Luminate 2024 year-end music report: Global audio streaming grows 14%, driven by ex-US markets

16 January 2025 - Press release

Global on-demand audio streams near 5 trillion (4.8 trillion), with emerging markets in Asia, Eastern- Central Europe and Latin America outperforming the U.S. in growth

Taylor Swift named most influential artist and most streamed songwriter globally

U.S. streaming growth powered by new music releases and the rise of pop’s leading ladies

Audience data shows music is America’s favorite leisure pastime, while music documentaries mean music monetization for rights owners and investors

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Luminate, the entertainment industry's leading data partner, has unveiled its 2024 Year-End Music Report. Drawing on 23 trillion data points from thousands of artists and core data from over 500 authorized partners spanning digital, retail and airplay, it provides an authoritative data-driven look at the key trends shaping the global music industry in the past year.

Speaking on the release of the report, Rob Jonas, CEO, Luminate, said, “With the global music industry reaching nearly five trillion streams in 2024, engagement continues to grow on an international level. As always, we present this annual report to offer the industry unmatched insights about music consumption, audience behaviors and emerging markets. The trends we lay out in this year's analysis paint an even fuller picture of some areas for which we've led discussions over the past few years; from super fans and ex-U.S. streaming activity, to genre shifts, the value of audience data for brands, and live event attendance, to name a few. For some others, like the impact of music documentaries, what their viewership means for catalog investments, and how to track publishing activity using enriched songwriter metadata, we are able to dive deeper thanks to expanded innovations and capabilities developed at Luminate over the past year."

Global streams reach almost 5 trillion, driven by increased consumption in emerging markets

Global music streaming reached a new high in 2024 with on-demand audio (ODA) streams reaching an impressive 4.8 trillion in 2024, increasing year-on-year by 14% [2023: 4.2 trillion]. While growth remained steady in the US and other mature markets, consumption surged in emerging markets with ODA streaming in ex-U.S. territories growing at a faster rate of +17.3% compared to the U.S. growth rate of +6.4%.

Emerging markets are proving to be the new growth frontier for audio and video streaming.Asia experienced the most significant rise in premium (paid for) streaming, growing its share by 10.7% year-on-year, followed by Europe (8%) and Latin America (6.1%). The top ten fastest growing countries for premium streaming are:

Türkiye: +17.8%
Croatia: +16.1%
Romania: +15.7%
Malaysia: +14.7%
South Korea: +14.7%
Slovakia: +12.8%
Japan: +12.8%
Hungary: +12.1%
Greece: +12%
Hong Kong: +11.6%

The expanding global marketplace is allowing more international artists to connect with worldwide audiences. While artists from the U.S. still hold the most global premium streaming share overall, it is artists from Mexico, Brazil and India who saw the largest gains in audio and video streams, benefitting most from the spread of music across borders. Artists from the UK, U.S. and Canada saw the largest decline in global premium streams.

U.S. streaming growth powered by new music releases and the rise of pop’s leading ladies

Growth in the U.S. streaming market was fueled by new releases and a resurgent love for pop music. Tracks released between 2020 and 2024 accounted for nearly half (49.6%) of all streams, while eight out of ten (79.5%) on-demand audio streams came from songs released after 2010, highlighting the appeal of contemporary music.

Pop’s popularity surged, surpassing Latin as the fastest-growing genre in 2024. Women led the charge, with 63.4% of the U.S. Top 100 pop audio streams performed by female artists, including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter.

Despite a 2.3% decline in its overall share, R&B/Hip Hop remained the most streamed genre, accounting for one in every four U.S. streams (341 billion). Rock continues to dominate deep catalog listening, with 72.6% of its streams coming from tracks released more than five years ago; while Country gained traction in international markets, including the UK, Australia and Canada, further growing its global fanbase. Christian / Gospel music saw a sharp rise among millennials and Gen Z streamers, now comprising 45% of the genre’s listeners compared to 39% in 2022.

Streaming remains the dominant format for music consumption, accounting for 91.3% of equivalent activity in the U.S. On-demand audio streams increased year-on-year by +6.4% to 1.4 trillion [2023: 1.3 trillion], while total album consumption – which includes streams, downloads and physical music sales – grew by +5.6%, reaching 1.1 billion units [2023: 1.0 billion]. **Note, due to methodology changes that were implemented at the start of 2024, indie retail sales were removed from this YoY metric in order to avoid a trend break.

Taylor Swift tops global rankings as most streamed songwriter and influential artist

Taylor Swift’s global dominance continued in 2024 with her critically acclaimed album The Tortured Poets Department and record-breaking Eras Tour. Now, for the first time, Luminate can also reveal that Swift was the most-streamed songwriter worldwide in 2024.

An analysis of the top 1000 globally streamed songs placed Swift at the #1 spot, surpassing industry icons like Max Martin, who has written for Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande and many more stars, and The Weeknd. Lesser known names like Daniel Nigro, known for his work with Olivia Rodrigo, and Amy Allen, whose writing credits include hits for Harry Styles and Halsey, completed the top five most-streamed songwriters chart [see Chart 1 in Notes].

