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.