Music genre statistics measure different things: stated favorites, identity, listening behavior, airplay, and recorded-music revenue. This overview keeps those measures separate across the United States, the United Kingdom, and global markets, with dates and survey populations stated for each result.
Key Music Genre Statistics
The most useful headline figures span preference, identity, access, listening, airplay, and revenue:
- In January 2026, classic rock was the favorite genre of 19% of eligible U.S. adult respondents who liked or loved at least one genre.
- In January 2026, country was the favorite genre of 11% of eligible U.S. adult respondents.
- In January 2026, rap/hip-hop reflected the lives of 38% of U.S. adults aged 18–29 in a multi-select identity question.
- In January 2026, R&B reflected the lives of 34% of Black U.S. respondents in the same multi-select identity measure.
- In January 2026, Latin reflected the lives of 34% of Hispanic U.S. respondents.
- In the 2023 global report, 73% of people reported listening through licensed audio-streaming services.
- In the 2023 global report, listeners identified more than 700 genres they typically listen to.
- In 2024, streaming represented 69.0% of global recorded-music revenue.
- At the end of 2024, paid subscription accounts had 752 million users globally.
- In Ofcom’s 2024 UK survey, 61% of adults aged 16 and over used music radio weekly.
- In Ofcom’s 2024 UK survey, 35% of online-music-service listeners used those services to discover new music.
- In July 2025, 300,915 tracks were identified from 439,711 hours of U.S. religious-radio programming.
- In July 2025, 68% of sampled U.S. religious-radio songs were by artists associated with contemporary Christian music.
- In July 2025, the 10 most-played artists accounted for 16% of sampled U.S. religious-radio songs.
- In 2024, Latin music reached 8.1% of total U.S. recorded-music revenue.
- In 2024, U.S. Latin-music revenue reached $1.4 billion, up 6% year over year.
- In 2024, more than 98% of U.S. Latin-music revenue came from streaming.
Contents
- Key Music Genre Statistics
- How Americans Rank Their Favorite Music Genres
- Music Genre Data by Age, Gender and Identity
- Global Music Genre Diversity and Streaming Scale
- Music Listening Trends Across Radio and Streaming
- Religious-Radio Genre Statistics and Airplay Concentration
- Latin Music Revenue and Streaming Growth
How Americans Rank Their Favorite Music Genres
A YouGov survey of 1,119 U.S. adult citizens conducted January 15–17, 2026 asked eligible respondents about favorite genres. The favorite-genre question applied only to people who said they liked or loved at least one genre, so these percentages are conditional survey results rather than population-wide listening shares.
| Favorite genre | Share of eligible respondents | Period and population |
|---|---|---|
| Classic rock | 19% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
| Country | 11% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
| Pop | 9% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
| Rap/hip-hop | 8% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
| Hard rock/metal | 7% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
| R&B | 7% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
| Alternative/indie | 6% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
| Classical | 5% | Jan. 15–17, 2026; U.S. adults |
The remaining reported favorites were jazz and contemporary Christian at 4% each; gospel/choir, blues, and folk at 3% each; and dance/electronic, Latin, punk rock, and soul/funk at 2% each. These are self-reported favorite choices, not streams, airplay, or revenue.
Music Genre Data by Age, Gender and Identity
The same January 2026 YouGov research also asked which genres reflected respondents’ lives, allowing multiple answers. That makes the identity results different from the single favorite-genre measure and means the percentages cannot be added into a 100% distribution.
| Genre identity measure | U.S. adults overall | Reported subgroup |
|---|---|---|
| Classic rock | 33% | 53% of adults 65+ |
| Country | 26% | 41% of adults 65+ |
| Pop | 26% | 16% of adults aged 18–29 |
| Rap/hip-hop | 22% | 38% of adults aged 18–29 |
| R&B | 21% | 34% of Black respondents |
| Classical | 14% | 22% of adults 65+ |
| Contemporary Christian | 13% | 24% of adults 65+ |
| Latin | 10% | 34% of Hispanic respondents |
| Dance/electronic | 9% | 16% of adults aged 18–29 |
| Gospel/choir | 8% | 24% of Black respondents |
The survey notes that small subgroup estimates may be less precise for some comparisons, and all of these figures are self-reported identity measures. They describe cultural or personal association with a genre, not listening time or market share.
Global Music Genre Diversity and Streaming Scale
IFPI’s Engaging with Music 2023 report found broad access to recorded music and a large number of genre labels. 73% of people reported listening through licensed audio-streaming services, while time spent listening on subscription audio-streaming services grew 7% versus the prior period.
- Global respondents identified more than 700 genres they typically listen to, although the count depends on respondent identification and platform taxonomy rather than a universal genre system.
- 57% of global respondents said access to music from anywhere in the world was important to them.
- Among people aged 16–24, the share saying global access was important reached 65%.
