English language music is losing its stranglehold on the charts, according to new data from music streaming giant Spotify.
The company says songs in 16 different languages, including Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish, Indonesian and Arabic, appeared in its Global Top 50 last year. That’s more than double the figure from 2020.
Bad Bunny, who sings exclusively in Spanish, was the most-streamed artist in the world. And Brit Award winner Rosalía sings in 14 dialects on her latest album, Lux.
Spotify said Brazilian Funk was the fastest-growing genre in the world, with audiences up by 36%. K-Pop saw a 31% increase, and Trap Latino was up by 29%.
All of those genres earned more than $100m (£74.5m) in royalties from Spotify last year, the company said.
English still dominates the charts, with 14 of last year’s Top 20 best-selling albums sung exclusively in the language, according to the music industry body the IFPI.
But South Korean bands such as Stray Kids, Enhypen and Seventeen all featured in the list, as did Japanese rock group Mrs Green Apple, as fans increasingly explore music outside the typical paradigms of rock and pop.
According to a 2021 analysis of listening behaviour published in the journal Nature, this trend has been accelerating since 2017.
Not coincidentally, that’s the same year that streaming overtook CDs and vinyl as the music industry’s biggest source of income.
Last week, Spotify’s most-played chart included songs from Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro (Puerto Rico), Nadhif Basalamah (Indonesia), Tyla (South Africa), Tems (Nigeria), Ryan Castro (Colombia), El Bogueto, Peso Pluma, Neton Vega and Fuerza Regida (Mexico), Blackpink, Jung Kook and Jin (South Korea).
However, the UK still lags behind the rest of the world. Of the country’s biggest selling songs last year, only two featured non-English lyrics.
Notably, both tracks – Rosé & Bruno Mars’ APT and Huntr/x’s Golden – were predominantly in English, with select phrases in Korean.
Record pay-out
Spotify’s data was revealed as it announced its annual Loud And Clear report, which breaks down the global streaming economy.
The streaming giant said it had paid $11bn (£8.2bn) in royalties to the music industry last year, up from $10bn in 2024. The figure makes it the highest-paying retailer globally, the company claimed.
In the UK, it paid artists £860m in royalties – up 6% year-on-year – with more than 75% of those royalties generated outside the UK.
Spotify also says that around 150 UK artists generated more than £1m of payouts last year; and that the number generating more than £500,000 has more than doubled since 2018.
Globally, the top 80 recording artists each make over $10m (£7.4m) annually from Spotify alone.
But the Swedish company was at pains to point out that payments don’t just benefit the top one per cent, saying that “roughly half of royalties were generated by independent artists and labels”.
More than 13,800 artists earned $100,000 (£74,400) from Spotify last year, it added.
The company’s carefully-crafted transparency is part of a fightback against the perception it underpays artists – who receive between £0.002 and £0.0035 every time a song is streamed.
It is worth noting, however, that royalties distributed by Spotify don’t necessarily go directly to musicians, with record labels, distributors, publishers, managers and songwriters often taking a cut.
Meanwhile, several artists – including Massive Attack, Deerhoof and King Lizard and the Gizzard Wizard – have cut ties with Spotify in protest at the company’s ties to the defence company Helsing.
Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO and co-founder, was recently made chairman of the German tech company, which specialises in AI software integrated into fighter aircraft like its HX-2 AI Strike Drone.
Announcing their decision to delete their catalogue from Spotify, Massive Attack said: “The economic burden that has long been placed on artists is now compounded by a moral and ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies.”
In response, a spokesperson clarified that Spotify and Helsing are “totally separate companies”.
Credit: BBC
