July brings the latest from Luminate, the data and insights company which focuses on music and television, in the form of its midyear report. The 2024 survey reveals the trends that are defining music in the first half of the year.

This year’s report detailed successes of new artists and genres, among other highlights:

Taylor Swift’s album is dominating, but not her singles

The Tortured Poets Department, released on April 18, 2024, and three short hours later was followed up by a surprise double album, titled The Anthology. With this album Swift proved once again her power in the music industry, but the single that came with the album, “Fortnight” is not on the top singles list. Instead, Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” is the most-consumed song so far this year.

Technology-driven production is on the rise 

Genres such as hyper-pop, lofi hip-hop and electronic dance music were more popular in the first half of this year than in years before with artists such as Charli XCX coining the term “BRAT summer” to promote her album and lofi listeners discovering new music through the live-streaming platform Twitch.

TikTok has the control 

It’s accepted that TikTok dictates what becomes popular, and this year the platform reinforced its power for music discovery. The report revealed that TikTok is still the most-used short-form video platform among music listeners. But other short-form video platforms, such as Youtube Shorts, are gaining in popularity. The report found that during leisure time in the U.S., consuming content on short-form video platforms is now second to listening to music.

Don’t underestimate the physical

Although streaming is growing rapidly in popularity, purchasing physical music isn’t over. “Data shows that the number of physical variants (LP, CD, Cassette) related to Top 10 Billboard 200 albums started increasing in Q2 2020.”

Streamer. Streaming. Streamed. 

Streaming platforms are how most consumers get their music and many are paying for it, the report found that 57.5 global streaming accounts are “premium.” As for discovering new music, streaming dominates that, too. “Music streaming services are the #1 discovery method for both Paid streamers and music listeners overall.”