Dubbed the ‘Mecca’ of Streaming by Spotify, Mexico Emerges as a Top Global Piracy Consumption Hub

Despite the streaming music giant’s success in the country, don’t expect Spotify to obliterate – or even make a dent in – rampant music piracy in the region.

According to Spotify, Mexico has an insatiable appetite for music.

Globally, the streaming music giant has more listeners in Mexico City than any other place on earth. This includes New York City, London, and Santiago, Chile. Mexican listeners love streaming Adele, Diplo, Metallica, Harry Styles, Radiohead, New Order, Bruno Mars, Madonna, and Michael Jackson, among many others.

Spotify launched its service in Mexico five years ago, which became the company’s first-ever Latin American market.

The city, writes the streaming music giant, has emerged as the top destination for festival headliners. Imagine Dragons, for example, has 995,940 monthly listeners in Mexico City. Robbie Williams has 322,581, The Chemical Brothers count 117,190, and Nine Inch Nails has 75,142.

Despite the platform’s success in Mexico City, don’t expect music piracy to actually decline in the country, however.

Piracy – a strong part of Mexican culture.

The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) has found most Mexicans illegally consume pirated content. Each year, piracy costs the country around 43 million pesos ($2.1 million) in lost revenue.

AmCham noted 8 out of 10 Mexicans who consume pirated content don’t consider it a serious offense.

According to Ann María Magaña, director of the Motion Picture Association, 77% of all Mexicans have viewed a pirated movie. 64%, she adds, take pride in illegal content consumption.

Breaking down music piracy figures, 97% of respondents admitted to illegally downloading music. 50% used stream rippers to download their favorite music from YouTube.

According to Alfredo Touré, General Director of the Association for the Protection of Phonographic Rights (APDIF), Mexico forms part of the Top 5 Piracy Consuming Nations. The country remains closely behind India, Brazil, China, and Argentina.

Yet, Spotify may not view this as a problem.

Speaking about the rise of streaming music in the country, company executives praised Mexico City.

“The city has evolved into one of the most sophisticated digital music markets in the last five years—and we don’t see its music magnet slowing down anytime soon.”

Not revealed in the report is the number of people in the city who choose to stream-rip their favorite tunes from YouTube instead of streaming them on Spotify.

Featured image in the Public Domain.