Latin music
Mexican music is undergoing a revolution, and at the epicenter of this new wave of talent is Luis Ernesto Vega Carvajal, better known as Netón Vega. At just 21 years old, the young musician has achieved global success as a co-writer for tracks such as “La People” by Peso Pluma and Tito Double P, “Rubicon” by Peso, and “Si No Quieres No” by Luis R. Conríquez.
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The latter song, on which he also sings, is one of five that he currently has on the Hot Latin Songs chart as both composer and performer, including “La Patrulla” with Peso Pluma, “Linda” and “Chino” with Tito Double P, and “Presidente” by Gabito Ballesteros, Natanael Cano, and Conríquez.
“The fact that my songs reached Hassan (Peso Pluma) allowed them to reach all these artists, with whom I now share a great friendship,” explains Vega, who is ready to write his own story now as a singer, in an interview with Billboard Español.
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On Friday (Dec. 20), he will release “Loco,” the first single from his debut album, slated for January 24, 2025.
“Now it’s my turn to perform my own songs. I have prepared 18 and I am very excited for everyone to hear all that I can offer because I don’t just do corridos tumbados; I really like rap and even romantic songs,” explains the singer-songwriter, who has more than 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify thanks to his collaborations.
When asked if at this stage he will have the support of those to whom he has given key songs in his career, the answer is blunt: “There is a union with the artists of Mexican music today as never before, we support each other unconditionally, it is a brotherhood. So they will be with me in my first album Peso Pluma, Luis R. Conríquez, Tito Double P, Víctor Mendívil, Oscar Maydón and Alemán, who is from the same place where I was born”.
Vega was born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, but moved to Culiacán, Sinaloa, at a young age. He learned to rap on the streets and later began to write.
“I didn’t write corridos tumbados. I composed romantic songs, reggaetón, everything. I wrote traditional corridos; people from the United States requested them a lot. That’s how I started making money,” he shares, adding that he also grew up listening to music from groups like Intocable and Juan Gabriel. “Then I mixed everything I knew and created my own style,” he continues. “As for the lyrics, I make sure they are not too aggressive.”
Amid so many emerging artists, the competition becomes stronger every day, and this is something he is very aware of. “However, I believe that we can continue our careers if we work and keep doing new things all the time,” he says. “At least that’s what I am willing to do.”
With the release of his debut album, he will also have the opportunity to perform in front of an audience for the first time with three concerts scheduled in Mexico early next year: February 27 at the Escenario GNP Seguros in Monterrey, March 1 at the Pepsi Center in Mexican City, and March 9 at the Auditorio Telmex in Guadalajara.
“This is a very important challenge. I understand that having millions of listeners is not the same as having people come to see me and pay for a ticket,” concludes Vega, undoubtedly an artist to keep an eye on in 2025.
Maria Becerra has shuffled her management, Billboard has learned.
The Argentine star and her longtime manager, José Levy, have amicably parted ways. Becerra will now be co-managed by Natanael Real, who was been her longtime day-to-day manager, along with veteran Mexican manager Armando Lozano, who steps into a bigger role after working two years as a consultant for the artist for all territories outside Argentina.
“I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to María for placing her trust in me over nearly seven years, from the very beginning. It has been a true pleasure and honor to be part of her professional journey, and I wish her every success in this new chapter,” Levy told Billboard in a statement.
In turn, Lozano, who until recently also managed Mau & Ricky, said: “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to join María in this exciting new phase of her career. I am confident that remarkable achievements await her, further cementing her place as the global star she truly is.”
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Added Real: “From the start, I’ve been inspired by María’s extraordinary talent and charisma. It is a privilege to support her in this new chapter and help her reach even greater heights.”
Becerra started her career as a YouTuber in her native Argentina as a tween, posting all kinds of content that included music covers. By 17, she was focusing only on music and started working with Levy. In 2021, at 21, she released her debut album, Animal via 300 Entertainment and earned a Latin Grammy nomination for best new artist.
In 2023, Becerra signed a deal with Warner Music Latina as a joint venture with 300 Entertainment, still managed by Levy, and also received the Visionary Award at Billboard’s inaugural Latin Women In Music event.
Becerra is in the midst of her first major U.S. tour and released new singles with Yandel (“El sexo está de moda”) and Gloria Trevi (“Borracha”), the latter which she performed at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in October.