While songwriters from the U.S., UK and Canada accounted for the most streams of the top 1,000 songs, the report highlights the growing influence of international songwriters from Sweden and France who claim the 4th and 5th spots respectively. Australia, Norway, Germany, Colombia and South Korea completed the top ten, reflecting the diversity of the modern hit-making landscape [see Chart 2 in Notes].

Swift’s dominance is further reinforced by her top ranking as the most influential artist in the world on the inaugural Luminate Index, a new composite metric for understanding the depth, breadth and affinity of an artist’s fandom among U.S. consumers, helping brands to make informed decisions when it comes to artist partnerships. Female artists occupied eight of the top ten positions, with Swift in poll position followed by Adele and Beyoncé. Elton John and Eminem were the only male artists to make it into the top ten. Rihanna ranked No. 1 amongst Gen Z consumers.

Rank	Artist
1	Taylor Swift
2	Adele
3	Beyonce
4	Elton John
5	Rihanna
6	Eminem
7	Shakira
8	Ariana Grande
9	Lady Gaga
10	Dolly Parton

Consumer habits: music is America’s favorite leisure pastime

Music remains the number one leisure activity in the U.S. with 75% of consumers counted as music listeners, 20% of which are considered ‘Super Fans’ who are fueling increased demand for music across streaming / digital consumption, physical, direct-to-consumer, live and other channels. Their influence is making them a cornerstone of commercial strategies for record companies for both established and new music talent.

A deeper dive into the U.S. market, the largest music market in the world, reveals the critical role super fans are playing in the success of live concerts and physical merchandise sales:

Super fans spend $113 a month on live music events, 66% more than the average music listener. Nine out of 10 super fans say they would attend a live music performance of their favorite artist, compared to six out of 10 of those not considered super fans.
2024 marked the first time Gen Z topped other generations in overall live event spend. Gen Z spent an average of $75 per month (+23% than the average U.S. music listener), with a preference for festivals. Millennials still report the highest monthly spend on individual concerts at $38 vs. $32 for the average music consumer.
Super Fans spend $39 on physical purchases, 105% more than the average music listener. Seven out of 10 super fans say they are likely to purchase their favorite artist’s physical merchandise, compared to 26% of general music listeners. This number increases to eight out of 10 among Rock super fans.
Artists continued to solidify their direct relationships with fans. Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) music sales made up 63% of first-week physical album sales in 2024 (based on the Top 200 U.S. albums for the year) and 31.9% of first week total album activity for those.

Beyond physical sales, radio and DSP streaming, emerging listening formats—such as video games, short-form video platforms, and live-streamed performances—are unlocking new avenues for music discovery. Modes of music discovery outside of more traditional methods vary across genres and generations. For example, nearly half of Jazz fans prefer traditional methods like attending intimate live music sessions in bars or coffee shops, while seven out of ten Hip-Hop/Rap fans discover new music through virtual live performances, directly influencing streaming metrics.

Fortnite Remix’s November 2024 campaign is a prominent example. The gaming platform partnered with artists like Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Ice Spice and Juice WRLD for a month-long campaign that drove notable increases (+24% on average) in audio streaming for a different artist each week.

Music documentaries mean music monetization

Concert films and music documentaries once again demonstrated their value to both streaming platforms, with Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ leading the charge to satiate consumer demand for the format, and music rights holders, who benefit from associated streaming surges and royalties.

Luminate’s Streaming Viewership (M) tool highlighted the most-watched music documentaries across all major SVOD platforms in 2024. Among the year's most popular music documentaries was Netflix’s ‘Miss Americana’, the Taylor Swift documentary which was originally released in January 2020.

Despite being the oldest on the list, Miss Americana was the fourth most watched music documentary in 2024, a resurgence fueled by the release of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department album and the global success of her Eras Tour, proving how strategic cross-promotion can breathe new life into catalogs and their revenue potential.

Title	Minutes Watched	Release Date	Platform
The Greatest Night in Pop	1.27B	1/29/24	Netflix
I Am: Celine Dion	507.1m	1/25/24	Prime Video
Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley	340.9m	11/13/24	Netflix
Miss Americana	230.7m	1/31/20	Netflix
Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name	225.4m	1/2/22	Max
Hate to Love: Nickelback	221.2m	3/27/24	Netflix
The Beach Boys	215.5m	5/24/24	Disney+
Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words	146.3m	10/31/24	Prime Video
Beatles ‘64	132.7m	11/29/24	Disney+
American Symphony	97.8m	11/29/23	Netflix

The Beach Boys documentary release drove significant on-demand audio streaming activity to the group’s catalog, creating a lift that sustained deep into 2024 and reflecting the impact such documentaries can have on generating increased revenues from catalogs.

During the final week of Q3 this year (week ending 9/26/24), global on-demand audio streams for the group’s catalog reached 17.9 million, 3.6% higher than the 17.3 million average during Q1.

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