More young people in the US are listening to music in other languages

The times sure are a-changin’… The days when global music artists had to sing in English to sell records internationally appear to be far behind us, if the latest streaming data is anything to go by.

Listeners on music streaming platforms are increasingly embracing music in languages other than English, according to the 2023 Luminate Year-End Music Report.

The genre known as “World Music,” once a niche label reserved for (Western) music snobs, is gaining popularity with younger listeners in the United States, the biggest music streaming market in the world.

It’s become a catch-all term that encompasses every genre that’s not considered Latin music or English-language music, like K-Pop, J-Pop and Afrobeats.

Luminate’s report found that English-language streaming content in the US was down 4.8% in 2023, with interest growing in Spanish- and Japanese-language music in particular.

The changes are accelerating as the music marketplace becomes more international, with more people around the world listening to music on streaming platforms.

Last year, the global music industry surpassed 4 trillion streams, marking a new single-year record, with global streams up 34% from 2022.

Regional Mexican music burns bright

Unsurprisingly, Spanish is the second-most popular language in music streaming, buoyed by the wildly popular Latin genre with its blockbuster artists including Bad Bunny and Karol G.

In 2023, Spanish-language content saw a 3.8% uptick on music streaming platforms in the US.

Regional Mexican music – which encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norteño, sierreño and other styles – was one of the year’s biggest breakout genres, with a 60 percent increase in plays.

Mexican artists Peso Pluma, Eslabon Armado, Junior H and Fuerza Regida each hit more than 1 billion streams last year, as the genre saw a meteoric rise in popularity.

English is still the top language for music globally, accounting for 54.9% of the top 10,000 global tracks in 2023. But other languages are gaining ground.

The top global languages in music streaming after English, according to the report, were Spanish (10%), Hindi (7%), Korean (2.4%) and Japanese (2.1%).

Gen Z and Millennials are looking abroad

The interest in international music mostly comes from younger listeners – the report found that 63% of Gen Z and 65% of Millennials agree they “listen to new music to experience new cultures and perspectives.”

That shows in the listening figures for popular non-English genres – 95% of J-Pop fans in the US said they were Gen Z. Multilingual music listeners were also more likely to use community-based social media, like Reddit and Discord.

Afrobeats, one of the fastest-growing music genres in the world, was up 26.2% last year. The report found it’s hugely popular in Europe – with Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK, France and Portugal leading global streams of the genre.

The international market for music streaming is expected to keep growing next year – with analysts estimating global revenues will hit a record €27.06 billion in 2024.