▶ Watch Video: “Barbie,” Beyoncé and Taylor Swift add billions to 2023 global economy
There were 4.1 trillion music streams worldwide in 2023, according to a report released Wednesday, the first time streaming has ever crossed the four-trillion mark in a single year.
The milestone number of global audio streams marked a 22.3% increase from 2022, according to data provider Luminate.
The U.S. accounted for just over a quarter of that total, or 1.2 trillion streams, also a bump up from the previous year.
To no one’s surprise, pop star Taylor Swift’s music drove a large chunk of that, making up 1.79% of total streams in the U.S. — meaning about one in every 78 audio streams was a Swift song, the Luminate report said.
Both Swift and Beyoncé saw a significant uptick in streams following the releases of their concert movies, “The Eras Tour” and a “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.”
One of the report’s biggest takeaways was that U.S. listeners are streaming more non-English music. It found that the fastest-growing audio streaming genres were world and Latin, which saw increases of 26% and 24% respectively compared to 2022.
Luminate also found that the share of English-language content in the top-10,000 audio and video streaming tracks in the U.S. has dropped 3.8% since 2021, while the Spanish-language share has increased by the same percentage over that period.
Overall, Spanish audio content was the second most popular to English content in the U.S., making up 8% of total audio streams, per the report.
Last year, Bad Bunny roped in 3.6 billion on-demand audio streams in the U.S., while Peso Pluma brought in about 1.9 billion, the report found. They were among six Spanish-language artists who crossed the one billion mark.
The Regional Mexican music genre also saw a massive boom, growing 60% compared to last year in on-demand audio streams.
U.S. millennials and Gen Zers are driving the interest in foreign language music, the report found, with over 63% of both age groups saying they “listen to new music to experience new cultures and perspectives.”
But many within those generations are also powering the fast growth of country music in the U.S., with younger fans supporting artists like Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen. Wallen’s “Last Night” was the most streamed song in the U.S., according to the report, with over one billion streams.
Although foreign-language and country music saw big streaming gains, listeners in the U.S. still tuned into R&B and hip-hop more than any other genre, the report found, with almost a third of the total streams in the U.S. It was fitting, as 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
