Vevo’s global most-played list shows Latin artists are dominating

Vevo has released its most-watched music videos lists for 2017, and it shows that Latin music is taking over, with the entire top five of the global chart being dominated by the genre/region.

It’s easy to conclude that this is just a knock-on effect from the massive worldwide success of ‘Despacito’, which racked up 4.37 billion views on the service.

However, what is more likely is that this is merely a reflection of the actual global popularity of Latin music, which has — clearly — previously been under-represented.

The lack of distribution barriers means listeners are no longer restricted to tracks released and promoted in their territory. Sure, recommendation engines will be pointing ‘Despacito’ listeners to similar music, but this alone cannot account for such dominance.

As MBW points out, many of these tracks didn’t impact the U.S. or U.K. Top 100 charts either, further suggesting these regions — and what their charting mechanics represent — are becoming less important to worldwide success.

Or maybe this was always the spread, and the statistics are only just now beginning to accurately reflect this.

 

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.