The US Latin music market grew 18.6% in first half of 2020 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 $296.1 million at retail value, the fourth consecutive year of double digit percentage growth. Latin music continued to grow its share of overall US music revenues to 5.2%. Total streaming revenues grew 20.3% to $285.2 million, accounting for 96% of the Latin music market. There were significant differences in results between Q1 and Q2 of 2020, as retail store closures, tour cancellations, and other impacts of Covid-19 affected the music industry in many significant ways.
Similar to the overall US market, a 24% increase in the number of paid streaming music subscriptions to 72 million was the biggest driver of growth for Latin music. Revenues from paid subscriptions grew 27.6% to $196.2 million – accounting for more than 2/3rds of the Latin music streaming market in H1 2020.
Revenues from ad-supported on-demand streams (a category that includes services like YouTube, Vevo, and the free version of Spotify) grew 10.9% year-over-year to $59.1 million in H1 2020. This category was significantly impacted by broader advertising declines due to Covid-19. Revenues from the category grew at similar to historical rates in Q1 2020, but for Q2 declined versus the prior year. Latin music revenues continued to over-index on ad-supported services relative to the overall market, accounting for 19.9% of the Latin market compared with 7.5% for the overall market. Revenue from digital and customized radio services were down 0.6% to $29.9 million.
Physical and digital unit-based formats continued to shrink in sales and share of the market in H1 2020. Digital download singles and albums declined 19.9% by value in 1H 2020, totalling $6.8 million. Revenues from physical shipments of Latin music products fell 61.5% to $0.8 million, with a significantly steeper decline in Q2 than Q1 2020. Combined, sales of these unit based formats accounted for just 2.7% of the market.
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