Music Trends 2025: Our Predictions and What to Expect as an Artist and Fan

2024 was a challenging year for the music community, marked by new developments, changes, and innovations that disrupted the industry. Let’s briefly revisit the three most notable events and developments of 2024 to set the tone for what’s to come!

First and foremost, we can’t overlook the role of AI in music, a topic we’ve discussed in depth throughout the year. Without getting into too much detail, AI has brought both exciting opportunities and significant concerns around copyright, AI deepfakes, job replacement, and the very nature of art. This included multiple legal discussions and cases, such as the AI companies Udio and Suno being sued by the major record labels. Due to its seemingly sudden rise, this topic will surely follow us into the new year.

Secondly, we cannot minimize the impact of the potential TikTok ban in the US, which is expected to go into effect this year if ByteDance fails to legally challenge it or divest the company. If implemented, the ban would significantly affect US-based independent musicians, the independent music industry in the US, with potential effects on other parts of the world due to the global influence of the US music industry.

Finally, streaming platforms have implemented significant changes that are complicating things for independent musicians. Those include the demonetization of tracks with fewer than 1,000 streams on Spotify and the removal of royalties for noise content. Instead, Spotify is allocating those funds to artists it considers ‘hard-working,’ which reflects the growing trend of valuing music based on numbers.

For further insight into other relevant topics, check out our article about the state of the music industry in 2024.

AI continues to dominate discussions, and to be honest, we’re a bit tired of hearing about it, too. However, we can’t ignore the fact that it will remain a key topic in 2025. From constantly improving video- and image-generating capabilities to AI tools for music production, artificial intelligence will continue reshaping the music industry in various ways.

Drawing from last year, we can expect the implementation of new laws and tools as well as further pushback from some artists and endorsement of AI tools by others. Regardless of which side will dominate the discourse, we will surely witness many heated debates and conversations alongside new and improved technological developments.

The improving capabilities of technology also apply to music discovery, with AI and algorithms getting better at providing music recommendations. While they can’t replace the power of human curation, which can find tracks that algorithms often miss, they are turning out increasingly helpful in discovering new music.

One such example is Spotify’s new reel-style scrolling feature that functions similarly to its song, album, and artist radios, but does so via short snippets of songs. And then we got TikTok’s new feature allowing music enthusiasts to save songs to Spotify directly, which leverages the power of TikTok’s algorithm.

Now that we've covered the tech side, let’s take a look at which genres are expected to rise and which may decline in popularity. Based on the final Billboard charts, we believe 2025 will revolve around a wide range of genres.

We expect afrohouse, afrobeats, and amapiano to keep gaining momentum. Country music and K-pop will likely continue to grow as well. Genres like hyperpop and shoegaze might also remain on the rise. As for more mainstream genres, pop will likely remain strong. Finally, while some media outlets believe that rap/hip hop will face a slight decline, we do expect the genre to remain popular, considering that it remains present in the charts.

Speaking of genre-related trends, we may witness what we call a further niche-fication of music in the form of playlists that aim to capture a very specific vibe. Similar to the “core” approach to fashion that rose with TikTok, music enthusiasts might seek further customization, and platforms like Spotify have found ways to leverage this particular desire.

One example is the introduction of "daylists," a feature that generates unique playlists for users daily based on streaming data. These playlists have highly specific names that aim to capture the exact vibe, much like how Spotify described genres in its 2024 Wrapped. To give you a better idea of it, here are some of our examples: “No Wave Electropunk Afternoon,” “Goth Synthesizer Dark Wave,” and “Frutiger Aero Abstract Detroit Techno.”

2024 was not only a year of major developments but also one filled with scandals and allegations leading to major lawsuits. Such news has led to a further shift away from glorifying celebrities, which is also linked to the rise of socioeconomic issues, such as the increasing cost of living. In other words, people are becoming increasingly disillusioned with wealthy celebrities who embody capitalist values while they themselves are struggling to make ends meet—even more so when such celebrities do not contribute.

In the future, this could place famous individuals under more scrutiny and possibly lead to a decline of ‘super fandom,’ which music marketers were recently trying to push to open new paths for financial opportunities. This also applies to superstardom—unlike the iconic superstars of past decades, today's music scene has shifted, with streaming and social media creating space for a broader range of artists rather than a few names dominating the spotlight.

While this does not mean that superstars or super fandom won't exist anymore, the landscape has certainly shifted, and we can expect to see significant changes in the music industry this year.

Regarding music production, we believe that this year, spatial audio will come to the front. Spatial audio is an approach to mixing that creates an immersive listening experience by simulating sound in a three-dimensional space. Unlike traditional stereo mixing, where sounds are distributed between left and right channels, spatial audio allows sound to move in all directions—around, above, and below the listener. This technology gives music a sense of depth and realism, making listeners feel like they're inside the mix rather than just hearing it from two speakers.

Spatial audio is now easier to create thanks to advances in software and hardware. As streaming platforms and devices increasingly adopt spatial audio, it’s expected to become another trend for music in 2025. Curious to learn more about spatial audio? Check out our article about Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.

Finally, we believe that in 2025, we might witness a SoundCloud revival. The platform is often associated with the ‘SoundCloud era’ in hip hop, a time when fresh, creative sounds took over and artists like Lil Uzi Vert, Kodak Black, Denzel Curry, and 21 Savage rose to fame.

Although the platform never fully disappeared, it went through serious financial struggles in 2017. But now, it seems the company has finally become profitable, and one sign of this is the new features, programs, and plans it has been introducing. While we don’t expect to see a second ‘SoundCloud era,’ we could see more people re-engaging with the platform, especially with the rising subscription costs on major streaming services. This also applies to artists, who might want to leverage SoundCloud's new ‘Ascending Artists’ program.