown showcase acts, joining the likes of Stand Atlantic, Miiesha, JUNO, Keli Holiday, Sly Withers, Alex the Astronaut and many more.
Set for Sept. 3 – 6 in Brisbane, the 2032 Olympic city, Bigsound’s day-and-night action will once again make a splash in the vibrant Fortitude Valley.
The event is supported by the Queensland government through Tourism and Events Queensland, and is presented by Oztix and Brick Lane.
Visit Bigsound.org.au for more.
Italian producer Anyma has today (July 23) announced selling out all six of his upcoming Sphere shows, for a total of 100,000 tickets sold. Tickets went on sale earlier today, with a pre-sale event happening yesterday. The first show of the run, on New Year’s Eve, was announced just last week, with five additional dates […]
Desert Daze is returning to Lake Perris, California, after taking 2023 off with one of its most stacked lineups since launching in 2012. This year’s festival is being headlined by rock icon and former White Stripes frontman Jack White, next-gen shoegaze pioneers Cigarettes After Sex, singer-songwriter Alex G, reunited Latino prog rock masters The Mars Volta, bassist and singer Thundercat, ’90s icon Liz Phair and hip-hop legends De La Soul. Desert Daze also includes Death From Above 1979 performing a 20th-anniversary performance of You’re a Woman, I’m A Machine.
The lineup also includes Fleet Foxes, 100 gecs, Sleep, Marc Rebillet, Molchat Doma, The Kills, Floating Points, Power Trip, Beach Fossils, DIIV, Unwound, Shintaro Sakamoto, Danny Brown, All Them Witches, Mount Kimbie, Otoboke Beaver, Say She She, Converge, Souls Of Mischief and many more.
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A few of the special appearances at Desert Daze 2024 include original riot grrrl and punk-rock heroine Kathleen Hanna reading from her New York Times bestselling memoir Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk and in conversation with Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Temples’ 10th-anniversary performance of their debut album, Sun Structures.
New this year, Los Angeles venue, recording studio and hotel Gold Diggers will curate a tent featuring acclaimed Chicago-based jazz drummer, composer and producer Makaya Mccraven, Tortoise’s Jeff Parker, musician and skateboarding icon Tommy Guerrero, acclaimed British singer Carina Round (Tears for Fears, Puscifer), and more; and Los Angeles-based label and promoter Jazz Is Dead will showcase their artists including Ebo Taylor + Pat Thomas, and co-founder Adrian Younge.
For additional info & tickets, visit desertdaze.org
DESERT DAZE
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The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. The union’s backing comes after a unanimous vote of the U.S. members of the AFM International Board, and what they see as the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to labor. This follows President Biden’s decision not to seek reelection and his subsequent endorsement […]
Jessica Hoy figured her show, Mornings With Bo and Jess on CKCE-FM (101.5 Today Radio) Calgary, Alberta, was about to undergo major changes. Her co-host, Bobby May, had already warned her that he planned to quit the station in March. Hoy did not expect management to fire her and replace the show with a podcast duo based nearly 200 miles away who are broadcast on multiple stations.
“I was quite shocked when I was let go,” says Hoy, who nevertheless points out that, these days, “A lot of stations are trying to cut costs.”
As broadcast companies contend with debt loads, advertising declines and competition from streaming services and popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, radio stations have spent the last few years laying off dozens of employees, including on-air talent. Once-popular morning shows are the latest casualties, including, in late June, WKTU-FM New York’s Carolina With Greg T and KZZU-FM Spokane, Wash.’s long-running Dave, Ken and Molly.
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“With longevity comes larger salaries, and if the return on investment isn’t there anymore, these significant moves have to be made,” says Lance Venta, owner and publisher of Radio Insight. “Most of these corporate communications groups look at the individuals as a line item on a spreadsheet.”
Sean Ross, who puts out the Ross on Radio newsletter, tells Billboard, “With a lot of heritage morning shows, radio stations find themselves in a trick bag where the show is simultaneously not quite as big as it used to be, less tenable financially after years of salary increases but is still the biggest asset the station has.”