She currently has 24 million monthly listeners on Spotify, making her 240 in the world on the platform. Becerra has multiple entries on the Billboard charts, including two No. 1s on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart.
This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features fresh new music from artists including new music by Grupo Frontera, Eslabon Armado, Francisca Valenzuela ft. Daniela Spalla and more. Colombian star Greeicy and Puerto Rican rapper/singer Jay Wheeler team up for a slow-burning reggeatón ballad, “¿Qué Te Pasó?” (meaning what happened to […]
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.
Beyond the drama and debate surrounding this year’s Copa América, we at Round saw a different kind of news story emerge: How the oldest international football competition in the world is driving niche Latin American music genres to new audiences in North America.
Soccer is increasingly finding its footing in American culture, and its rise in popularity is reflected in the number of viewers this year’s tournament reeled in. According to The Hollywood Reporter, both Fox and Univision registered record viewership for the Euro 2024 and Copa America finals. The Spain-England game drew a combined 9.43 million viewers on Sunday afternoon, and in primetime, Argentina’s victory over Colombia averaged 11.63 million viewers across the two networks. Fox scored more than 6 million viewers for both matches, which, outside of the World Cup, became the most-watched soccer telecasts ever on the network.
Copa America’s record ratings were reflected on TikTok, where the #CopaAmerica2024 hashtag garnered 71.5 million views. The U.S. accounted for 13% of the content creation on TikTok around the event, second only to Mexico at 15%, according to data compiled by Round Technology, which can scrape social media platforms to provide proprietary data. Whilst conversation on social platforms was initially driven by what was happening on the pitch, we later saw audiences interact more than ever with Latin music, demonstrating how central music has become to the tournament.
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This year, Shakira’s halftime performance at the Copa America final infused Latin culture into the event despite initial reservations from Colombia’s national team coach, Néstor Lorenzo, about extending the halftime break for the show (soccer tournaments typically don’t have halftime shows, and if they do, they don’t extend beyond 15 minutes). Meanwhile, Colombia’s music elite rocked up to the tournament decider, with Feid, Ryan Castro, Karol G, Maluma, Blessd, Camilo, Fonseca and Juanes all in attendance. Impressively, those artists collectively represent more than a quarter of a billion monthly listeners on Spotify.
On TikTok, three tracks stood out as firm favorites for the platform’s users: Shakira’s “Punteria” (the official song of TelevisaUnivision coverage of the tournament); Ryan Castro’s reggaeton track “El Ritmo Que Nos Une” (the Colombian team’s official song); and MC Danone’s Brazilian funk tune “Vem Quebrando.” Together, those tracks have featured in nearly 550,000 TikTok creations since the tournament began on June 21. In comparison, across the pond in Europe, the official song of the Euros, “FIRE” by Meduza, OneRepublic and Leony, sparked just 70,000 creations, while England’s unofficial anthem “Three Lions (It’s Coming Home)” garnered 64,000 creations during the tournament.
Copa America’s surprising success on TikTok, coupled with its deepening connection to music, has been game-changing for artists by bringing attention to emerging genres. Take, for example, “Vem Quebrando,” a Brazilian funk song popularized by Colombian midfielder Richard Ríos, who performs a TikTok dance associated with the track whenever he scores.
Originally recorded by MC Danone, “Vem Quebrando” has seen a significant rise in popularity, racking up more than 85 million streams and highlighting the potential for niche genres to find a wider audience. With 1.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, MC Danone illustrates how local Latin American sounds are being funneled to American audiences via soccer and, ultimately, how TikTok has the potential to dictate the impact of an event.
Copa America 2024 has shown that soccer is more than just a game, bringing the sport further into North American homes and introducing a rich tapestry of Latin American music to a new audience.
As the dust settles on Copa America 2024, attention turns to the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico. With soccer’s popularity expected to continue growing in the States, the tournament presents a huge opportunity for local sounds from Latin America to make their way to American audiences. TikTok and other UGC platforms will undoubtedly be key accelerators for these hyper-local sounds, offering a pathway for a new wave of genres to find success in the North American market.
Ray Uscata is managing director of Round, North and South America. Round is a tech-enabled digital agency using content, creators and communities to place the world’s leading brands and artists at the center of culture.
