Latin America Is Now Spotify's Second-Biggest Subscriber Market

Latin America has become Spotify's second-biggest subscriber market, according to a report by Music Business Worldwide on the region's place in the streaming company's subscriber base. The outlet's headline stated that Latin America is "catching North America" in that base, and that over one in ten people in the region now pay for the service.

According to the summary of the Music Business Worldwide report, written by Tim Ingham, Spotify's shareholder deck for the third quarter of 2026 shows that Latin America accounted for 24% of the company's 306 million Premium subscribers at the end of September. The figures come from the company's own quarterly materials, as the outlet described them.

Separately, The New York Times reported on Nayib Bukele's security crackdown in El Salvador in a New York Times report by Jack Nicas on what it called the Bukeleization of Latin America. The Times said the crackdown is "spawning imitators" and remaking the region.

The two reports address different subjects. Neither the Music Business Worldwide summary nor the Times summary connects the streaming subscriber figures to the security policy described by the Times, and the sources do not say whether the two developments are related.

The available summaries contain no further figures or details on either subject, and they do not address how the subscriber trend or the security measures may develop in the coming period.

Sources: Music Business Worldwide: Latin America is catching North America as Spotify’s second-biggest subscriber market - and over 1 in 10 people there now pay for it.; The New York Times: The Bukeleization of Latin America Has Arrived.