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Music Streams Reach Nearly 5 Trillion in 2024 with Women Pop Artists Leading the Charge

Published January 15, 2025

In 2024, the global music industry achieved a remarkable milestone, reaching 4.8 trillion streams, as reported in Luminate’s 2024 Year-End Report. This achievement marks a 14% increase compared to the previous year, which held the prior record.

If you found yourself streaming more music this year, especially from female pop artists, you're certainly not alone.

In the United States, on-demand audio streams grew by 6.4%, totaling 1.4 trillion streams. The rise in contemporary music has significantly contributed to this growth, with an impressive 79.5% of U.S. streams coming from songs released in 2010 or later. In fact, tracks from the years 2020 to 2024 made up almost half of all streams.

While Taylor Swift emerged as the most-streamed songwriter globally in 2024, the surge in streams cannot be attributed solely to her. According to Luminate, Latin music was named the fastest growing streaming genre in the U.S. during the first half of 2024, witnessing a 15.1% increase from summer 2023. However, by the end of the year, pop music reclaimed the top spot, followed by rock and Latin genres.

"We observed intriguing trends within the U.S. market," stated Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s vice president of music insights and industry relations. "Latin was initially the fastest-growing genre based on streaming share, but as the year progressed, pop soared to the number one position due to a significant rise in streams from female solo artists, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all audio streams among the top 100 pop artists in the U.S."

The leading women in pop music streams this year included:

  1. Taylor Swift with 12.8 billion streams

  2. Billie Eilish with 4.46 billion

  3. Sabrina Carpenter with 3.71 billion

  4. Ariana Grande with 3.12 billion

  5. Olivia Rodrigo with 2.76 billion

  6. Chappell Roan with 2.49 billion

This trend is also reflected in the top 10 global streaming songs of the year, which included hits like:

  1. Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things”

  2. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”

  3. Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Father”

  4. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control”

  5. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die with a Smile”

  6. FloyyMenor’s “Gata Only”

  7. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”

  8. Hozier’s “Too Sweet”

  9. Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer”

  10. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please”

While pop music has garnered the most streams in the country, regional Mexican music has surged in popularity, surpassing Latin pop as the leading Latin subgenre in the U.S. and achieving significant growth throughout 2024.

"Latin music has still experienced growth in terms of both volume and its share of U.S. audio streaming in 2024," Marconette noted. "When we look at Latin subgenres, Regional Mexican music has led the charge in growth."

Regional Mexican music, which covers various styles such as mariachi, banda, and corridos, has captivated global audiences in recent years, recording 28.57 billion streams in 2024. Latin pop followed with 24.09 billion streams.

Despite pop's leading status, R&B and hip-hop continue to dominate the overall streaming landscape, with these genres together accounting for more than a quarter of all U.S. streams. In 2024, rap and R&B generated 341.63 billion on-demand audio streams, outpacing rock (234.22 billion), pop (165.49 billion), country (117.58 billion), and Latin (113.02 billion).

music, streaming, pop, trends