Latin music tops $542 million at mid-year as paid streaming and vinyl surge

Latin recorded music earned $542.2 million in the first half of 2026. That is up 8.6% from $499.4 million a year earlier, according to the Recording Industry Association of America's mid-year report on the American market, released September 25. The genre outpaced the 6.9% growth of the overall U.S. recorded music market and posted its 13th straight mid-year gain.

Paying listeners drive the growth

Paid subscriptions grew 12.4% to $308.4 million. That is about 57 cents of every Latin dollar in the report. Streaming as a whole brought in $522.2 million, or 96% of Latin revenue, while free, ad-supported streaming slipped 1.1% to $177.8 million and download revenue fell 11.8%.

Vinyl and sync jump

Vinyl revenue more than tripled to $13.7 million. Units roughly quadrupled, from about 200,000 to 800,000. Licensing for film, TV and ads, known as sync, more than doubled to $3.3 million. Both are still small next to streaming, but they show fans paying to own the music and brands paying to use it.

A bigger slice of the market

Latin music now makes up 9.1% of all American recorded music revenue. Its share has climbed every year since mid-2022, when it stood at 7.6%. Music Business Worldwide notes the RIAA restated last year's base, so the one-year share gain is slightly smaller than the report suggests. The numbers land as the industry heads to Billboard Latin Music Week in Miami, October 19 to 22.

Sources: RIAA 2026 mid-year U.S. Latin revenue report, Music Business Worldwide, Sep 25, 2026, That Eric Alper, Oct 1, 2026 (shared on X)