As scores of artists performed on outdoor stages throughout Nashville’s Lower Broadway on Friday (June 7), some of country music’s rising Latino country artists gathered for a panel and performance inside Fan Fair X at the CMA Closeup Stage.
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“Latin Roots: The ‘Equis’ Factor in Country Music” featured artists Frank Ray, Angie K, Leah Turner, LouieTheSinger and Sammy Arriaga, with the panel moderated by Rolling Stone writer Tomás Mier.
Each artist spoke of their respective backgrounds and journeys into country music, which are varied. Texas native Louie TheSinger, who signed with UMG Nashville earlier this year and released his single “Brothers,” previously performed R&B music prior to making a switch to country, and is open about sharing his story of being incarcerated for two years on a drug charge. Meanwhile, Frank Ray was a police officer in Texas prior to transitioning to performing country music. Angie K noted her El Salvador roots, but also her identity as part of the LGBTQ+ community.
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Angie K spoke of migrating to Georgia from El Salvador, saying, “Moving here from El Salvador…when you’re in a country where freedom is not as easy as it is here…my dad, his grandfather was kidnapped and as soon as he got out, got cancer and passed away. My dad almost got kidnapped and that’s one of the reasons we ended up moving to the United States,” Angie K recalled. “I remember talking to my dad and he was like, ‘It doesn’t matter because you are healthy and you are ok.’ That’s the Latin community that I want people to know,” she said, drawing applause from the audience.
“We are a beautiful community and I think both Latinos and country people, there’s real trauma in both of those worlds and we are here to do the priority of taking care of each other,” Angie K added.
“I’m a border town boy, raised in Columbus, New Mexico, and in Texas,” Ray said, noting the deep ties between country music culture and Latin culture. “The Latin community and country music…the American cowboy wouldn’t exist without the Mexican vaquero. I just picture, at some point, there was a guitar being passed around a campfire. That’s why the themes are the same—love, family, heartbreak, whiskey. Growing up in a border town, country music [would be heard] as much as mariachi.”
The artists’ music was also front and center during the event. Mexican-American country singer-songwriter Turner, who fully embraced her Latin roots with her 2022 EP Lost in Translation, performed a scorching version of her sultry ballad “T Shirt.” Angie K performed her new song “Red Dirt on Mars” and Arriaga offered up the tear-jerker “The Boat.” Ray, who earned a Billboard Country Airplay top 20 hit with “Country’d Look Good on You,” performed a mashup of his breakthrough song, the bilingual “Streetlights” and his new release, “Uh-huh (Ajá).”
Each spoke of Latino and country singers who inspired them, including Luis Fonsi, the late Tejano singer Selena, Jessi & Joy, Rick Trevino (who earned a Hot Country Songs No. 1 in 1997 with “Running Out of Reasons to Run”) George Strait, Garth Brooks, Carin León and the late country music singer Freddy Fender, known for his No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls.”
Arriaga, a Cuban-American who grew up in Miami, first garnered attention in 2011 with his stint on American Idol. In addition to releasing his own original songs, including his recent single “Dominoes,” Arriaga has long helped solidify ties between Latino music and country music with Spanish versions of country hits such as Luke Combs’ “Beautiful Crazy” and Thomas Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man.”
“The Spanish language, everything just sounds more romantic,” Arriaga said. “These [songs] are too beautiful to not be experienced by my culture. I wanted to do it in a way that we weren’t changing too much of what people are used to, so we just flipped the language. We had musicians from Mexico and Miami and we added some flair. It opened up some doors for me to tap into a Latino community. I’ve noticed a lot of Texans are loving the music.”
Angie K told Arriaga, “You were one of the first people I saw…when I was trying to decide whether to release [her bilingual single] ‘Real Talk,’ and you were doing this, so I thought, ‘Why not?’ I feel like you are also one of the pioneers with Spanish and country.”
Of working to increase visibility for artists with Latin roots in country music, Ray said, “It takes a lot of work and I couldn’t be more proud to do this with this group here. We love these opportunities and there are not a lot of them. It also brings us closer together.”
“We should all do a big tour,” Ray also said, drawing agreement from his fellow artists and cheers from the audience.
