MIAMI: Sales of Latin music CDs are on the rise in the United States and figures show that while overall demand for compact discs is declining, sales at US stores stocking CDs from Central and South America are growing.

And with tough competition from online retailers, many mainstream shops now offer Latin music in an effort to boost their bottom line.

Mega 98.1 is a Latin music radio station based in Florida.

It caters to the state's growing Hispanic population and, according to the station's Michelle Gonzalez, its audience is on the rise.

She said: "It's only going to keep growing and, you know, the growth is tremendous and as long as we keep putting out and producing good quality products and competing with the general market, we're going to be right there."

Arbitron, which collects audience data in the US, said Spanish language radio stations now reach more listeners collectively than their rock and pop counterparts.

The University of Miami's Professor Rey Sanchez said the boom in Hispanic radio, combined with a love of music among Latinos, are reasons why US Latin music sales are up.

Professor Rey Sanchez, University of Miami, said: "They're just great music customers and as a group, music is such an important part of their culture. And Latin music has flourished in the United States."

Professor Sanchez, whose production company has worked with Latin artists like Braulio and Chayanne, said a growing Hispanic population in the US is fuelling sales of Latin music CDs.

The Museo Del Disco CD store in Miami claims to stock the most complete Latin music collection in the world – some 40,000 titles.

Owner, Hinsul Lazo, believes recent Hispanic immigrants are more likely to buy CDs than download music online.

He said: "They're not as technologically driven as other nationalities because they're still behind on the educational side of technology."

Nielson Soundscan, a company that tracks CD sales in the US, said Latin music purchases rose 5.2 percent in 2006 while overall CD sales fell 4.9 percent.

In the US, Mexican music makes up 45 percent of Latin sales, with pop, rock, tropical and urban genres, such as Latin hip-hop, making up the rest.

A song must be at least 51 percent in Spanish to be considered Latin by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The association said shipments of Latin music to US stores rose 13 percent in 2005 to nearly 56 million CDs.

But Professor Sanchez predicts competition from internet retailers will eventually hit Latin CD sales, in the same way as other types of music, as Hispanics download more online.

He said: "In the same period of time that Soundscan sales were up 5.2 percent, shipments of Latin music for the same year, 2006, were actually down 21 percent from the year before. And I think you're going to see a continued downward trend in shipments of CDs."

Latin music store owners like Hinsul Lazo agree and he worries about selling the 180,000 CDs in his warehouse.

He said most of his customers are over 40, so he is increasingly working with websites like eBay and Amazon to reach younger Hispanics.

Lazo said: "We've got a certain product line that no one has got, so as long as we stay on top of the ball, we shouldn't have a problem. As competitive as it gets out there, it doesn't matter."

Lazo and other Latin music retailers said they are selling more CDs to larger retail chains that are keen to cash in on the Latin music market.

And they hope it will be a few years at least before Latin music customers catch up with the broader market and start buying more music online.


- CNA/so