US Latin Music Revenue Reaches $542.2M in Strong First Half
U.S. Latin recorded music revenue reached $542.2 million in the first half of 2026, up 8.6% on the same period last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The figures were reported by Billboard on 25 September 2026.
The growth was faster than the wider U.S. recorded music market, which rose 6.9% in the same six months. Latin music took a 9.1% share of total U.S. recorded revenue, up from 8.8% at the mid-year point in 2025. The half-year was the 13th in a row with a mid-year revenue increase for Latin music.
Streaming drove most of the total. It accounted for 96% of Latin revenue in the half-year. Paid subscriptions, the monthly fees that give listeners on-demand access without adverts, grew 12.4% to $308.4 million and made up 56.9% of the genre's revenue on their own.
Physical sales grew sharply from a small base. Revenue from physical formats totalled $14 million, up 232.2% year on year. Vinyl totalled $13.7 million, up 245.8%, leaving only a small remainder for other physical formats.
Licensing for screen and other uses also jumped. Synchronisation revenue, the fees paid when songs are used in film, television, adverts and video games, rose 104.2% to $3.3 million. It remains a small part of the Latin total, but it more than doubled in twelve months.
Two stage and chart moments sat alongside the numbers. Bad Bunny's Super Bowl LX half-time show was the first in NFL history performed almost entirely in Spanish. Shakira and Burna Boy's 'Dai Dai' became the first World Cup song to top both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts.
For context, the wider U.S. recorded business totalled $6 billion in the half-year, with $3.4 billion from paid subscriptions, according to RIAA. U.S. paid subscriptions reached a record 90 million in the period. Across the whole U.S. market, CD sales rose by more than 50% in the half-year, as reported by Billboard. A year earlier, Latin revenue had topped $490 million at mid-year, up 6% year on year, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
What makes this stand out is the spread. Subscriptions kept climbing while vinyl and synchronisation posted triple-digit percentage gains. For fans, that spread means Latin music is arriving through earphones, turntables and television at once.
