It’s clear to anybody with even the slightest idea of what’s going on in popular music that hip-hop is a dominating force. Now there are numbers to prove it, and it’s confirmed that in 2018, hip-hop was the most streamed genre in the US.
According to data from market monitor BuzzAngle, hip-hop accounted for the highest percentage of the total on-demand streams last year (with 25.4 percent of them), audio streams (26.9 percent), and video streams (22.8 percent). Pop had the second highest percentage of on-demand streams with 18.5 percent, while in a virtual tie for third are rock and Latin with 11.4 percent each, and R&B with 11.3 percent.
Interestingly, while hip-hop dominated streaming, it was pop and rock that were most successful when it came to sales. Rock had by far the most vinyl sales with 41.7 percent, and it also had the most album sales and digital album sales. Meanwhile, pop had the most physical album sales and CD sales. In all those categories, though, pop and rock were only a few percentage points away from each other (aside from vinyl sales, that is).
Elsewhere in the report, Drake is well represented in the artist-specific data: He was the top artist by song streams and total digital consumption, while “God’s Plan” was the top song by sales, audio streams, and video streams. Scorpion was also the top album by streams. Some other artists and albums topped the ranks in other ways too: The Greatest Showman soundtrack was the top album by album sales, Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 was the top album by vinyl album sales, and The Beatles were the top artist by physical album sales. Meanwhile, XXXTentacion was the top indie artist by total consumption, his album ? was the top indie album by total consumption, and “Sad!” was the top indie song by total consumption.
There’s a lot of fascinating data in this year-end report, so check it out for yourself here.