Vallenato, a folkloric genre with roots in the department of Cesar, northern Colombia, has seen many artists take its essence beyond their homeland. Taking as a basis its typical instruments, such as the accordion, the snare drum, and the guacharaca — and adding modern musical arrangements that have given it a contemporary sound — artists […]
In their much-cited 2023 paper “Glocalisation of Music Streaming within and across Europe,” Will Page and Chris Dalla Riva note that the rise of global streaming platforms correlates with the strengthening of local music.
This seemingly contradictory state is what the authors refer to as “glocalisation” — or “glocalization” in the American spelling. And in Latin music, that phenomenon has led to a spike in local genres like corridos, banda, funk and Argentine rap in recent years.
According to Pedro Kurtz — Deezer’s head of music for LATAM, speaking on a SXSW panel titled “Latin Music Momentum In The Age of ‘Glocalization’” on Tuesday (Mar. 12) — it’s about relatability.
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“We listen to music that we relate to, that represents us culturally. You look at artists and they’re speaking my language, and everything moves from there.”
Kurtz appeared on the panel alongside Cris Garcia Falcão, MD of label and artist strategy/GM of Latin at Virgin Music, and Sandra Jimenez, head of music in Latin America at YouTube — and the conversation (which I moderated) often turned lively between the three Brazilian executives.
Their points of view not only highlighted the glocalization phenomenon and how democratization and streaming dramatically changed Latin music, but also the similarities and differences between the Brazilian and Latin American markets, which many tend to lump together — even though they’re vastly different.
Although Brazil is an enormous and powerful market, the music is in Portuguese, and there is still a language barrier that must be broken down in order to break through internationally; even Brazilian megastar Anitta had to sing in Spanish to get noticed.
But, notes Jimenez, “There is no language barrier for Spanish. It’s almost like one big country. It’s a region with more than 300 million people. It’s a huge region.”
Its sheer size has given the region clout.
On YouTube, Latin America is “one of the top three regions in the world in terms of music consumption,” said Jimenez. For Deezer, added Kurtz, “It’s the second most important region in terms of streaming and engagement.”
And the vast majority of the content consumed on streaming platforms in Latin America is local.
For example, Falcão said that before the pandemic, “It was more about Anglo content. Now, it’s more democratic. Everyone should understand our region and our culture and adapt.”
Those who do, win. In Brazil, more than 80% of music consumption is local. In Mexico, says Kurtz, “72% of our streaming comes from local artists. It’s a big number, and local branches are getting more autonomy. Back in the day, we had other forces pushing music.”
Beyond the numbers, there are other intangibles. The Latin diaspora globally has led to music in Spanish, in particular, being consumed all around the world — and that phenomenon was accentuated during the pandemic. “It made us more internal,” said Jimenez. “It wasn’t possible to meet with friends and family, so we created community.”
As Latin music consumption has increased, so has music creation and investment in the region. Kurtz says that starting in 2020, Deezer has seen its number of weekly pitches in the region almost double — reflecting an increased interest in making music.
“It’s about people valuing their own cultures, and the charts are basically a mirror of that,” he said.
Mexican superstar Thalia attended Billboard‘s Latin Music Week to exclusively present four songs from her new EP of Mexican music. Attendees at the “Premiere Party” on Tuesday night (Oct.r 2) were the first to hear the first single “Bebé, Perdón”, released at midnight, in addition to “Te Va a Doler”, “Para Qué Celarme” and “Choro”, part of the album that will be titled A Mucha Honra.
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The album, which she said she had been working on for almost two years, will be released in early 2024 under the Sony Music Latin label. Under the production of Jimmy Humilde, it will include collaborations with Ángela Aguilar and Dania from Grupo Sin Límite, the Mexican superstar announced.
Dressed in a monochrome white outfit, blue boots, and shiny gloves, the Mexican singer shared with the deputy editor of Billboard Español Sigal Ratner-Arias, the moderator of the event, details of the creative process with Humilde, one of the promoters of the global phenomenon of the new wave of Mexican music with whom she partnered to produce it, and who also went on stage for a few minutes.
Humilde says that he made his first call with Thalia “trembling with emotion”, because of the admiration he has for her as an artist. However, he found a very calm person and the connection was immediate, he mentioned. They soon began working on the project with which Thalia wanted to delve deeper into her roots as a Mexican.
