Luminate, the entertainment industry’s most trusted data partner, unveils its new Latin Music Report exclusively at Billboard Latin Music Week. Never-before-revealed metrics and insights will include the growing power of Latin superfans, how and why the genre is expanding to non-Spanish-speaking listeners, the rise of regional Mexican music and the subgenres and artists to watch in the coming months. The findings will be presented by Rob Jonas, CEO of Luminate, which has fueled the Billboard charts for over three decades.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 Less than two weeks ago, as everybody's aware,
00:02 Bad Bunny teased his new song through his WhatsApp channel
00:05 before releasing it towards the end of August.
00:07 So I'm Rob Jonas.
00:08 I'm with Luminate.
00:09 We're going to go through a lot of numbers.
00:11 But let's dive in.
00:13 So many of you are aware that we publish pretty detailed reports
00:17 twice a year, our mid-year report and our annual report.
00:20 We've been tracking the rise of Latin music
00:22 for a very long time now.
00:25 Many, many big trends we've seen in recent quarters.
00:29 And I'm just going to pull up some notes here.
00:30 One sec.
00:31 So in our mid-year report, we were talking about, obviously,
00:40 the continued growth of Latin this year.
00:43 It's definitely primed for continued growth
00:46 in the mainstream, as well as the very specific Latin market.
00:50 Actually, we've seen in the mid-year report
00:52 an increase of US listeners who are listening to Spanish music,
00:57 even though they don't speak Spanish, myself included.
00:59 We've also been looking very closely
01:01 at a lot of the superfan data.
01:02 Superfan is a very big topic right now within the industry.
01:05 And we're going to talk a little bit later on today
01:07 about superfans, specifically in the Latin music genre.
01:11 And superfans are really focused on a few things.
01:13 One, obviously, is music, merchandise, and, of course,
01:16 live experiences as well.
01:17 And then the other thing we look at very closely
01:19 is we look at how Latin relates to the K-pop genre,
01:22 so another international genre that's
01:25 seen really, really strong growth in recent quarters.
01:28 And we'll look at some of the parallels
01:30 and the differences between the two different genres.
01:32 So up on the slides now, you can see just a quick snapshot
01:35 of 2023 through the end of August.
01:39 What you can see, of course, is the Latin genre
01:42 has generated close to 60 billion on-demand audio
01:45 streams.
01:46 And if you're not familiar with on-demand audio,
01:48 we'll talk about it a lot in the presentation.
01:50 This is basically consumers and users
01:52 who are choosing to listen to this music.
01:54 It's not being programmed to them.
01:55 It's not being played on a radio.
01:57 They're going into a streaming service and saying,
01:59 I want to listen to this music.
02:01 This has actually made it the third fastest growing
02:04 genre in the US based on year-on-year growth.
02:07 And it's the fourth genre based on pure volume alone.
02:10 And these are numbers through the end of August.
02:12 And if you look at the numbers on screen,
02:13 you can also see the Latin music genre is growing at just
02:16 under twice the rate that music consumption is growing at
02:20 overall, which is really, really phenomenal growth.
02:22 [AUDIO OUT]
02:27 You see on here, Latin is the fifth largest genre
02:29 based in the US based on on-demand audio
02:32 and has 7% market share of audio streaming during 2023.
02:36 Again, growing very, very quickly in the last two years
02:38 specifically.
02:40 One thing we do as well is we go out and we ask consumers.
02:42 We don't just look at the streaming numbers.
02:44 We don't just look at exactly what's
02:46 being listened to and where.
02:46 We also go out and speak to consumers and users
02:48 and listeners of this incredible music
02:51 to understand what's going on.
02:53 And our Illuminate Insights consumer research,
02:56 we've actually found that 40% of US music listeners
03:02 report consuming music in a non-English language.
03:05 This is a huge, huge number and something
03:07 we've seen growing very, very quickly.
03:09 And Spanish is actually the second most
03:10 listened to language by US listeners behind English,
03:14 with around 26% reporting they're
03:16 listening to this music.
03:20 When we look at language analysis of consumption trends
03:23 in the US, we can see how this plays out.
03:25 We looked at the top 10,000 US on-demand audio tracks.
03:29 And we can see a trend over the last few years
03:31 where English language consumption has dropped just
03:34 over 4%, so actually decreased over time.
03:37 And Spanish language music or Latin music
03:39 has mostly filled that gap, because it's picked up
03:41 about 3.5% to now account for just under 8%
03:46 of total streaming.
