Christian/gospel music is resurgent across the U.S. alongside “recession pop” according to Luminate’s 2025 Midyear Report.
In its midyear survey, AP reports Luminate, an industry data and analytics company, provides insight into changing behaviors across music listenership.
The AP reports set out the numbers:
Music streams continued to grow globally and stateside in the first half of 2025. Global on-demand audio streams reached 2.5 trillion in the first half of 2025 — up from 2.29 trillion in the same period last year.
And in the U.S., on-demand audio streams grew to 696.6 billion in 2025, compared to 665.8 billion in 2024.
But even though more music is being streamed than ever before, compared to past years, the rate of growth is slowing down. In 2024, U.S. and global on-demand audio streams grew 8% and 15.1%, respectively. In 2025, those numbers have dropped to 4.6% and 10.3%.
Though streams of new music — music released in the last 18 months — are slightly down from the same time last year, one genre is defying trends as rock leads stateside, followed by Latin, country, and then comes surging Christian/gospel music.
The latter is winning over audiences, said Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s vice president of music insights and industry relations, as people seek to reconnect with the Christian faith.
Breakout Christian/gospel music is led by acts like Forrest Frank, Brandon Lake and Elevation Worship.
Marconette attributed the genre’s growth to “younger, streaming-forward fanbase,” which is 60 percent female and 30 percent millennial.
The growth defies some reports that have previously claimed Christianity is on the decline in the America.
Christian pop singer, songwriter, and producer Forrest Frank performs at Coca-Cola Coliseum on April 01, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. He is from Fulshear, Texas. (Jeremy Chan Photography/Getty)
A study released in 2015 found one in five American adults has no formal religious identification, a five percentage-point jump since 2008, as Breitbart News reported.
Statistics from the Pew Center’s comprehensive 2015 report on religion in America also revealed most religious “nones” tend to be undereducated, poor, white males, belying the commonly held belief that irreligiosity tends to rise with education and income.
AP contributed to this report
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