Many of the recently fired morning-show stars did not respond to inquiries or declined to comment, as did the stations that terminated them. Carolina Bermudez, the laid-off co-host of iHeartMedia’s Carolina With Greg T, says she was “advised by my lawyer not to comment at this time,” and Kendall Hopkins of Dave, Ken and Molly says he would talk “when I’m free to.” But after Canada’s Pattison Media dropped Mornings With Bo and Jess, May posted an Instagram screed: “Radio is in terrible shape with the current CEOs and shareholders at hand nationwide and I HATE to see my coworkers go down with it. … Talents have unfortunately become just a number on a piece of paper.”
Tanner Jay, whose Jake and Tanner Show on WKSZ-FM Appleton, Wis., was canceled in November, adds that radio stations are “struggling,” and instead of spending more money on training and nurturing on-air talent, “They’re saying, ‘We might as well put all this money toward getting some Taylor Swift tickets to give away and having one or two people that have never done mornings.’”
His partner, Jake Kelly, with whom he continues to host a daily podcast, adds, “I don’t know if the higher-ups know exactly how to fix the problem. Maybe they’re just firing until they figure it out.”
Morning shows on music radio stations were once cultural and financial juggernauts — Howard Stern rose to fame on WXRK-FM New York in the 1980s, and Steve Harvey’s show on WGCI-FM Chicago helped him diversify beyond stand-up comedy and gain broader celebrity status in the ’90s. Stations still differentiate themselves regionally with flagship shows such as Winston and Mel on Denver’s Kool 105 and Mojo In the Morning on Detroit’s Channel 95.5. Many of these shows, including those by Audacy’s Gary Bryan and iHeart’s Ryan Seacrest, are syndicated and have podcasts of their own.
Kelly argues today’s broadcast morning-show hosts are overdue to update their content. Many shows, he says, rely on clichéd content such as “War of the Roses,” in which the hosts help couples confront each other on-air, often through pranks. “The fakeness of the laughter, the fakeness of the stories — Gen Zs can see through it if it’s not authentic,” he says. “My daughter’s 14, and I don’t know if she’s ever turned on the radio.”
Before their program director took them aside after a Wednesday broadcast and fired them, Kelly and Jay were moving away from conventional morning-show shtick toward more personal stories, including discussing alcoholism and family issues on-air. Their new approach did not change the station’s fortunes. Their station’s overall ratings declined in the Green Bay, Wis., market from spring 2022 to fall 2023, according to Radio Online.
Hoy, who currently works as a medical outreach coordinator for a dermatology clinic, praises her replacement crew, Crash & Mars, as “unbelievably talented.” She adds that a Calgary morning show based in Edmonton may appeal to the station’s finances, but not the community. “I do worry about what happens when local news and events happen,” she says. “It just breaks that connection with the listeners.”
A version of this story appeared in the July 20, 2024, issue of Billboard.
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. This week: Michael Jackson’s estate scores a victory in litigation over a $600 million catalog sale; Snoop Dogg is hit with a copyright lawsuit that cites Tracy Chapman; Melissa Etheridge faces a legal battle from her partners in her failed cannabis business; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Jackson Estate Scores Legal Victory
Michael Jackson’s estate won a key ruling last week in a legal battle with the late singer’s mother — and though it’s only a “tentative” win, the stakes are enormous. More than 15 years after Jackson’s death, his estate is still tied up in probate court, reportedly over unresolved tax issues. So when the King of Pop’s executors wanted to sell part of his catalog to Sony Music for more than $600 million, it asked a California judge for approval to do so. Katherine Jackson objected, arguing that the sale “violated Michael’s wishes” and that the catalog would likely continue to gain value over time if retained, among other arguments. Last week, a California appeals court tentatively rejected Katherine’s objections — ruling that it would likely rule for the estate both procedurally (that she had failed to preserve arguments on appeal) and substantively (that the estate’s executors had the power to make the Sony deal.)Go read our full story on the decision — and stay tuned for whether the court decides to finalize its ruling.