03:47 Another way to think about this is actually
03:49 one in 13 track streams in the US
03:52 is a song in Spanish when looking
03:53 at the top 10,000 songs.
03:57 Remember as well, though, on the consumer research
03:59 we showed on the previous slide, 26% of US music listeners
04:03 listen to songs in Spanish.
04:05 And this gap shows there's a lot more volume to be created.
04:07 So there's a lot more growth to come.
04:09 Thirdly, we're going to take a quick look at communication
04:15 and discovery.
04:15 So communication is really, really important.
04:17 How this music's being discovered
04:18 is a very, very important topic at the moment.
04:21 And through the course of this presentation,
04:23 we'll see several times how the growth in Latin music,
04:26 specifically in the US, has got a really, really strong root
04:29 in community and culture.
04:30 And this has come out from our research.
04:32 Understanding the tools people use to connect with each other
04:37 is a critical piece to understanding markets
04:39 and consumers.
04:40 Less than two weeks ago, as everybody's aware,
04:42 Bad Bunny teased his new song through his WhatsApp channel
04:45 before releasing it towards the end of August.
04:48 Bad Bunny has over 13 million followers
04:50 on his WhatsApp channel.
04:52 It's the first tease of this song.
04:54 And looking at Latin music fans using WhatsApp,
04:57 this partnership makes a lot of sense.
05:00 It could be a sign of many great future marketing initiatives
05:03 around WhatsApp and Latin artists.
05:05 When looking at communication preferences,
05:07 WhatsApp stands out as a key for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic
05:11 Latin music fans.
05:13 For Hispanic Latin listeners, 73%
05:16 use WhatsApp, which is 265% more than the average US consumer.
05:21 Just huge propensity to use these platforms
05:24 around connection and discovery.
05:26 And likewise, non-Hispanic Latin users
05:28 are 55% more likely to use WhatsApp.
05:31 WhatsApp, of course, is a global communication tool.
05:34 This level of use illustrates the importance
05:36 of connecting with friends and family,
05:38 almost regardless of geographical divisions
05:40 and borders.
05:40 And this is a really new development.
05:42 We haven't seen this happen before.
05:44 So we're going to watch this one very, very closely.
05:46 Streaming platforms, of course, are incredibly important
05:51 for discovery as well.
05:52 It's the number one music discovery source
05:54 for Latin music listeners in the US.
05:57 Friends and relatives places at number two,
05:59 with just under one in two Latin music listeners reporting
06:01 they learn more about new music from those closest to them.
06:04 Again, a very unique trend specific to this genre.
06:08 Additionally and interestingly, we've
06:09 also found that movie and TV soundtracks
06:11 provide a path for reaching non-Hispanic listeners,
06:14 as nearly one in two non-Hispanic Latin music fans
06:16 discover music this way.
06:19 Discovery for this genre is very, very different
06:21 to what we see in other categories.
06:22 So let's talk about superfans.
06:26 Superfans is a very big topic right now.
06:28 Everybody's talking about superfans.
06:29 What are they?
06:30 How important they are?
06:31 How important they are to the future of artists?
06:33 How important they are to the future of the whole industry?
06:36 And throughout this section, we're
06:37 going to take a look at Latin music superfans in the US,
06:40 what differentiates them from other music superfans,
06:42 and where the opportunities are to create additional value.
06:45 And as a reminder, this is completely new research
06:47 we're bringing today.
06:48 You'll be available to download this at the end,
06:50 because I appreciate there's lots of numbers in here.
06:52 And I'm also talking pretty quickly for Monday morning.
06:54 So let's take a look at spending profiles for these superfans.
07:01 US Latin superfans spend 120% more per month
07:05 than the average music listener, and then even spend
07:08 30% more than other US music superfans.
07:12 Very, very passionate fans.
07:13 And the bulk of that monthly spend for this fan
07:16 goes towards live events.
07:18 Reports over half their monthly music spend on shows.
07:22 Physical music and merchandise obviously make up a combined 23%
07:26 of monthly spend, indicating these superfans are looking
07:29 to connect with artists in additional ways
07:32 beyond just streaming their music.
07:34 Again, a trend we see across every genre,
07:36 but the intensity we're seeing in the Latin space
07:38 right now is really, really high.
07:40 And in regards to physical music purchases,
07:43 this is an opportunity to super serve these fans,
07:46 as US Latin music superfans are 17% more likely to purchase
07:49 physical music than other US superfans in other categories.
07:52 So where is this monthly spend on live events going?
