Luminate has unveiled its 2024 Year-End Music Report.
The report highlights key trends based on core data from more than 500 authorised partners across digital, retail and airplay.
Global music streaming reached a new high in 2024 with on-demand audio (ODA) streams reaching 4.8 trillion in 2024, increasing year-on-year by 14%. While growth remained steady in the US and other mature markets (including 11% in the UK according to the BPI), consumption surged in emerging markets
Asia experienced the most significant rise in premium streaming as a share of overall on-demand streaming, growing by 10.7 percentage points year-on-year, followed by Europe (8 points) and Latin America (6.1 points).
The concern for the UK music industry is that British acts are facing a squeeze at home and abroad. That was apparent in 2024 by the No.1 drought for UK acts in a year dominated by US stars. The year-end rankings were also tough for British artists.
But beyond the high-profile weekly chart results, Luminate’s data shows the problem at the market level both domestically and globally for UK stars, who face challenges from both US and international acts.
There were no UK acts among the Top 10 songs globally, which was headed by Benson’s Boone’s (pictured) Beautiful Things on 2.57 billion streams. UK-signed Hozier did make No.8 with Too Sweet.
The expanding global marketplace is allowing more international artists to connect with worldwide audiences. While artists from the US still hold the most global premium streaming share overall, artists from Mexico, Brazil and India saw the largest gains in audio and video streams.
According to Luminate, artists from the UK, US and Canada saw the largest decline in global premium streams. The UK had the biggest fall with the global premium streaming share for British acts falling by 0.47 percentage points to a share of 8.59%. While that’s a small drop in percentage terms, it amounts to multiple billions of streams.
In contrast, the biggest gainers for global premium stream share are Mexico (0.88 points), Brazil (0.33) and India (0.21).
The UK’s artists lost market share of streaming in Japan (down 0.27 points) and Brazil (down 0.43 points).
On a more positive note, Luminate ranks the UK at No.2 in terms of its measure of top exporting countries (behind the US and ahead of Canada, South Korea, Germany and France). Top importers of UK repertoire are the US, Ireland and Australia.
In terms of domestic consumption, UK acts were down 2.7 percentage points as a share of streams in their home market in 2024, while US acts were up 2.4 points in the UK market.
As well as US pop stars at the top of the British charts, part of that gain for American acts was down to country music’s rise in the UK. In fact, outside North America country experienced its biggest increase globally in the UK in terms of streaming consumption.
US market growth
Growth in the US streaming market was fueled by new releases and the resurgence of pop.
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.
Pop surpassed Latin as the fastest-growing genre in 2024. Women led the charge, with 63.4% of the US 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 US streams (341 billion). Rock continues to dominate deep catalogue listening, with 72.6% of its streams coming from tracks released more than five years ago
Streaming remains by far the dominant format for music consumption in the US, accounting for 91.3% of the total. On-demand audio streams increased year-on-year by 6.4% to 1.4 trillion.
Taylor Swift tops global rankings
Taylor Swift’s global dominance continued in 2024 with The Tortured Poets Department and record-breaking Eras Tour.
In addition, Luminate reported that Swift was the most-streamed songwriter worldwide in 2024.
An analysis of the top 1,000 globally streamed songs placed Swift at the No.1 spot, surpassing hitmakers including Max Martin.
Daniel Nigro, known for his work with Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan, and Amy Allen, whose writing credits include hits for Harry Styles and Halsey, completed the Top 5 most- streamed songwriters chart.
While songwriters from the US, UK and Canada accounted for the most streams of the top 1,000 songs, the Luminate report highlights the growing influence of international songwriters from Sweden and France who claim the fourth and fifth spots respectively. Australia, Norway, Germany, Colombia and South Korea completed the Top 10.
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 US consumers.
Superfan culture
Luminate’s study of the US market reveals the critical role superfans are playing in the success of live concerts and physical merchandise sales.
The report found that superfans spend $113 a month on live music events, 66% more than the average music listener. Nine out of 10 superfans say they would attend a live music performance of their favourite artist, compared to six out of 10 of those not considered superfans.
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% more than the average US 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.
Superfans 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 US albums for the year).
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