"Spotify: Discover This" Highlights Latin Music In Season-Ender

  Spotify will release the final episode of the year of its brand-new podcast series, “Spotify: Discover This” -  a show aimed at sharing fresh insights on music, podcasting, cultural moments, and trends.

The podcast's first season ends on a high note by delving into the harmonies and rhythms of Latin music.

In this episode, listeners dive into the “Power of Latin Music” with host, Jessica Diaz-Hurtado, who explores the global influence and fervor for Latin Music.  You can listen to the final episode of 2021 here.

With Bad Bunny as Spotify’s top-streamed global artist for the second year in a row, Latin music has become one of the fastest-growing genres worldwide. In addition, Spotify’s data revealed that of the Top 50 streamed artists this year, 1-in-5 are Latin artists. 

To celebrate the magic of this genre, Diaz-Hurtado hit the red carpet at the Latin Grammy’s to speak with top artists including Becky G, Maria Becerra, Jay Wheeler, and Bizarrap to hear about their love for creating Latin music. She also sits down with Spotify’s Head of U.S. Latin Artist and Label Partnerships, Monica Herrera Damashek, and top Latin producer/artist, TAINY to discuss streaming trends, artist collaborations, and the growth of sub-genres like Reggaeton. 

Interview highlights in the episode are below:

 Monica Herrera Damashek on listener trends pertaining to Latin music.
“We've seen quite a bit of interesting insight from our data around how listeners listen to Latin music on the platform. Over half of Latin music listeners are under 30 years old, and a large portion of Latin music listeners are Gen Z, more so than in other spaces or genres.”

Maria Becerra on how Latin music makes her feel.
“Cuando escuchas música latina siento que, no sé, en general me transmite mucha felicidad, siento que tiene mucho, mucho color y alegría, matices.”
Translation: [ When you listen to Latin music, I feel that, in general, it transmits a lot of happiness. I feel that it has a lot of color and joy, a lot of nuances.]

Bizarrap on the emergence of Argentinian artists like himself in the Latin music space.
“Que gracias a eso hoy en día Argentina tiene un montón de exponentes que están rompiéndolo a nivel mundial y creo que si alguien no vio eso debería verlo.”
Translation [ Today Argentina has a lot of artists that are breaking through worldwide and I think that if someone hasn't seen this, they should see it. ]

Monica Herrera Damashek on how Spotify supports female Latin artists.
“Supporting female Latin artists and Latinas in music is very important to Spotify, supporting women overall is very important to Spotify and programs like Equal, which champions women creators and female-identifying creators. We've been able to really wrap our arms around this program on the Latin side and highlight so many incredible women…”

TAINY on his reggaeton roots and how his music is evolving.
“...even though it's been 10+ years, I'm still learning and I'm still growing. I started doing reggaeton and people really know me for that. But the genre per se has evolved a lot and with it, I love different types of music and I want to keep going as a producer and see how I can keep expanding.”

TAINY on the influence of Spanish and English lyrics in Latin music.
“For a long time, there's been a big division between English speaking artists and Spanish. And most of the time, the people that made it from the Spanish arena, tend to do just the English version of it. And it was still a line in between and to see that people are able to listen to our music and even if you don't understand it, you can dance with it, you can groove to it, you can have a good time. And that's something that I felt for a long time that if people just gave it a chance, they'll feel what we’re feeling over here.”

Becky G on the importance of passing the tradition of Latin music onto future generations.
“So I think in the future, it's inspiring young kids like myself who are second, third, even fourth generation to continue practicing our traditions, to continue learning the language of Spanish” 

Listen to Spotify: Discover This