# Americans Are Listening to Less Music in English, Thanks To Bad Bunny and BTS

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/americans-are-listening-to-less-music-in-english-thanks-to-bad-bunny-and-bts/
- Published: 2026-07-16T20:09:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-07-16T21:14:39+00:00
- Original publisher: Rolling Stone
- Original article: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/americans-english-music-bad-bunny-luminate-report-1235594219/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- English-language US music streams hit a record low of 87.1%
- Spanish-language streams hit a record high of 9.4%, boosted by Bad Bunny
- K-pop's BTS-led popularity also helped drive a CD sales surge

## Summary

A new midyear report from music-data firm Luminate has found that Americans are streaming less English-language music than ever before, with the shift being driven largely by the success of Spanish-language stars such as Bad Bunny and K-pop acts like BTS. English-language songs fell to 87.1% of US streams, down from 88% last year, a small but significant drop given that overall streaming volumes are rising. This matters because it signals a broadening of mainstream US music tastes beyond English-language content, with Latin music in particular gaining unprecedented cultural traction.

Spanish-language streams rose to a record 9.4% of the US total, roughly 68 billion streams, with Luminate noting that 54% of Americans now say they engage with Latin music. Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance drove 2.74 billion on-demand audio streams in a single week, while música mexicana artists including Peso Pluma and Junior H also contributed. Korean-language music made up 1.1% of on-demand streams, buoyed by BTS and other K-pop acts, which also helped push CD sales up 6.7% to 16.3 million units in the first half of 2026 — despite half of Gen Z and millennial buyers reportedly not owning a CD player.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.