A breakdown of Latin music recorded revenue in the United States by year. Photo Credit: RIAA
Despite experiencing a noticeable growth-rate slowdown, Latin music generated all-time-high recorded revenue in the U.S. during 2024, per a new report.
These and different takeaways come from the RIAA’s Latin music revenue report. Pertaining to the genre’s stateside showing in 2024, the breakdown points to $1.42 billion (up 5.8% YoY) in total recorded revenue on the year.
As usual, the lion’s share of U.S. Latin revenue derived from streaming, which put up nearly $1.4 billion overall and $966.5 million (up 6.1% YoY) specifically from paid subs, the document shows.
Rounding out the streaming category, $354 million (up 5.8% YoY) came from on-demand ad-supported listening, with $45.6 million (down 0.8% YoY) from SoundExchange distributions and the remaining $29.2 million (down 6% YoY) from other ad-supported listening.
Unsurprisingly, then, Latin’s permanent-download revenue suffered a double-digit slip to $7.6 million in 2024, while physical revenue, though almost double its 2023 counterpart, finished at $16.6 million.
(Like with the RIAA’s industry-wide annual report, the physical-revenue figure reflects estimated retail value – not necessarily what customers actually paid for vinyl and CD products.)
All told, Latin music accounted for 8.1% of total U.S. music market revenue in 2024, up from 7.9% in 2023, according to the analysis.
Addressing the genre’s 2024 showing, RIAA research VP Matt Bass touched on the perceived commercial opportunities associated with superfan monetization and more.
“Latin music has become a dominant force in American music with consistent revenue growth as new artists attract listeners, top more charts and shape culture faster than any other genre,” Bass said in part.
“Yet there are still more opportunities as artists and their labels explore collaborations that push the bounds of innovation, engaging superfans, expanding paid streaming and introducing vinyl nostalgia to this specific market,” the close to 12-year RIAA higher-up proceeded.
Time will tell whether these opportunities can drive accelerated commercial expansions for Latin music, the 2024 growth slowdown of which doesn’t exactly come as a surprise.
In the first place, Latin music revenue has been spiking for some time in the States and was bound to cool (from a percentage-growth perspective, that is) eventually. And we previously covered the genre’s H1 2024 growth deceleration (revenue was up 7.3% YoY).
Furthermore, a much-discussed streaming plateau is hitting developed music markets including the U.S. – and, in the process, the streaming-dependent Latin genre.
With all this said, growth is growth, especially given that the broader U.S. recorded music space only turned in a 3.6% YoY streaming-revenue improvement during 2024, according to the appropriate RIAA report.
