Latin music’s meteoric rise in the U.S. shows no signs of slowing down, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) annual report, revealed Thursday (April 9). Celebrating its tenth consecutive year of growth, 2025 marked a major milestone: $1 billion in wholesale revenue. While retail revenue had previously surpassed $1 billion in prior years, this marks the first time Latin music’s wholesale revenue alone has reached that milestone. This feat underscores the genre’s growing dominance, which now accounts for 8.8% of total U.S. recorded music revenue — the highest share in its history.

“With rising global reach and fresh pathways connecting artists and fans, this sector just keeps delivering as labels work to grow the market with innovative new partnerships and opportunities,” says Rafael Fernández Jr., RIAA’s senior vp of state public policy and Latin music, in a press release. “It’s great to see new generations discover and build on the sounds I grew up on in Miami, taking music to new places and breaking down walls between formats, services, genres and styles so more fans than ever can experience the lure of Latin music.”

Streaming remains the backbone of this expansion, delivering a staggering 98.2% of the genre’s earnings in 2025 — 0.2% higher than the previous year. Paid subscriptions alone raked in $557.5 million, making up more than half of total Latin music revenue. Easy access, diverse discovery, and an expanding menu of Latin music legends and buzzy newcomers have only strengthened Latin music’s grip on digital platforms and listener engagement.

“Latin music has been on the upswing for a decade, as artists keep breaking new ground and fostering a deeper connection with their fans,” adds Matt Bass, RIAA’s vp of research and gold & platinum operations. “Streaming remains the top driver, bringing in 98.2% of total revenue with its huge menu of traditional icons and new stars for anywhere, anytime listening. As technology advances, labels keep finding even more ways to listen, create, interact – pushing the boundaries of possibility and growth for Latin music.” 

The genre’s hitmakers like Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma, Karol G, Fuerza Regida and Rosalía have been instrumental in driving the genre’s streaming success. For instance, Bad Bunny released Debí Tirar Más Fotos on January 5, 2025 and immediately impacted the charts. He entered nine titles on the year-end Global Excl. U.S. Songs chart, and eight on the Global 200 roundup. Fuerza Regida also made a huge impact with 111XPANTIA across the charts, including debuting at No. 2 of the Billboard 200.

While streaming certainly took the lion’s share, other formats are quietly making their presence known. 2025 saw continued interest in physical formats, particularly vinyl, hinting at new opportunities to tap into superfans craving collectible music. Vinyl sales accounted for a small but vital 1.5% of Latin music earnings, validating the niche but significant demand for tangible releases.

According to IFPI’s recent Global Music report Latin America was the “fastest growing region in the world due largely to broadened access to streaming,” states the press release. “These parallel trajectories also indicate more room to grow fan-to-artist engagement and label investments continue to pay off with new experiences, connections and revenue streams.”

After his acclaimed “La Bachata” that reached No. 1 on the Tropical Airplay, Latin Airplay, and Billboard Argentina Hot 100 charts in 2022, Manuel Turizo was back at the studio cooking more bachata songs. 

“Te Creo,” in fact, was the first track he created almost more than a year ago for what would not only set the tone, but become his fifth studio album, Apambichao, out Thursday (April 9).  

“It sat there, saved as a guitar melody, and later I went on to record other things — but I never forgot it because of the vibe it gave me,” Turizo tells Billboard of the heartfelt bachata tune. “Little by little, you start compiling those energies. You begin weaving a thread that I hadn’t planned on, and I started to realize: this is vacation music.”

Mainly inspired by his summers in Coveñas, a beach near his hometown of Montería in Colombia, Apambichao is home to 13 tracks where Turizo steers away from his signature urban pop sound and seamlessly navigates from bachata to merengue to reggae to afrohouse and from corridos to música popular (regional Colombian music) to boleros. 

“There is a mixture of many things and influences,” the 25-year-old Colombian singer explains. “This has to do with my culture; it isn’t something planned, but rather something genuine and organic, drawn from what exists within my mental archive. I can’t really claim to be influenced by someone like Rihanna when, in truth, I grew up listening to Diomedes Díaz, Kaleth Morales, and Juan Luis Guerra. My ideas are bound to be shaped by that subconscious. It stems from those very flavors — from having been raised on suero, carimañolas, patacones, and arepas de huevo. So when the time comes to make music, that entire subconscious rises to the surface and speaks.”

