Halfway through the year, have become apparent: Global music streams are up, Latin music has become the fastest growing streaming genre in the United States, and physical album variants 含羞草研究社� multiple releases of the same 含羞草研究社� are on the rise.

Going Global

The surpassed 1 trillion streams at the fastest pace, ever, in a calendar year, Luminate含羞草研究社檚 has found. The number was reached 10 days faster .

Global streams also increased 15.1% with 2.29 trillion on-demand audio streams, up from 1.99 trillion at this point last year.

The continued Latin music boom

People everywhere are streaming more music, and in the U.S., Latin music has become the fastest growing streaming genre, up 15.1% from this time last year. Latin music streaming also leans the most current 含羞草研究社� 35% of all Latin streams in the U.S. are for albums released in the last 18 months. Compare that to rock music, where 70.5% of streams in the U.S. are from deep catalogs 含羞草研究社� releases that are 5 years old, or older.

There are no Latin artists featured in the top 10 albums or songs of the year to date, but Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma, Fuera Regida, Karol G, Aventura, Car铆n Le贸n are among the top 200 most streamed artists in the U.S. for the first half of 2024.

Last year, Latin music was among the top three fastest growing genres in the U.S., says Jaime Marconette, Luminate含羞草研究社檚 vice president of music insights and industry relations. The 2024 figures illustrate a continuation in that trend.

含羞草研究社淎 huge part of that growth was driven by the continued , which is the largest Latin music subgenre so far this year with more than 13 billion U.S. on-demand audio streams,含羞草研究社� Marconette told The Associated Press.

And while the remains 含羞草研究社渢he biggest-streaming Latin music artist in the U.S.,含羞草研究社� he says the three other Latin artists who crossed over 100 million U.S. on-demand audio streams throughout the first half of 2024 are regional Mexican acts: Pluma, Fuerza Regida and Junior H.

Physical albums aren含羞草研究社檛 going anywhere

It含羞草研究社檚 not just the streaming economy on the rise.

含羞草研究社� multiple releases of the same album, sometimes containing different bonus tracks or featuring a different design 含羞草研究社� have steadily grown in popularity since 2020.

In 2024, physical album sales increased 3.8% in the U.S. over this time last year, climbing to 24.7 million from 23.8 million, the data and analytics company found in its report.

But it含羞草研究社檚 not just any artist creating more physical variants of their releases. The artists who含羞草研究社檝e had the top 10 bestselling albums so far this year have also had the highest average number of variants. That Billie Eilish and Beyonc茅, as well as like Tomorrow x Together, Ateez and TWICE.

In 2024, the average number of variants for a top 10 bestselling album is 22: seven different vinyl releases, 13 CDs and two cassettes.

For albums in the top 101 - 500 rankings, there含羞草研究社檚 only about five variants per release, and for 501 - 1,000, there含羞草研究社檚 an average of four physical variants.

含羞草研究社淲e have seen a consistent trend in recent years where albums at the top of the charts employed more and more physical variants in their album release campaigns,含羞草研究社� says Marconette.

However, 含羞草研究社渢here has also been criticism within the artist and fan communities regarding the environmental impacts of producing so many physical products,含羞草研究社� he says, suggesting there is 含羞草研究社渁 clear demand for recycled materials and other sustainability initiatives in this space.含羞草研究社