Tag: 2025 Wrapped Landing Page

Celebrating Spotify’s GLOW, RADAR, and EQUAL Artists of 2025

December 5, 2025

Outside EQUAL Festival

In 2025, Spotify’s EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA+, and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking records to reaching new audiences, these voices stood tall, unstoppable in their creativity and their connection with fans everywhere.

As we look back on an incredible year of music and discovery, we’re spotlighting these three global programs: GLOW, our year-round initiative amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices; RADAR, our program for the world’s next-up talent; and EQUAL, our commitment to advancing equity for women in music. Together, these programs lift artists on- and off-platform through editorial, marketing, and community partnerships, locally and globally.

“EQUAL and GLOW are grounded in the daily support we give our ambassadors through editorial and marketing, but this year we also created powerful real-world moments for these communities across the globe,” said Bel Aztiria, Lead, Social and Equity Music Programs at Spotify. “From EQUAL Day in Mexico to Pride in Stockholm, the CCMAs, songwriter mixers for the queer community, and the EQUAL Festival in Paris, we showed up in ways that truly matter. We believe in carrying our mission both on-platform and off, and in building spaces where all artists can thrive.”

Whether streamed, listened to abroad, or first discovered, EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR artists connected everywhere, and fans kept coming back. Below, meet the artists who defined 2025 across each program.

2025 at a glance

In 2025, kwn led GLOW’s streaming and discovery while Sophie and the Giants drew the biggest audiences beyond their home country; Gigi Perez swept all three RADAR categories; and Halsey did the same for EQUAL. 

These achievements reflect deep fan connection with artists bringing their full selves to their music. Here’s how each program helped them shine.

GLOW: LGBTQIA+ artists moving culture

Available in more than 50 countries, the GLOW hub is a home for queer sound and stories year-round. In 2025, GLOW artists showed up as their fullest selves—inventive and grounded in community. Spotify supported ambassadors through marketing, editorial, and partnerships that helped turn streams into real-world impact.

kwn

kwn

Most-streamed GLOW spotlight artists of 2025

Since launch, GLOW has uplifted more than 100 LGBTQIA+ ambassadors. In 2024 alone, the program helped drive more than 30 million artist discoveries, and listeners have generated over 86 million discoveries through GLOW playlists since launch.

With their music, these artists build spaces where listeners can see themselves reflected, without compromise.

Stream our GLOW global playlist to discover more talented LGBTQIA+ artists.

RADAR: The global home for what’s next

Launched in 2020, RADAR identifies, nurtures, and amplifies emerging voices around the world and now spans over 1,000 artists across more than 180 countries. In 2025, RADAR artists took creative risks, found new listeners far from home, and turned first discoveries into dedicated fandoms.

Gigi Perez

Gigi Perez

Most-streamed RADAR artists of 2025 

“It is an incredible honor to be chosen as RADAR’s Artist of the Year. I’ve always been a music fan first, and a major piece of that came from the Spotify experience. I think back to all the artists I found through Spotify and how artist discovery has shaped me as a fan of music,” said Gigi. “It is a privilege to find my community with the support of Spotify, who has always championed my message. From the feature of my first independent release of ‘Normalcy‘ in early 2024 on Lorem, the support has only continued to grow since then. It means a lot to know how important artist discovery is to the team at Spotify and how impactful it will be for all artists to come.”

From playlist placements to international discovery, RADAR artists proved that when new voices get the right support, they can move quickly from “next up” to “can’t miss.”

Press play on what’s next with our global RADAR playlist.

EQUAL: Women at full volume

Since 2021, EQUAL has amplified women artists through flagship and local playlists, billboards, and partnerships, advancing equity on- and off-platform. In 2025, EQUAL artists’ stories resonated across borders and genres.