Other top stories this week…
LEGAL LEGEND – While we’re on the subject of the Jackson estate, go read Frank DiGiacomo’s excellent profile of estate co-executor John Branca, a music attorney who at various points in his career has represented Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, the Elvis Presley estate and The Rolling Stones. SNOOP LIABILITY – Snoop Dogg was sued for copyright infringement over allegations that the legendary rapper has refused to pay a veteran studio musician after using two of his backing tracks. The case offers a glimpse at industry practices surrounding the use of uncleared samples to privately “experiment” in the recording studio — and cites an earlier battle between Tracy Chapman and Nicki Minaj over that same issue. WEED WAR – Melissa Etheridge is facing a legal battle over her brief foray into the cannabis business, filed by two business partners in Northern California (Josephine and D’Angelo Roberto) who say they “invested their life’s work into the businesses” but claim the singer “abandoned them” and left them in “financial ruin.” AN “ABHORRENT SCHEME”– Attorneys for Priscilla Presley filed a lawsuit against four of her former business partners over allegations of elder abuse and fraud, accusing them of a “meticulously planned” scheme to drain Elvis Presley’s ex-wife of “every last penny she had” — including nearly $1 million to date and 80% of her future income.ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER JUDGE – Just two days after Judge Ural Glanville was ordered removed from Young Thug’s sprawling Atlanta gang trial, his replacement on the trial bench (Judge Shukura L. Ingram) said that she would also recuse herself. Later the same day, Judge Paige Reese Whitaker assumed control of the massive racketeering case and now appears to be settling in to run it for the long haul. KANYE SUED AGAIN – Ye (formerly Kanye West) was sued yet again over claims of illegal sampling, this time over allegations that he used an instrumental track called “MSD PT2” in two songs from the album Donda even after he was explicitly denied permission. The case closely echoes a lawsuit filed against him by the estate of Donna Summer, which similarly claimed that he had used one of her songs even after being directly refused a license. That case settled last month. GOSSIP OR DEFAMATION? Soulja Boy launched a defamation lawsuit against social media personalities Tasha K and William The Baddest, claiming that they made false statements on a podcast about the rapper having a sexual encounter with a man — or, in the words of his lawyers, “redefining his character as a man who is not straight.” If Tasha K’s name sounds familiar, it should: She’s the gossip host who Cardi B sued for defamation over claims about STDs, drug use and prostitution, eventually winning a $4 million judgment. NBA MUSIC LAWSUITS – More than a dozen NBA teams were sued for copyright infringement by Kobalt and other music companies over allegations that the basketball teams used songs in social media videos without permission. The cases came with city-specific flair: The New York Knicks were accused of using songs by “New York legends” Jay-Z and Cardi B; the Philadelphia 76ers allegedly used music from Philly native Meek Mill; and the Atlanta Hawks took songs by “Atlanta’s own” Migos and OutKast. MUSIC AI BATTLES – How are the copyright lawsuits against AI music firms Suno and Udio going to shake out? Billboard’s Robert Levine breaks down the fair use doctrine and how it might be applied to the new frontier of training artificial intelligence models, particularly in the wake of high-profile cases involving Google Books, the Android operating system and an Andy Warhol print of Prince. ROYALTY ROW – SoundExchange sued a free streaming service called AccuRadio over allegations that the company has failed to pay royalties for music for years, claiming the streamer has “directly harmed creators.” The small streamer denied the allegations, saying it had reliably paid $12.5 million in royalties over the years but was struggling with high rates imposed on online radio. BACKSTAGE MELEE – Chris Brown, Live Nation and several members of his entourage were hit with a lawsuit over an alleged assault that took place following Brown’s concert last week in Fort Worth, Texas. The case claims that Brown and others “brutally and severely beat” four men backstage in an unprovoked attack following the show. CHIPPING AWAY – Attorneys for Live Nation asked a federal judge to dismiss part of the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit — specifically, that the concert promoter uses illegal tying arrangements to operate its amphitheaters. The company argued that this practice, described as a “refusal to deal,” is common in the concert business and protected by Supreme Court precedent.
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