Streaming accounted for 95 percent of Latin music’s 2019 United States earnings, which grew by 28 percent from 2018, to $554 million.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) disclosed the statistics in its newly published U.S. Latin Music Revenues Report, which was shared with Digital Music News.
The U.S. Latin music market grew by 28 percent in 2019, once again, compared to about 13 percent growth for the overall stateside music market. Latin music streaming revenue, for its part, earned $529 million last year, about 65 percent of which derived from paid subscriptions.
Additionally, freemium music-streaming services produced 29 percent more revenue ($121 million) for Latin music in 2019 than in 2018.
On the other side of the coin, Latin music saw its digital-download revenue decrease by a fifth from 2018, to $17 million, whereas physical sales fell by nearly a quarter, to $4.2 million. The latter is particularly noteworthy because, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Institute (IFPI), the United States was one of the few countries to report physical-music sales growth during 2019. Evidently, Latin music fans prioritize the value and convenience of streaming over the perks of having physical copies of records.
Latin music’s sync-licensing revenue held steady in 2019, falling only $100,000 from 2018’s $4.2 million.
Earlier today, Digital Music News was first to report that worldwide music-streaming figures increased dramatically during 2019, per the aforementioned report from the IFPI. Approximately 341 million individuals pay for music-streaming services, which enjoyed a roughly 25 percent hike in revenue last year, compared to 2018.
In total, the global recorded music industry earned $20.2 billion in 2019.
Despite these encouraging figures, not a few musicians and music-industry professionals are struggling to stay financially afloat amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latest example of the crisis’s devastating fiscal impact, San Francisco’s famed Hyde Street Studios has launched a GoFundMe campaign in a desperate bid to keep its doors open.