The album’s name, Apambichao — which includes key collaborations with Maluma, Xavi, Dei V, Luis Alfonso, Emilia, Dalmata, and the late vallenato star Diomedes Díaz — derives from “pambiche,” a slower-tempo Dominican merengue style.

“The mood I was feeling—and the mindset I was living in—was literally just that: I wanted to go on vacation, enjoy life, and just kick back and relax,” Turizo elaborates. “And that is precisely the vibe that came through in the music I created. I felt like I was living in an eternal summer. It’s an album I made while having the time of my life. It’s a feeling.”

English punk group Lambrini Girls are a last-minute scratch from this weekend’s Coachella Festival in Indio, Calif. after singer/guitarist Phoebe Lunny revealed that she’s suffered a neck fracture and is getting treatment for what she described as an “acute brain injury.”

“A lot of you asking about why we are not on the @coachella lineup anymore,” the band wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday (April 9), in which they also revealed that all their previously scheduled North American headlining dates have been pushed back to this summer and fall due to the injury.

“We have to pull out of Coachella and reschedule our whole American headline tour,” the post read. “Long story short: I fractured my neck and have an acute brain injury.” Lunny also wrote that the injury took place on a recent Australian tour and that it was “misdiagnosed, late treatment, doctors orders are I can’t fly or perform for 6 weeks.”

The medically necessary performance pause, however, will not impact their scheduled U.K. and European shows, which are still slated to go forward in late May. Lunny included a cheeky picture of herself in a hospital gown in the post, in which she’s looking over her shoulder with her backside and legs exposed, surrounded by a series of broken heart emoji.

“To all American ticket holders: it’s dark times, especially in the states,” the post added. “There are so many good folks who are carving out community and lifting each other up in the face of fascism. Making space for subversion and resistance is at the core of what this band is about. Seeing people of all ages, genders and backgrounds come together to mosh, lift each other up, chant, cry, scream in both parts joyful and angry, is my greatest joy.”

Lunny noted that the group has received “quite a lot of messages” regarding their drop-off from the Coachella bill, saying they are “so gutted” to miss this weekend’s show. “We want to be there so badly. If it was a broken leg, I would do a Dave Grohl and play it,” she wrote in reference to the Foo Fighters lead singer who broke his leg during a show in Sweden in 2015 and then rallied and returned to the stage a month later to perform from a custom throne.

“This isn’t something we are taking lightly and we are really sad. We hope and pray there’s some universe we get to play next year instead,” she told fans. “Because it is my neck and brain, our hands are tied for now, but I’m lucky and expect a speedy recovery thank f–k lol.”

Check out the band’s rescheduled North American dates below.

“He’s built like he could move your couch but sounds like he could heal your childhood.”

MCA Nashville senior VP of promotion Miranda McDonald highlighted Jacob Hackworth’s contrasts during Country Radio Seminar (CRS), introducing him to attendees in a lunchtime label showcase at the Ryman Auditorium on March 19. His appearance mirrored her description, and the song he sang – his inaugural MCA single, “What Took You So Long” – was full of contrast, too, its classic-country chorus melody riding atop an alt-rock set of chords.

Performing for an influential room of influential broadcasters was intimidating – “I don’t know if I blacked out a couple times in the middle of it or not,” Hackworth quips in retrospect – but he made a connection with the audience that day that he was able to build upon as he continued a radio promotion tour the following week.

“They have definitely brought up CRS and the Ryman show,” he notes.

“What Took You So Long” seemed to captivate the room at CRS, but that’s not unusual – it’s won people over from the day it was written, Jan. 22, 2025. Big Machine writer-producer Daniel Ross (“Friday Night Heartbreaker,” “Lies Lies Lies”) hosted the appointment with Hackworth, Jaxson Free (“After All the Bars Are Closed,” “Thank God”) and Steph Jones (“hole in the bottle,” “Espresso”).

Neither Hackworth nor Free had fully developed their artist paths at the time, so the goal was simply to write the best song possible. And they did.

“There was something in the room that day,” Jones says. “I think it was Diet Coke. We all share a big love for fridge cigs.”

Ross introduced the alt-rock-flavored track — “I sort of naturally lean towards a darker thing,” he says — and everyone was on board. It was trickier than it sounds: the logistics between the first two chords aren’t actually well-suited to a typical fretboard.

“You can’t actually play it on guitar,” Ross says. “I had to do it in two parts, so I did the first part of the riff, and then I tuned the bottom string way down to be able to reach that [second] note.”