08:01 Our research shows that Latin music superfans over-index
08:04 for live music concerts and music festivals,
08:07 compared to other US superfans.
08:10 Additionally, they're almost 20% more likely to attend
08:13 free community events than other superfans,
08:16 illustrating the importance of community we touched on earlier.
08:19 And over 2/3 of these fans plan on going to a live concert
08:22 in the next 12 months.
08:23 I just want to talk about other places
08:32 where we can optimize Latin superfan value.
08:36 First of all, let's talk about merchandise.
08:37 Again, a very important topic right now for the industry,
08:40 where our spending profile shows to account
08:41 for 11% of monthly spend.
08:44 And when looking at Latin superfans
08:46 compared to other US superfans, not only
08:48 they're more likely to have purchased merchandise
08:51 in the past year, but Latin fans are even 24% more
08:54 likely to say they wish artists provided more merchandise
08:57 options so I can show my support for them and their work.
09:01 Again, a lot of these fans want to do more than just stream
09:04 the content.
09:05 There's also several other areas where artists
09:07 and their representatives can maximize superfan value.
09:10 We've already discussed how Latin music fans are connected
09:12 to community and culture, but these also
09:14 show up in the likelihood to purchase music gift cards.
09:16 Again, a very unique trend we see for these fan bases.
09:19 These fans spend more on live streaming events
09:21 and physical music, both of which
09:23 offer additional areas to super serve this audience.
09:27 And furthermore, live streaming engagement
09:29 comes with no geographical boundaries,
09:31 closing that gap on that 26% mark.
09:33 A gap on that 26% consumption we talked about earlier.
09:36 Changing gear for our fifth trend,
09:42 we'll talk about the rise of regional Mexican music.
09:44 So as a data company, we saw this trend
09:46 coming for a long time.
09:47 And obviously, it hit pretty hard in recent months
09:50 in a good way.
09:52 The rise of regional Mexican listening in the US
09:55 has been one of the biggest stories we've seen this year so
09:57 far.
09:58 As of today, Peso Pluma had nearly 1.3 billion primary
10:01 artist US on-demand audio streams.
10:06 And these streaming numbers place him and other artists
10:08 in the US in the top 100 by on-demand audio streams
10:12 at number 43 for Peso, which is a really amazing, amazing
10:15 achievement.
10:18 The Latin regional Mexican genre itself
10:20 has grown 56% this year alone to more than 14 billion
10:25 US on-demand streams, which is a huge, huge number.
10:28 And taking a look on the chart on the left,
10:30 you'll see this growth has also been
10:32 additive to the overall Latin genre,
10:35 as all sub-genres are gaining through this growth.
10:37 We discussed earlier a little bit about community and culture
10:45 as a foundational element of Latin music fans.
10:47 And that's evident here as well when
10:49 we start to look at where regional Mexican fans are
10:52 in the US.
10:54 The listenership sees higher concentrations
10:56 in the West Coast and through the Southwest
10:58 in states like Texas.
11:00 This aligns with US census trends
11:02 illustrating Hispanic population patterns in the US.
11:04 So no major surprises, but the data
11:06 is definitely bearing out what we all expect.
11:08 And while number one music discovery method
11:10 of regional Mexican listeners is video or streaming services,
11:15 Gen Z regional Mexican fans are more likely to discover
11:17 through short-form video.
11:18 So a lot of content.
11:26 Very quick, as I mentioned, there's
11:27 a way to get access to this presentation
11:29 once I've finished.
11:30 But just a few takeaways to leave you
11:31 before you enjoy the rest of the day and the rest of the week.
11:35 Number one, we look at this genre.
11:37 One of the biggest surprises from our research
11:38 is just the incredible role of culture.
11:40 Hispanic community and culture play a massive role
11:43 in the genre's growth, revealing new areas of music discovery
11:45 going forward and more opportunities
11:47 for amazing artists to emerge and to develop
11:50 as compelling contributors to this genre.
11:53 Secondly, superfans.
11:54 Everybody's talking about superfans right now.
11:56 It's one of the biggest topics of 2023.
11:58 And there's considerable opportunities to further
12:00 monetize fandom as Latin music superfans demonstrate
12:04 levels of passion even higher than other US music
12:07 superfans and key activities.
12:10 And lastly, of course, Latin genre growth.
12:12 Growth of regional Mexican is additive to US Latin genre
12:14 growth.
12:15 More new fans coming to the genre.
12:17 They're really enhancing the incredible repertoire
12:19 of artists and talent which are contributing today.
12:22 Thanks for your time.
12:23 [APPLAUSE]