Non-English Music Is Having a Moment

English may still rule the pop charts, but its grip is loosening. New data from Spotify shows its Global Top 50 featured songs in 16 languages last year—more than twice the count in 2020—with Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish, Indonesian, and Arabic all in the mix. Bad Bunny, who records only in Spanish, was the platform's most-streamed artist, while Brazilian funk, K-pop, and Latin trap each logged growth of roughly 30% or more and generated over $100 million in royalties, per the BBC. Still, English remains dominant: 14 of the year's 20 top-selling albums were sung solely in the language, though South Korean and Japanese acts are increasingly cracking that list.

The numbers arrive via Spotify's annual Loud and Clear report, which says the company paid $11 billion in royalties last year. Roughly half went to independent acts and labels, the company says. About 13,800 artists earned at least $100,000 from Spotify, even as per-stream payouts remain fractions of a cent, while the top 80 artists earned over $10 million. Current streaming figures suggest the trend will continue into 2026. Bad Bunny keeps breaking chart records. And according to Spectrum FM, Spotify's most played chart last week included artists from Mexico (Peso Pluma, among others), Colombia (Ryan Castro), South Africa (Tyla), Indonesia (Nadhif Basalamah), and South Korea (Blackpink, among others).