It's a constant refrain in the modern music industry: “A hit can come from anywhere.”
The increasingly diverse nature of hits, now bursting from South Korea and South Africa and Mexico and lurking from country to country in the almost frictionless streaming landscape, has been reflected in of Billboard two global tables. Halfway through 2022, 85% of Billboard Global Top 10 hits Excl. The US ranking was releases from artists outside the mainland US This number increased to 92% in 2023.
But surprisingly, the big global hits in the first six months of 2024 came mostly from one place: America.
Halfway through this year, US acts accounted for 60% of the top 10 hits on the Global Out. USA chart. And American artists were also responsible for the top eight songs on the Billboard Global 200 this summer. “American artists are crashing this year,” he says Scott Cutlerco-CEO of Pulse Records. Pulse contributed to the surge — the label signed Tommy Richman, whose bouncy, glossy “Million Dollar Baby” was No. 8 on the Global Songs of the Summer chart.
Executives attribute this year's America music showdown to three factors: The strength of the tour calendar for U.S. stars, at a time when many high-profile concerts outside the U.S. the rise of country music, which is finding an increasingly global audience. and the increased emphasis of American labels on international marketing.
US global dominance in music used to be a given. But that changed as listeners around the world adopted streaming services and the cost of creating and marketing music plummeted thanks to new technology and social media platforms. “When the cost structure changes, locally [music] bounces”, Will Pagesaid the former chief economist at Spotify Bulletin board last year.
In a 2023 paper, Page et Chris Dalla Rivasenior product manager at streaming platform Audiomack, documented this shift. They found that less than 20% of the top 10 songs in Poland, France, the Netherlands and Germany were by local artists in 2012. A decade later, however, domestic acts accounted for 70% of the top 10 in Poland, 60 % in France, 30% in the Netherlands and 20% in Germany. The authors called this shift “globalization.”
That said, these country gains are likely partially masked Bulletin boardglobal charts because they aggregate streaming and sales data from more than 200 regions, according to Glenn MacDonaldits author You haven't heard your favorite song yet: How streaming is changing music.
Imagine Polish listeners playing more Polish rap, but also some Sabrina Carpenter. Similarly, French listeners enjoy French rap more, but also engage with Carpenter's discography. If you lump the two listening populations together, Carpenter will still be popular, but French listeners are unlikely to appreciate Polish rap and vice versa.
However, it is noteworthy that its upper part Bulletin boardThe global charts show such a strong rise for American artists so far this year — defying the past two years as well as conventional wisdom about the increasingly competitive nature of the music industry around the world.
Executives believe the increase is due in part to chance. While superstars set their own schedules, whether by coincidence or competitive spirit, seemingly every American heavy-hitter has released an album this year. This group includes Ariana Grande, Ye, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Future, Taylor Swift and Post Malone.
At the same time, international powerhouses like Harry Styles were quiet. BTS members are serving in the military, so they haven't released much music or been very successful. (Jung Kook's 'Seven' was Bulletin boardThe global song of the summer last year.) And recent albums from Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran haven't been as successful as previous works.
Plus, “it feels like a new generation of stars is here” in the US, he says Peter Kadinsenior vice president of marketing at EMPIRE. “There was a gap for a while after the pandemic. Now the artists who have been developing for a few years have really come into their own.” EMPIRE has its own budding star in Shaboozey. Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Richman, Benson Boone and Teddy Swims have also scored in clear singles this year, giving the U.S. an unusually strong lineup of hits from newcomers that can be promoted overseas.
And it's notable that some of those big singles are coming out of Nashville: Shaboozey's “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is one of two country songs to finish in the top 10 on the Billboard Global 200 song of the summer. Luminate have studied a 12-week summer listening period for the past four years and found that the flow of country music outside of America continues to increase. If international demand for the genre continues to grow, it gives American labels another potential source of export hits that they couldn't draw from in the same way a decade ago.
Their approach to exports has also changed. US labels once focused on American consumers first before looking abroad. Now they often run global campaigns — or even start marketing overseas, in areas where marketing is cheaper and fandom can be more of a social activity, before they start a push in the State. “It's a lot easier to tap into all these other markets because so much of the promotion is digital now,” he says Mike Weisshead of A&R at United Masters.
Stellar, a Copenhagen-based marketing company, was founded in 2019 with the express purpose of helping artists find and cultivate audiences in Southeast Asia and Latin America that they may have neglected prior to streaming. The timing was right: “We've experienced an increasing international focus from American record companies, realizing the essential need for artist campaigns with a global perspective,” he says. Felipe Martinezhead of Latin America at Stellar. “Certainly US labels have shown that they are ahead of the curve in this understanding, while other markets seem to be more conservative in their international marketing efforts.”
At least this year, those efforts seem to be paying off for American artists. “If we see energy coming out of the Philippines or India,” Kadin says, “we'll run with it.”
