Photo Credit: RIAA
Latin music earnings grew 36.6 percent year over year in the U.S. during 2021’s opening half, according to a newly released report from the RIAA, for $407.4 million in revenue across H1 2021 – or about 62 percent of 2020’s total Latin music income.
Stateside Latin music revenue attributable to streaming hiked 37.3 percent from 2020’s initial half, per the RIAA’s concise analysis, to $393.1 million – almost 96.5 percent of total income in the space. Within this continued double-digit streaming growth, revenue from paid music subscriptions jumped 41.4 percent YoY, to about $278.5 million, the report discloses.
For reference, a separate RIAA report one month back indicated that the broader U.S. music industry had experienced 27 percent YoY growth during H1 2021, including a 26 percent YoY boost for streaming, which accounted for 84 percent of total revenue. Paid streaming subscriptions in the wider stateside music industry matched streaming’s growth rate and generated 26 percent more revenue in H1 2021 than in H1 2020.
Back to the Latin music half-year analysis, though, ad-supported streaming brought a 30.2 percent year-over-year revenue increase during H1 2021, with $77.4 million in revenue. Notably, the figure represents almost 19 percent of total U.S. Latin music earnings, materially more than ad-supported streaming’s share in the wider domestic music industry throughout Q1 and Q2 2021.
Digital and customized radio services, which saw their Latin music revenue dip in 2020, secured the remaining nine or so percent of Latin music’s streaming income across January and June of 2021, for $37 million – a 24 percent YoY jump.
Finally, regarding the RIAA’s Latin music H1 2021 statistics – which include “estimates for both major record label and indie-distributed Latin music” – income from physical formats rose an even 77 percent YoY, to $2.7 million. CDs enjoyed 121.2 percent sales-value growth compared to the same stretch in 2020, against 30.9 percent growth for vinyl. And Latin music’s sync royalties improved by 50.3 percent, to $4.5 million.
Last month, a study shed light upon the music-streaming habits of U.S. fans. 68.4 percent of Gen Z respondents listed Spotify as their preferred platform (followed by Apple Music), and the Stockholm-based service likewise nabbed the uppermost spot on the list of millennial fans’ favorite ways to stream music. Gen X, however, preferred YouTube Music to Spotify – with over 26 percent of the generation having indicated that they don’t stream music at all.
In a testament to the international growth of streaming, 2021’s first six months brought a 27.5 percent year-over-year boost to global song streams (1.3 trillion), per MRC Data, compared to a 10.8 percent YoY bump for U.S. on-demand streams (555.3 billion).