The Latin music market continued its remarkable transformation in the first half of 2018 with revenues growing 15% to $135 million driven by paid streaming formats, according to a recent report from the RIAA, the US recording industry association. Streaming represented a remarkable 91% of the entire market. Latin music has become a worldwide phenomenon, driven by a diverse streaming market and Latin labels making smart investments to support their artists’ global ambitions.
Similar to the overall US market, paid subscriptions were both the biggest segment of the Latin music, and the primary driver of revenue growth. Revenues from paid subscriptions grew 70% to $72 million, and comprised 59% of the total streaming market by value. On demand ad-supported streams contributed $26 million in revenue, up 30% year-over-year.
For Latin music, revenues from ad-supported streaming sources made up a higher percentage of the total, while those from unit-based sales such as digital downloads and physical product were lower relative to the overall US market.
Mitch Glazier, President of the RIAA commented, “The Latin music market continued its remarkable transformation in the first half of 2018. Latin music has become a worldwide phenomenon, driven by a diverse streaming market and Latin labels making smart investments to support their artists’ global ambitions. The energy and excitement around Latin music is again palpable, and that’s welcome news for a genre that had weathered an especially challenging decade. With a greater dependence on ad-supported revenue sources than other genres, it has never been more important for Latin music to receive fair value across all formats.”
The full report can be found here.
