Fellow stat-nerds, assemble! Luminate’s mid-year report is out, with all manner of figures on music (not to mention TV and film) in the first half of 2026.
It’s the first time the three sectors have been combined in one report. “That’s because the music industry wants a clearer read on streaming television and theatrical performance,” wrote CEO Rob Jonas in his introduction. “Film and TV companies are asking for the reverse.”
The topline music stat concerns consumption. Global on-demand audio song streams grew by 9.8% year-on-year to 2.8tn [trillion]. But separating out the US offers a key data-point too: these streams grew by 4.8% there, and 11.8% in the rest of the world.
The report includes an update to Luminate’s ‘Global Export Power Rankings’ with South Korea leapfrogging Canada into third place behind the US and UK – call that ‘The Arirang Effect’ perhaps – and Brazil overtaking Australia to reach eighth spot.
Luminate has also tracked the biggest songs of 2026 so far in a global chart topped by ‘Golden’ from K-Pop Demon Hunters with its 1.124bn on-demand audio streams.
Taylor Swift’s ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ is only just behind (1.115bn) with Djo’s ‘End of Beginning, Alex Warren’s ‘Ordinary’ and Olivia Dean’s ‘Man I Need’ all surpassing 1bn streams.
Only two of the top 10 were released in 2026: BTS’s ‘Swim’ and Tame Impala and Jennie’s ‘Dracula’. There is one from 2018 too: the TikTok-assisted ‘Babydoll’ by Dominic Fike.
Other trends in the report include country and Latin music’s continued surge in the US, with Spanish-language tracks now accounting for 9.4% of on-demand audio and video streams in that country. Global streams of Latin music have also reached an all-time high.
There is also some thoughtful analysis of independent music.
“Non-major distribution shows clear year-over-year growth across mid-tier brackets and a steady, concentrated footprint of roughly 5% at the elite level (100M–500M streams),” reported Luminate.
“While major labels are successfully maintaining a fortress around blockbuster streaming hits, independent sectors are building a sustainable ecosystem away from reliance on singular mainstream superstars.”
You can register here for a free download of the full report.
