The US Latin music market grew 37% in first half of 2021 with streaming accounting for 96% of this market according to the RIAA, the US recording industry association. During this period revenues from Latin music in the US grew to $407 million and represents 5.8% of the total US music market.
Paid music subscriptions continued to be the biggest driver of Latin music revenue growth. Revenues from paid subscriptions grew 41% to $279 million, accounting for more than 2/3 of all US Latin music revenues in 1H 2021. The number of paid subscriptions reached a record 82 million 1H 2021 average.
Ad-supported on-demand streams (from services like YouTube, Vevo, and the free version of Spotify) grew 30% compared to the first half of the prior year, to $77 million. This marks a return to stronger growth that was significantly impacted in 2020 by COVID-19.
Growth also recovered for revenues from digital and customized radio services (such as Pandora, SiriusXM, and internet radio services) which grew 24% to $37 million in 1H 2021, after a slight decline in 2020.
Although they only make up 1% of Latin music revenues, physical formats rebounded in the first half of 2021, after significant challenges to physical sales posed by COVID-19 related shutdowns last year. Physical format revenues rose 77% to $2.7 million, driven by increases in both CDs (up 121%) and vinyl LPs (up 31%). Permanent downloads of Latin music fell slightly, down 2% versus the prior year to $7 million.
To download the full report in English go here and in Spanish go here.
