Latin Music Set Record By Making $685 Million In First Half of 2024

Latin music continues to grow year over year, and 2024 has been no exception. On Thursday, the Recording Industry Association of America released new data showing that the Latin music industry generated $685 million in the first half of 2024 — setting a new record.

“Latin music keeps soaring to new heights — setting U.S. revenue records as we report today and driving the culture forward across the globe,” RIAA President Michele Ballantyne said in a press release. “There’s a reason Latin is the fastest-growing genre on U.S. streaming services. Fans just can’t get enough of its undeniable energy, emotion, power, and joy.”

The $685-million figure is a 7-percent increase from last year’s first-half revenue of $639 million. In 2022, the genre generated $546 million, according to the RIAA. Latin music also comprises a larger share of the overall U.S. music revenue for the first half of the year, growing from 5.6 percent of the share in 2020 to 7.9 percent in 2024.

According to the data provided, ad-supported, on-demand streaming such as YouTube and free Spotify grew by 10 percent over the first half of 2024 compared to last year, providing one-fourth of the total revenue produced by U.S. Latin music.

In physical formats, sales went up a whopping 21 percent with $7 million worth of purchases in vinyl sales and $2 million in CD sales. However, Latin music still makes a smaller percentage of vinyl sales compared to the overall market: vinyl accounted for 1 percent of revenue in Latin, compared to 9 percent in the market at large.

“Latin music in the U.S. continues to break through and reach new heights, now providing nearly 8 percent of total recorded music revenues in the country,” said RIAA Vice President of Research Matt Bass in a statement. “Strong growth across all major formats – including a doubling of physical revenues — has enabled Latin music’s diverse mix of new and established artists’ innovative styles to fuel sustained momentum for over a decade.”