“The requintos evoke something in the soul, something in the heart, something of longing, something of oblivion, of pain, of love, something distant but close,” she said. “And then accompanied by the lyrics… I needed to sing this type of content in my songs. In this album I have discovered a more heartbroken, spiteful, painful Thalia.”
Regarding the moment that Mexican music is going through, which now enjoys a global reach, the singer noted: “We have always been in fashion. Our music has always been current, and at full strength, we have never stopped in all the musical genres that Mexican music encompasses, which is totally broad, it is beautiful. What is happening now is that the new generation, I feel, is embracing the sounds that move your insides: the requintos, the accordions, they are rediscovering (Mexican music) … I think they are making it their own.”
“That she is adapting and coming to support this genre is incredible,” added Humilde about Thalia’s new foray. “Imagine, having someone with so much name, so much power, so much history entering the new genre that we have in our Mexican music is something super cool.”
To decide who would accompany her to connect with her roots in music with more regional Mexican sounds, Thalia had a very methodical approach. “My father was a criminologist,” the star recalls. “I remember that I would sit on the table and he would tell me: ‘Always ask, always analyze… you look for something that you need to know.’ And when this movement came out, criminologist Thalia Sodi came out, and I said, where did this come from? Who was the precursor? Who was there from the beginning?… and I came to mister Humilde.”
Humilde took Edgar Rodríguez, producer and close collaborator, to meet with the artist to work on the project. Thalia’s words to Rodríguez were: “I don’t bite. I want to sound like me, like Thalia, but not. Help me so I can let go of the crutches that I use, that I love, my styles… Tell me, I’m not going to get angry. I want to learn; I want to change and learn other things. And we did it.”
“I’m happy, excited precisely because tonight, like Cinderella, the float is going to change… We’re going fully in,” said the singer about the first single of the album, “Bebé Perdón,” that is now available.
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“This song hurts me, I put it on repeat in the car while I drive… It doesn’t hurt me because of a personal relationship, because it’s not what I’m living. I am very happy, very grateful in my life, but it touches a vein of nostalgia, something that no longer exists, that is already gone, a part of nostalgia for our country, somewhere in our life history”, she said.
On the visual side, the superstar says that the video was recorded in California with 115-degree temperatures that caused the soles of her boots to melt on the pavement while she was alert for the rattlesnakes that inhabit the area. The singer performs the song in an open field, dressed in a silver sequin top with fringes, accompanied by three musicians and a truck.
Celebrated for more than 30 years, the 2023 edition of Latin Music Week includes a Superstar Q&A with Shakira; the Legends on Legends chat with Chencho Corleone and Vico C; Making the Hit Live! with Carin León and Pedro Capó; a panel with RBD’s Christian Chávez, Christopher von Uckermann, and Maite Perroni; Superstar Songwriter discussion with Edgar Barrera and Keityn, among many other panels, Q&As and workshops. See the ultimate Latin Music Week guide here. This year’s Latin Music Week, taking place Oct. 2-6, also includes showcases by Peso Pluma, Mike Bahía and Greeicy, DannyLux, and Fonseca, to name a few. Check out the dates and times for the showcases throughout the week here.
Official partners of the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Week include AT&T, Cheetos, CN Bank, Delta Air Lines, Lexus, Netflix, Michelob ULTRA, and Smirnoff.
Latin Music Week coincides with the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards ceremony, which will broadcast live from the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Fla., on Thursday (Oct. 5) and will air on Telemundo. It will also broadcast simultaneously on Universo, Peacock, the Telemundo App, and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean on Telemundo Internacional.
Latin music, long seen as a trend that ebbed and flowed through the years, is finally being seen as a true market player — with mainstream American labels, TV shows and even management companies increasingly courting (and signing) Latin acts.
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But to truly succeed in the Latin market, those mainstream players must proceed with caution and cultural intelligence. That was the sentiment among industry leaders at a recent “State of the Latin Industry” panel during the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York July 12.
“Obviously it’s a natural consequence of what’s happening with Latin music globally and it was to be expected,” said Roberto Andrade, managing director for Warner Music Latina. “[But] it’s positive as long as you work in partnership. In our case, we signed [Argentina rising star] María Becerra to Warner Latina, but we’re associated with [American label] 300 Entertainment, so they can also bring opportunities to the table. As Gus said, ‘Work in what you know.’”
