The total number of audio streams worldwide reached yet another record high in 2025, according to data from market research firm Luminate<\/a>.<\/p>\n But new figures from the company reveal extreme concentration in the geographical source of those streams on a paid subscription basis.<\/p>\n Just four countries \u2013 the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Germany<\/strong> \u2013 accounted for 48.9%<\/strong> of premium streams globally in 2025, says Luminate\u2019s data.<\/p>\n The US, the world\u2019s largest recorded music market, represented 31%<\/strong> of paid streams worldwide.<\/p>\n The data suggests substantial room for growth in paid subscriptions globally, particularly in markets where ad-supported listening currently dominates.<\/p>\n In its year-end report for 2025, Luminate \u2013 the company whose data powers the Billboard<\/a> charts \u2013 said that global on-demand audio song streams topped 5.1 trillion<\/strong> in 2025, up 9.6% YoY<\/strong><\/span> from the year before. (see below)<\/p>\n On-demand audio song streams in global markets excluding the US, meanwhile, reached 3.7 trillion<\/strong>, up 11.6% YoY\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>(see below).<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the world\u2019s largest recorded music market, the United States, total on-demand audio song streams reached 1.4 trillion<\/strong>, up 4.6% YoY<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n Total album consumption (TAC) in the US grew by 4.8% YoY<\/strong> <\/span>to 1.138 billion<\/strong>, Luminate reported.<\/p>\n The research firm\u2019s \u201ctotal album consumption\u201d (TAC) metric combines all on-demand track streams, plus all track downloads and all physical and digital album sales. Luminate equates 1,250 paid subscription streams, or 3,750 ad-supported streams, to one album \u201csale.\u201d Ten digital track purchases\/downloads also count as an album sale equivalent.<\/p>\n Broken down by genre, R&B\/Hip-Hop remained the most popular genre among US listeners, with 349.9 billion<\/strong> streams, followed by Rock (260.5 billion<\/strong> streams) and Pop (167.2 billion<\/strong>).<\/p>\n The fastest-growing genre in the US was Rock, which Luminate said improved its market share by 0.3 percentage points.<\/p>\n The second-fastest was Christian\/Gospel, which increased market share by 0.25 percentage points and garnered 30.0 billion streams, followed by Latin music, up 0.04 percentage points with 120.9 billion streams.<\/p>\n Luminate also revealed the expanding volume of tracks uploaded to music streaming services, reporting that over a quarter of a billion (253 million) music tracks were sitting on audio streaming services at the close of 2025.<\/p>\n That was up by 37.9 million<\/strong> tracks YoY \u2013 an average of 106,000<\/strong> uploads per day. As reported<\/a> by MBW on Wednesday, most of this music was far from popular, with almost half of the 253 million<\/strong> files (120.5 million) hosted by audio platforms receiving fewer than ten streams last year.<\/p>\n Here are five other highlights from Luminate\u2019s 2025 Year-End Music Report, which you can access through here.<\/a><\/p>\n While India<\/strong> is primarily an ad-supported market (84% of streams), its premium streams grew by 42% YoY<\/span>,<\/strong> adding 23.3 billion<\/strong> new premium streams in 2025.<\/p>\n Japan was another notable standout, with premium streams rising by 10.3% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, adding 14.2 billion new premium streams.<\/p>\n \n By volume rather than percentage, the largest increases in premium streaming were seen in the US (up by 65.5 billion<\/strong>), Mexico (up 50.9 billion<\/strong>) and Brazil (up 38.6 billion<\/strong>).<\/p>\n (It\u2019s worth noting that streaming services charge very different prices in low-income versus high-income countries, so the increase in streams in countries like Brazil and Mexico yields less in additional royalty revenue than the same increase would in a market like the US or Japan.)<\/p>\n Luminate found that, among US listeners, fans of R&B\/Hip-Hop, Latin and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) had the highest likelihood of signing up for a paid streaming subscription in the next six months.<\/p>\n \u201cPaid US music streamers make up 42% of the US general population yet they account for 76% of all US music spend (including physical music, live events, and artist merch),\u201d the report noted.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the report, Luminate noted that the \u201cmost local\u201d market was India, where 79.2%<\/b> of total on-demand streams (audio and video) were from local Indian artists.<\/p>\n The most local market in Europe was Turkey (69.9%<\/b>), while the most local market in Latin America was Brazil (75.2%<\/b>) and in the Middle East and Africa, Nigeria was the most local (62.2%<\/b>).<\/p>\n One\u00a0major trend Luminate flagged is what it calls \u201ctransmedia integration<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 the increasing monetization of music across<\/span>\u00a0other entertainment media.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past 12 months, we watched our industry undergo a fundamental shift as we moved away from the decade-long \u2018growth at all costs\u2019 mentality that marked the early streaming era,\u201d Luminate CEO Rob Jonas<\/strong> wrote in the preamble to the year-end report.<\/p>\n \u201cIn its place, we witnessed the rise of a more sophisticated, intentional and data-driven era in which music is defined not just by a stream but by its deep integration into the total global entertainment experience.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe witnessed the rise of a more sophisticated, intentional and data-driven era in which music is defined not just by a stream but by its deep integration into the total global entertainment experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob Jonas, Luminate<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Indeed, 2025 was a year in which the integration of music into the broader entertainment ecosystem may have been more obvious than ever \u2013 as evidenced by the success of numerous tracks from the soundtrack to Netflix<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Kpop Demon Hunters<\/em> on the streaming services.<\/p>\n But while Demon Hunters<\/em> may have stolen the spotlight this year, many other integrations paid off. Luminate noted that the Netflix documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin<\/em> led a \u201csustained\u201d 16%<\/strong> increase in global on-demand streams of Led Zeppelin<\/strong>\u2019s music.