Per Luminate: Last News

Selome Hailu Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” was the second-most-watched streaming original series in the U.S. between Aug. 30 to Sept.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The vinyl boom is not going bust anytime soon. In the first half of 2023, vinyl LP sales were up 21.7% from the same period the year before, a robust vote of confidence for the format that has dominated album sales in recent years. That’s one of the findings in Luminate’s Midyear Music Report, being released by the leading data company today. That the vinyl format would be experiencing some kind of growth is not a surprise in and of itself is not a surprise. After all, 2022 marked the 17th consecutive year that vinyl saw a rise, so it was perhaps inevitable that 2023 would keep the streak going. Yet the whopping growth rate over the last six months is reassuring after, last year at this time, Luminate’s study showed the format had then only risen by 1%, leading some to believe the market had found its natural plateau after explosive bursts of quarantine buying that caused a 108% increase in 2021. This latest uptick is proving that a raging pandemic isn’t required for the avid interest in LPs to expand further still.

Thania Garcia Country music’s evolving consumption trends are being shaped by the listening habits of Gen Z and millennials, according to new data by Luminate. The genre’s streaming-assisted surge to the top has been steadily increasing over the past several years but 2023 is proving to be its most impressive year yet. With the record-shattering entry of Morgan Wallen’s new album, “One Thing at a Time” (Republic/Big Loud) on March 3, Wallen scored the biggest opening week numbers of 2023 for any album by units earned (501,000). He also had the fifth-largest streaming week ever with approximately 76% of “One Thing at a Time’s” half-million opening units coming from its impact on DSPs.

Anitta and her label Warner Records have come to an agreement to part ways. “After eleven years of successful partnership, we’ve agreed to go our separate ways,” read a statement from the label and artist. “Anitta would like to thank the Warner Music team for all their support. And the Warner team wishes Anitta all the best in future.” The Brazilian pop star had been signed to the label for 11 years but in recent months had expressed her displeasure with the company and desire to have her contract terminated. She took those issues to social media last month, uploading a series of posts on Instagram, where she posts in English, and Twitter, where she uses Portuguese.

Geoff Mayfield Continued growth in streaming is delivering another upbeat year for the music business, both in the U.S. and globally, according to Luminate’s 2022 Midyear Report. The study also shows Latin and country continuing to gain ground in streaming, with Bad Bunny proving a catalyst for the former.