Music Market Region Profile: Latin America Streaming Drives A Music Market Renaissance

The 20,000 Foot View

Driven by the proliferation of smartphones, streaming is beginning to gain traction across Latin America, resulting in new forms of music consumption. Whereas interest in physical formats has been steadily falling, most Latin American countries have not developed music download markets, thus creating latent digital demand. Consequently, streaming growth will accelerate over the coming years, although most of this growth will be concentrated in free streaming users rather than paid subscribers.

Key Findings

• Physical music            will fall from            of recorded            revenues in 2015 to            by            with revenues of            million
• Limited access            international credit cards and the            of dollar prices on the            Store in Latin America stifled            market growth
• The paid            market never got going in            America and revenues will fall            an average of            per year            2020
• Latin America            one of the few regions            that will experience music revenue            between 2015 and 2020
• Streaming will            its share of digital revenue                       in 2015 to            in 2020            revenues of            million
• Latin America            have            million music subscribers in            up from            million in 2015
• There are            times as many free streaming                       million) as there are subscribers           
• Countries undergoing            crises, such as Brazil, will            low music subscriber growth but            demand for free streaming
• Latin America            for less than            of global            revenue in 2015 but this            increase to more than            by           
• Latin America            one of the most prominent            of the emerging markets’ digital            rush but it has not            fulfilled its potential
• Easy access            free services and illegal sites            held back the evolution of            digital market 
• Brazil and            will remain as the biggest            American music markets until 2020,            corresponding to            of market share            revenue terms

Companies mentioned in this report:  Amazon, Apple, Lollapalooza, Spotify, Vevo, YouTube