Ross also offered a two-word title, “So Long,” that they batted around a bit, ultimately stretching it into something larger. Jones came up with a hook that fit the dark undertow – “What took you so long to tell me goodbye?” – in a plot about a couple that raced into commitment, only to have it come crashing down with no real warning.

“I love a question as a title personally,” Jones says.

They built the entire chorus around a series of questions that go frustratingly unanswered. While the lyrics matched the music’s mood, the phrasing – dominated by long, melancholy notes – took an opposite tack. “The guitar progression is kind of grimy,” Hackworth notes, “but then that melody over the top of it is just so silky.”

As they put together the first verse, they gave it more contrast, using faster-paced phrasing to provide some separation from the chorus’ held notes. But it also reflected the speed of the relationship the song represented.

“We were like, ‘Okay, well, if we’re going to do all long notes in the hook, the verses have to be really fast – like choppy – just to convey the emotion of ‘We moved really fast, we had all these plans going,’” Free recalls. “Then when that chorus hits the long notes, you feel the story even more.”

The first verse illustrated that the couple had been talking marriage, though it never comes out and says that directly. The second verse needed to express the singer’s anger that the relationship was prolonged unnecessarily. After tossing a few ideas around, Jones came up with a line that floored the rest of the crew: “There’s a real short line from the back of your mind to the tip of your tongue.”

“There’s no giant inspiration for that,” she says. “It just came out.”

The rest of the write went smoothly from there. Jones and Free both had to split, which left Hackworth to sing on the demo. He wrapped himself in the story and caught all the nuances of the song’s anger and disappointment with a sense of authenticity.

“His vibrato is so tasteful,” says Ross, who produced the demo. “The way that he [captures emotion], I don’t think it’s cerebral at all for him. Sometimes, I don’t think he knows when he does it.”

Ross built it out in a way that framed Hackworth’s vocals. He used several effects to create depth in the production and gave it a sense of motion by introducing a new instrument, or by changing the tone of an existing one, about every eight bars. Ross also enlisted a woman who sings at his church, Olivia Abdou, to join him on background vocals.

Ross was, at the time, producing Conner Smith, who showed up to track his own vocals when Ross was working on “What Took You So Long.” Smith asked to hear it four times, then asked if he could cut it, and since neither Free nor Hackworth were in artist mode yet, they let Smith take it. Hackworth ended up writing with Smith about a week later, and Smith essentially gave it back.

“I walked in,” Hackworth recalls, “and he just walks up to me, and he goes, ‘Bro, that’s your song, man. I loved the way that I sounded on it, but you can definitely tell that that’s yours.’”

“He’s just,” Hackworth adds, “one of the best guys ever.”

Songwriter Jessie Jo Dillon (“10,000 Hours,” “Am I Okay?”) had co-written another song, “Bad As I Do,” that Hackworth released independently in December. She took it to MCA chief creative officer Dave Cobb, just to make him aware, and Cobb gave Hackworth a surprise call that lasted 30 minutes. “In a matter of a week,” Hackworth says, “I had a deal from MCA.”

In their first official meeting, he played them “What Took You So Long,” and suddenly, MCA had moved on from “Bad As I Do.” Hackworth’s performance and Ross’ production were so well-suited that the label asked him not to make any major changes to the demo. Ross did hire guitarist Derek Wells to layer in a baritone guitar and provide atmospheric sounds. And he brought in drummer Aaron Sterling, who was sensitive to the song’s emotionality.

“He tracked on a smaller kit, and not one of his big, loud, massive ones,” Ross says. “The tones needed, in my opinion, to stay small – not necessarily wimpy, but they needed to be delicate.”

The moody character and universal message of “What Took You So Long” seemed to work for everyone involved, including Free, who heard an almost-finished version of it while he was in Los Angeles.

“Hack sold it so well,” Free says. “I really felt it, because I’ve been in a relationship like that before. And I was like, ‘Holy fuck.’ I almost started crying at my hotel, at the pool deck, because I was like, ‘This feels so special.’ I feel like a lot of people are gonna hear this and it’s gonna help people feel like they’re not alone.”

MCA and Goat Island released it to country radio via PlayMPE about an hour before the March 19 Ryman performance with an official add date of April 27. But it’s already airing on numerous stations, including KMLE Phoenix, WGKX Memphis and KAYD Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas.

The world at large is responding as Hackworth’s team had hoped.

“Sometimes,” Hack says, “it happens like it’s supposed to.”