The industry scale continued to expand in 2024. According to IFPI’s Global Music Report 2025, streaming represented 69.0% of global recorded-music revenue, subscription-streaming revenue grew 9.5% versus 2023, and global recorded-music revenue grew 4.8%.
| Global market measure | 2024 result | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Paid subscription accounts | 752 million users | End-of-year global accounts |
| Streaming share of recorded-music revenue | 69.0% | Global recorded music |
| Subscription-streaming revenue growth | 9.5% | 2024 versus 2023 |
| Physical recorded-music revenue change | −3.1% | 2024 versus 2023 |
Account users may exceed unique individual listeners, and the market growth figures are format measures rather than genre-specific growth rates.
IFPI’s Engaging with Music 2023 report and IFPI Global Music Report 2025 — State of the Industry
Music Listening Trends Across Radio and Streaming
Ofcom’s 2024 Audio Report shows how UK adults use audio services, but it does not rank music genres. In a survey of 3,333 people aged 16 and over in the United Kingdom, music radio remained the most commonly reported weekly music-audio route among the listed categories.
| Weekly audio use | Share of UK adults 16+ | 2024 survey base |
|---|---|---|
| Music radio | 61% | n=3,333 |
| Online music service | 52% | n=3,333 |
| Online music video websites or apps for background listening | 43% | n=3,333 |
| Personal music stored on a digital device | 41% | n=3,333 |
| Speech radio | 34% | n=3,333 |
The motivations differ by service. 54% of monthly music-radio listeners used radio for background listening, based on a subsample of 1,653, while 58% of monthly online-music-service listeners used streaming for entertainment and 51% used it for relaxation, based on 1,439 listeners.
Discovery also tilted toward streaming in this survey: 35% of online-music-service listeners used those services to discover new music, compared with 16% of music-radio listeners using radio for discovery. The two figures come from different listener subsamples and self-reported behavior, so they are not a causal comparison.
Religious-Radio Genre Statistics and Airplay Concentration
Pew Research Center analyzed U.S. FCC-licensed terrestrial AM/FM religious-radio programming recorded in July 2025. The content-analysis sample contained 300,915 tracks from 439,711 hours of programming and nearly 14,000 artists.
Genre associations overlap because one artist or song can carry multiple labels, and genre metadata was unavailable for 8% of recognized tracks. The shares therefore do not sum to 100% and should not be read as mutually exclusive genre market shares.
| Artist genre association | Share of sampled songs | July 2025 U.S. religious radio |
|---|---|---|
| Christian music of some kind | 88% | Sampled songs |
| Contemporary Christian music | 68% | Sampled songs |
| Worship music | 63% | Sampled songs |
| Pop | 42% | Sampled songs |
| Gospel | 27% | Sampled songs |
| Country | 21% | Sampled songs |
| Rock | 19% | Sampled songs |
| Alternative | 15% | Sampled songs |
| R&B/hip-hop | 6% | Sampled songs |
| Folk | 5% | Sampled songs |
| Other | 3% | Sampled songs |
Airplay was also concentrated among leading artists: the 10 most-played artists accounted for 16% of all sampled songs. Phil Wickham represented about 2.5% of all song plays, the largest individual artist share in this one-month sample; neither result is a general measure of overall music-market popularity.
Music on religious radio: artists, genres and listeners
Latin Music Revenue and Streaming Growth
RIAA’s 2024 Year-End U.S. Market Latin Music Revenue Report places Latin music at 8.1% of total U.S. recorded-music revenue in 2024. U.S. Latin-music revenue reached $1.4 billion, up 6% year over year, with the genre bundle defined broadly as Latin music rather than one subgenre.
| U.S. Latin-music measure | 2024 result | Period or comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Share of total recorded-music revenue | 8.1% | 2024 |
| Total Latin-music revenue | $1.4 billion | 2024; up 6% year over year |
| Streaming share of Latin-music revenue | More than 98% | 2024 |
| Paid subscriptions | $967 million; more than two-thirds | 2024 revenue |
| Ad-supported on-demand services | $354 million; nearly 25% | 2024 value |
| Digital and customized radio | $75 million; 5% of streaming revenue | 2024; down 3% |
| Permanent downloads | $8 million; 1% | 2024; down 24% year over year |
Paid subscriptions contributed more than two-thirds of Latin-music revenue, while ad-supported on-demand services included YouTube, Vevo, free Spotify, and social platforms. These are revenue measures, not listening-time or stream-share measures.
RIAA’s report notes that its figures include stated wholesale and retail conventions, estimated major- and independent-label distributions, and historical wholesale-value adjustments. Its text labels the 1% permanent-download comparison as 2023 in a note, so that value is retained as reported rather than recomputed.
RIAA 2024 Year-End US Market Latin Music Revenue Report