TAYLOR, BILLIE, BEYONCÉ DOMINATE LUMINATE MIDYEAR REPORT

Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Beyoncé got a big boost from multiple physical releases of their latest albums, driving them to the top of Luminate's 2024 midyear music report.

Per the study, the Top 10 physical albums in the U.S. averaged seven vinyl variants, 13 CD versions and two cassettes. The top U.S. album so far this year is... wait for it... Swift's THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, with 4.66m album-equivalent units. The Top 5 is rounded out by Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER and SZA’s SOS.

Measuring pure sales, TTPD is again at the front of the pack, alongside Eilish's HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, COWBOY CARTER and two other Swift albums: 2023's 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and 2019's Lover.

The top streaming song so far this year is Benson Boone's "Beautiful Things," with 1.43b on-demand audio streams worldwide. Overall, global on-demand audio streams rose 15% year over year, with U.S. on-demand audio streaming slightly behind at 8.1%.

In terms of genre, hip-hop and R&B make up nearly 25% of total volume, Latin music being the fastest-growing U.S. genre thanks to a 15% uptick in on-demand audio streaming. Luminate data indicates that Latin actually has more listeners (35%) than any other genre over the past 18 months.

Although streaming has surely leveled the playing field for unsigned artists, 43 of the 46 acts with more than 1b U.S. on-demand streams enjoyed major distribution for their most-streamed track. Independents accounted for 62% of artists with between one and 10m streams.

The robust health of the concert sector is also borne out by Luminate data, showing that 64% of all money spent by U.S. consumers on music-related purchases went to live events. What's more, Gen Z'ers spent 23% more per month on live shows than the average music listener. Maybe there's still hope for us all!