NEW YORK (AP) — A new industry report reveals that music streaming has hit record highs both in the United States and around the world, with Latin and country music leading a wave of genre diversification that is reshaping what Americans are listening to.
Luminate, a data and analytics company that tracks the entertainment industry, released its 2026 Midyear Report on Wednesday. The report highlights shifting trends in music listening, as well as TV and film viewing habits through the first half of the year.
Globally, on-demand audio streams reached 2.8 trillion in the first six months of 2026 — a jump from 2.5 trillion during the same period in 2025 and 2.29 trillion in 2024. In the U.S. alone, on-demand audio song streams climbed to 732.7 billion, up from 696.6 billion in 2025 and 665.8 billion in 2024.
R&B and hip-hop continue to hold the top spot in American streaming, accounting for nearly one in four on-demand audio streams. However, the genre’s grip on the market is loosening. In the first half of 2026, R&B/hip-hop represented 30% of U.S. album-equivalent consumption based on Billboard 200 data — down significantly from 41% in 2023.
Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s vice president of music insights and industry relations, explained the shift in a statement to The Associated Press: “R&B/Hip-Hop remains a massive commercial force, but its historic dominance is leveling off as the streaming landscape diversifies. The genre was an early adopter of streaming, commanding nearly 30% of U.S. audio consumption by 2022, but the post-pandemic era has seen accelerated … growth from genres like Country and Latin.”
Marconette added that R&B/hip-hop’s “standalone audio volume has dipped 1.7% so far in 2026 compared to last year. We aren’t seeing a collapse in popularity, but rather a shift toward a more balanced, multi-genre ecosystem where R&B/Hip-Hop’s profound creative influence is also seen in other styles.”
The numbers still show R&B/hip-hop’s strength in raw terms. In the first half of 2026, the genre tallied nearly 180.3 billion streams in the U.S. Rock came in second with 137.2 billion, followed by pop at 87.8 billion, country at 63.8 billion and Latin at 63 billion.
Latin music’s rise in the U.S. is particularly notable. Luminate found that nearly 1 in 10 streams — 9.4% of the total — were in Spanish during the first half of 2026. Meanwhile, English-language consumption dropped to a new low of 87.1%, still the vast majority but a sign of a more diverse listening market.
“Casual U.S. listenership of Latin music has hit an all-time high, with 54% — or more than one in two music listeners — now reporting that they engage with the genre,” Marconette said. “Latin music’s cultural footprint is rapidly widening far beyond its traditional core base into the broader American mainstream.”
Worldwide, Latin music streams also set a new record, reaching 363.2 billion in the first half of 2026, compared to 335.3 billion during the same stretch the year before.
Album consumption data tells a similar story about the rise of country and Latin. The top-performing albums of 2026 so far are Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem” with 2.035 million album equivalent units, Ella Langley’s “Dandelion” with 1.638 million and Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” with 1.543 million. Both Wallen’s and Bad Bunny’s albums were originally released early last year.
Marconette highlighted Langley as a clear example of country music’s broadening appeal, describing her as a leader among a growing group of younger, streaming-focused fans driving the genre’s growth.
AI-generated music is also becoming a factor in the streaming landscape. The most-streamed AI-generated song in the U.S. is country act Breaking Rust’s “Livin’ on Borrowed Time,” which racked up 19 million streams domestically and 13.4 million streams in all other countries combined.
Breaking Rust previously made headlines when a song called “Walk My Walk” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s country digital song sales chart in November 2025. That track drew from the vocal style and musical DNA of Grammy-nominated country artist Blanco Brown, who has collaborated with Britney Spears, Childish Gambino and Rihanna. Breaking Rust is among the AI acts raising concerns in the music industry about generative tools being trained on real artists’ voices and styles without their consent.
Marconette offered a measured take on AI’s current impact: “A small number of breakout tracks at the head of the curve can drive temporary conversational and streaming spikes. At this stage, generative tools are actively transforming creative and production workflows, but individual AI-generated tracks have yet to make a profound, long-term impact on consumption behavior.”
On the TV and film side, Netflix dominated U.S. streaming of original content, capturing 57% of all original content viewing time. Prime Video came in second at 11%, followed by Hulu and Paramount at 7% each, Peacock and Apple at 5% each, HBO Max at 4% and Disney+ at 2%. In total, 13.6 billion hours of original content were streamed in the U.S. during the first half of 2026, with original TV series accounting for 11.5 billion of those hours and original movies making up 2.8 billion.
The three most-streamed original films in the U.S. so far this year are all Netflix productions: “The Crash” with an estimated 39.6 million views, “The Rip” with 39.5 million and “Apex” with 37.3 million.
In original series, there’s slightly more competition. HBO Max’s “The Pitt” leads with 19.4 billion streams, followed by Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” at 16.9 billion and “Bridgerton” at 14 billion.
Despite the spotlight on originals, Americans are overwhelmingly choosing to watch older, licensed library content. Library TV totaled 42.2 billion hours streamed in the first half of 2026, and library films added another 10.8 billion — dwarfing the 11.5 billion and 2.1 billion hours logged by original TV and film, respectively. Luminate estimates that major streaming services carry nearly 19,000 library titles compared to roughly 7,000 original productions.