<\/p>\n \u201cGaming platforms are now critical to artist marketing strategies,\u201d Luminate said, reporting a 47.9%<\/strong> jump in Daft Punk<\/strong> streams in the first week after The Daft Punk Experience debuted on Fortnite<\/em>.<\/p>\n This \u201ccross-platform surge\u201d is now \u201cthe new standard for success,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we look to the year ahead, the path to success is no longer about wide, shallow reach. It requires a deep understanding of how music interacts with film, gaming, regional cultures and the evolving habits of a modern audience,\u201d Jonas added.<\/p>\n Luminate says its year-end report is built from 30 trillion<\/strong> data points, including data from CONNECT, the company\u2019s subscription-only database and analytics platform, its Artist & Genre Tracker, and film and TV metadata, among other sources.<\/p>\n Luminate\u2019s report showed that US vinyl sales increased for the 19th consecutive year in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Vinyl sales in the world\u2019s largest recorded music market grew 8.6% YoY<\/strong><\/span> to 47.9 million<\/strong>. According to Luminate, more than 4 in 10<\/strong> vinyl records were sold at indie record stores. Meanwhile, 1 in 3 CDs were purchased through e-commerce sites.<\/p>\n Luminate reports that Direct-to-Consumer sales now make up 13.6%<\/strong> of all physical albums sold. Broken down by format, the report reveals that 14%<\/strong> of vinyl sales took place via Direct to Consumer channels in FY 2025.<\/p>\n Taylor Swift\u2019s The Life of a Showgirl<\/em> was the biggest-selling vinyl release in the US last year, with 1.601 million<\/strong> units sold.<\/p>\n Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s<\/strong> Man\u2019s Best Friend<\/em> was the\u00a0second-biggest-selling vinyl release in the US last year, followed by\u00a0Kendrick Lamar\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0GNX<\/em>, with\u00a0292,000<\/strong> and 279,000<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0sales, respectively.<\/p>\n Luminate also analyzed the state of the superfan market, that sought-after contingent of music listeners who are highly engaged and are among the biggest spenders on music experiences.<\/p>\n Luminate estimates that 20%<\/strong> of US music listeners can be categorized as superfans, with K-pop enthusiasts being the most likely (one in three) to be superfans.<\/p>\n US superfans are a third more likely to listen to music from outside the US than overall music listeners.<\/p>\n Luminate defines a \u2018superfan\u2019 as a music consumer who engages in at least five different ways with artists and their music, including attending live shows, talking about an artist with friends or family, purchasing physical copies of music, purchasing merchandise, posting about an artist on social media, and others.<\/p>\n Luminate broke out total streams for certain AI artists, finding that Xania Monet<\/strong> was the most-streamed AI \u201cartist\u201d of 2025, with around 125 million<\/strong> streams globally and around 70 million<\/strong> in the US.<\/p>\n Xania Monet is an AI-generated avatar created by Telisha \u201cNikki\u201d Jones<\/strong>, and it was reported last autumn that Jones had landed a multi-million-dollar record deal with Hallwood Media<\/strong>, a music company founded by ex-Geffen Records<\/strong> President Neil Jacobson<\/strong>. The company is a major investor<\/a> in AI music platform Suno<\/strong>.<\/p>\n (Notably, Monet\u2019s popularity appears to be fading at the moment. The AI act has 1.2 million<\/strong> monthly listeners on Spotify<\/a>, down from 1.4 million<\/strong> in November).<\/p>\n Luminate\u2019s research found a music audience that is somewhat more tilted against AI in music than for it. Listeners were most uncomfortable with the idea of \u201ca new original song performed by an AI voice,\u201d with 46%<\/strong> of respondents in the US saying they are very or somewhat uncomfortable with it, while 25%<\/strong> said they were very or somewhat comfortable with it. Fully 29%<\/strong> said they were indifferent.<\/p>\n The idea of AI song instrumentals faces the least resistance, with 38%<\/strong> saying they are very or somewhat uncomfortable with it, while 31%<\/strong> say they are very or somewhat comfortable with it.<\/p>\n Millennials and 13-17-year-olds are the most comfortable with generative AI in music, with 36%<\/strong> of millennials and 37%<\/strong> of teens saying they don\u2019t have a problem with AI-generated lyrics.<\/p>\n And perhaps the key data point here: Around 44%<\/strong> of respondents in the US said they would be less interested in listening to music if they knew it was produced using generative AI, Luminate\u2019s research found.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reservoir (Nasdaq: RSVR) is a publicly traded, global independent music company with operations across music publishing, recorded music, and artist management.<\/b> <\/span><\/a>Music Business Worldwide<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicbusinessworldwide.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MBW Explains is a series of analytical features in which we explore the context behind major music industry talking points \u2013 and suggest what might happen next. Only MBW+ subscribers have unlimited access to these articles. MBW Explains is supported by Reservoir. The total number of audio streams worldwide reached yet another record high in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2245777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2245776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Half-of-all-paid-music-streams-globally-take-place-in.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2245778,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245776\/revisions\/2245778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2245777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-14-at-20.04.40-80x43.jpg)
1. India is CATCHING UP QUICKLY ON PAID STREAMING volume<\/strong><\/h6>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Luminate-streaming-growth-by-volume-80x49.png)
2. the \u2018Fundamental shift\u2019 in music industry<\/h6>\n
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3. US Vinyl sales saw 19th straight year of growth<\/h6>\n
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4. K-pop listeners are the biggest superfans in the US<\/h6>\n
5. AI music racks up hundreds of millions of streams<\/h6>\n
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