Luminate Midyear Report 2026: Hip-Hop falls, Dance rises, CDs surge

[TaylorSwift 162,018]

In Luminate's annual midyear report for 2026, a few key takeaways are apparent: R&B/hip-hop continues to lose ground, but remains the biggest streaming genre in the U.S.; dance/electronic music is on the come up; and the kids are loving CDs. 

Global On-Demand Audio streams grew 9.8 percent in H1 2026, while the ex-U.S. figure grew faster still, by
 11.8 percent. Genre is where that growth is being redistributed. While R&B/Hip-Hop continues to set the U.S. audio streaming pace with approximately 1 in every 4 streams, it faces increased competition from growth genres such as Dance/Electronic. A Luminate analysis of the Billboard 200 shows that R&B/Hip-Hop fell to 30% of chart consumption this half, down from 41% in H1 2023.

CDs saw a major bump this year thanks to K-pop, which is responsible for over half the 16% rise in sales thanks to hits from BTS, ATEEZ. 
Fandom itself maps unevenly across genres. K-pop fans lead the industry in both purchase and engagement behavior.

https://luminatedata.com/reports/midyear-music-ftv-report-2026/

 

 

 

 

 

[RAMROD 116,892]

I don't see any dance there, do they mean KATSEYE & K-POP? 

[Bronco 24,271]

I dont engage massively with rnb/hip hop et al.

But its kind of not surprising the genre domination we've seen is going into reverse. Feels like newer hip hop acts aren't doing as well as they used to and like with everything streaming now, legacy acts and tracks are where the strength is. 

[TaylorSwift 162,018]

2 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

I don't see any dance there, do they mean KATSEYE & K-POP? 

 

[brizoda 4,149]

Tragic

[RAMROD 116,892]

4 minutes ago, TaylorSwift said:

 

 

 

better but still bleak

 

[Lextyr97 20,778]

Jesus finally. No shade to the artists of that genre but it’s been so dominate for SO long and I find most of that music just straight up not good lol

[ThisGuyTony 34,691]

So Gaga was once ahead of the trend 

[gagzus 22,546]

Everything is cyclical. I think Dance will come back around again in the early 2030s like it did in the 2010s and 2020s to a degree. I forsee Pop-Rock making a comeback by 2028, then a different sub genre of Dance music taking over again in say 2032. 

Dance also almost always rises in the Summer. Hip-Hop/R&B is a spring genre, Dance is a summer and Indie Rock / Adult Contemporary are usually Autumn and Winter.

CDs will probably make a huge comeback and increase in price like vinyl did for millennials . 

Edited 4 hours ago by gagzus