He was referring to Gustavo López, CEO of Saban Music Group, who earlier in the panel had been particularly passionate when talking about the industry’s current gold rush regarding regional Mexican music — a market López worked with extensively during his days as president of Mexican labels Fonovisa and Disa, between 2008 and 2011.
“It saddens me when people talk about a Mexican music ‘boom,’ when it’s been 60% of the Latin music market for the past 40 years,” he said. “Make no mistake: Companies like Del, Rancho Humilde, have taken advantage of the opportunity major companies left to the side, and they’ve done it very well, and they’ve done it with the right teams. I ask labels to not get into genres they don’t know without the right teams, because they’ll f–k it up.”
Gustavo Lopez, Colleen Theis, Alex Gallardo, Leila Cobo, Mickey Sanchez and Roberto Andrado pose at the LAMC State of Latin Music Panel on July 12, 2023 in New York, NY.
The same principle, he said, applies to mainstream American labels rushing into Latin. But, he adds, “It’s also the artist’s responsibility to decide who he goes with. That’s where it all starts. If you’re simply going with X executive because he did a thousand things in another market, and now he’s going to do it in the Latin market, be very careful. If they don’t have the right team to execute, it’s going to be tough. It’s not just about money. The biggest danger for an artist is to take money from a place that doesn’t add knowledge.”
In the past year, many record labels and management companies, big and small, have made moves into the Latin market. Among the most noteworthy: J Balvin recently signed a management deal with Roc Nation after three years with SB Projects. In turn, Ozuna signed a management deal with SB Projects. Karol G signed to Interscope, and last year, regional Mexican sibling trio Yahritza y su Esencia unleashed a bidding frenzy before signing with Columbia Records.
Historically, however, there are few, if any, long-term success stories of core Latin acts either managed or signed to mainstream companies. Instead, the big wins have come from artists who partner with labels from both sides of the aisle.
“Partnerships are the smart way to go,” says Alex Gallardo, president of leading Latin label Sony Music U.S. Latin, which has the longest history of partnering with its mainstream counterparts with acts like Shakira and currently, Rosalía, whose EP RR with fiancé Rauw Alejandro (another Sony Latin act) is a joint release between Columbia and Sony Music US Latin. From the other end, DJ Marshmello has been releasing a string of successful singles featuring Latin artists under Sony Latin, including the global hit “El Merengue” with Manuel Turizo.
“I feel many Anglo labels sign stuff without understanding the language, the culture or the media,” said Gallardo, making the parallel with partnerships between Latin majors and indies. “I help you go further because I bring you my knowledge. But what knowledge can I bring you if I don’t understand your world or what you’re doing?”
From an observer’s point, it is impossible not to recognize the opportunism displayed by many who for decades, paid scant attention to Latin music. But Latin music can’t be ignored anymore, not at a global scale; this week, 47 tracks on Billboard’s Global 200 chart are in Spanish, and typically, 30% of Spotify and YouTube’s weekly global charts are Latin. It can’t be ignored in the U.S. either, where, according to Luminate’s midyear music report, Latin music registered a 21.9% percentage growth year over year, more than any other genre except for World Music (which encompasses non-U.S. genres like K-Pop and Afrobeats). Latin also managed to grow its overall share of the market significantly over the same period last year, from 6.25% to 6.72.
Gallardo says he’s conflicted by what these numbers represent to those who have long been outside the Latin market: “Are you signing this artist simply because you want your little piece of market share, because the numbers are good, or because you are really the best partner possible to take a career to the next level? The latter should always be the true reason.”
Which is not to say that mainstream companies cannot do a good job with Latin music. Witness The Orchard, which has been entrenched in the Latin market for decades and has distributed Bad Bunny from the beginning of his career.
“We’ve been working in Latin music from the onset,” said Colleen Theis, COO of The Orchard, noting that the distributor has had its Latin team in place for over 20 years. “For The Orchard, we put music out, and we pull people in rather than deciding what people are interested in. That really underlies that for us Latin music IS general market music, and we work in the general market. I’d rather empower the label base that we have to be the general market, than give those key artists to an American label who is Anglo.”