Chartmetric report: K-Pop, Reggaeton, and global sounds drive streaming growth

Chartmetric has released the third edition of its Year in Music report. This year’s report expands on 2024's insights, extracting data from millions of tracks and artist profiles collected since 2016.

Only three of Spotify’s top 10 most-streamed songs were released in the same year – a reversal from 2024, when just three top tracks carried over from 2023. This follows after Chartmetric identified a slowdown in breakout hits earlier last year, with only 23 songs reaching the top charts in Q1 and Q2 of 2025, compared to 49 during the same period in 2024.

At the same time, three times as many artists reached Chartmetric’s “Superstar” status in 2025, suggesting that while artists may be breaking through faster than before, sustaining long-term chart dominance is becoming increasingly difficult.

Chartmetric data shows a clear shift away from traditional genres among the top 1,000 artists, with 'other' genres such as Bollywood, K-pop, Brazilian funk, and Reggaeton emerging as the fastest-growing sounds within this category since 2020. South Korea now accounts for five times as many artists in the top 1,000 compared to 2020, India’s share has surged from 0.6% to 11%, and Puerto Rico has maintained a strong 5% presence.

In 2025, “chill” remained the dominant mood associated with artists. At the track level, however, listener engagement leaned more emotional, with romantic songs leading at 20%, followed by darker and more introspective moods. This contrast suggests that while artists may be branded around relaxed, accessible identities, individual tracks are where deeper emotional storytelling and experimentation resonates most.

Festival lineups are evolving beyond genre-specific roots to better reflect shifting fan tastes. From 2023 to 2025, dance/electronic emerged as the fastest-growing category across several major U.S. festivals, rising 9% at Bonnaroo, 12% at Lollapalooza, and holding steady at nearly 50% of Coachella’s lineup. Meanwhile, representation across hip-Hop/rap, rock, and pop shifted unevenly, reflecting how festivals utilise fine-tuned booking strategies to align more closely with audiences.

Sync continued to play a significant role in shaping the biggest hits of 2025, with new soundtracks – such as K-Pop Demon Hunters – driving some of the year’s most-streamed tracks. At the same time, established catalogue songs saw renewed momentum through high-profile placements in TV series like Stranger Things. Notably, television leaned heavily toward catalogue music, with 53% of TV syncs in 2025 featuring older tracks, while films favoured newer releases, with only 20% of movie syncs coming from catalogue.

While the use of large songwriting teams has become increasingly common, particularly at the highest levels of success, artists remain deeply involved in the creation of their own music. Half of the top 10 songwriters by number of charting songs in 2025 were the artists themselves, including Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, and The Weeknd. At the same time, collaboration remains central to today’s hit-making process, with more than half of 2025’s charting tracks featuring multiple collaborators.

A decade ago, reaching one billion streams was a rare milestone reserved for only a handful of tracks. By 2025, that threshold is growing at an exponential rate, with the average time to hit billion streams falling from 2,729 days in 2015 to just 197 days. This acceleration reflects the combined impact of how streaming adoption, globalised fanbases, and algorithmic discovery are reshaping the rate at which hits emerge.

In 2025, South Korea and Norway emerged as leading global exporters of music, while trigger city hubs across Southeast Asia and Latin America stood out as major importers of international hits. As for the power players in these markets, major labels continued to dominate in most countries. Still, independent labels remained highly competitive – particularly in countries with strong cultural identities – by leveraging deep connections to local scenes and audiences.

Read the full report here.

Photo credit: Image via Chuff Media