Halsey

Halsey

Most-streamed EQUAL ambassadors of 2025

“2025 has been a reflective, full-circle year for Halsey and her fans, from celebrating the 10-year anniversary of her debut album BADLANDS with a new tour to taking her latest project on the road earlier this year,” said Talia Kraines, Editorial Lead, Pop at Spotify. “As an EQUAL ambassador, she truly embodies what the program stands for: an artist using her voice with honesty and purpose. Her openness about identity, mental health, women’s health, and the realities of being a busy working mom continues to make her a leading advocate for women in music.”

In 2025, EQUAL further scaled its impact, supporting more than 1,200 ambassadors worldwide and generating over 1.5 billion editorial streams within artists’ first month of joining the program.

Turn up the volume on women artists with our EQUAL global playlist.

As we close out 2025, the artists of GLOW, RADAR, and EQUAL stand as proof that unfiltered voices shape both playlists and culture.

Explore your personalized 2025 Wrapped and learn more about this year’s campaign and experience on our 2025 Wrapped hub.

Surprised by Your 2025 Wrapped? Here’s a Look at How the Data Comes to Life

December 5, 2025

Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It’s a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell the story of your year in sound. And sometimes, that story can hold a few surprises.

There are many valid ways to rank listening habits, and at Spotify, our data scientists work hard to land on the methods that best reflect what resonates with our users. We spend the entire year experimenting with methodologies, listening to user feedback, and internally testing the experience ourselves to build conviction that Wrapped feels as personal as possible. 

If your top song wasn’t what you expected, or you’re wondering why a certain artist landed at number one, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the data is defined and calculated. 

It’s all about the methodology

Even with the same underlying data, rankings can be created in many different ways. For Wrapped, we choose the method that we believe best reflects what users care most about. Each data story uses the metric that makes the most sense for that specific narrative, which is why some stories highlight total streams while others feature minutes listened.

    • Top Songs are ranked by the total number of listens. For Wrapped, a “listen” is counted once a track has been played for more than 30 seconds. One stream is one listen, regardless of whether the song is three minutes or 10 minutes long.
    • Top Artists, on the other hand, are ranked by a weighted stream count. This means primary artists receive more weight than secondary or featured artists on a track. And your top artist might not always dominate your Top Songs list if your listening is spread across many of their songs, with each one only streamed a few times.
    • Top Albums have their own unique logic. We count an album listen if you’ve streamed the majority of its tracks, whether from the album page, within playlists, or any other place on Spotify. From there, we calculate a score based not only on the total number of streams but also on how evenly your listening was distributed across the album. Through testing, we’ve found this method best surfaces the albums that truly resonated with you.

Not all streams are created equal

Your Wrapped is designed to be a reflection of your taste, not a historical record of every second you streamed. To achieve this, we have a few key rules:

    • Stream definition: The way a “stream” is counted can differ across services. For Wrapped, a play is counted once you’ve listened for more than 30 seconds.
    • Cut-off period: Wrapped captures your listening from January 1 until mid November. We do this to ensure we have enough time to check the data and get everything ready for launch day. This is different from some third-party services that may use a full calendar year or a rolling 12-month window.
    • Content filtering: We filter out certain non-music tracks (like white noise or nature sounds) as best we can to better reflect your musical taste. We also respect your privacy and your control over your data. Streams from Private Mode or from songs and playlists you’ve excluded from your Taste Profile don’t shape your taste-based stories. Again, this is a different approach from some third-party services.
    • Offline listening: Unlike some services that can only import a limited number of offline plays, your Wrapped includes all of your offline listening.

If you’re looking to shape what appears in your next Wrapped, using Private Mode for certain listening sessions and using the “exclude from Taste Profile” feature is the best way to do it.

The human element

Sometimes, the biggest surprise in our data is our own memory. The year is long, and it’s easy to forget that album you had on repeat back in February. Artists with large catalogs can also rack up a high stream count even if you only listened to each song a few times.

And, of course, there’s always the possibility of a shared device. If you and a family member, partner, or roommate all use a smart speaker or home system, their listening habits might have found their way into your results.

At the end of the day, Wrapped is a celebration of your year in listening, and we hope this look at the data helps you connect with your results in a new way.

Explore your personalized 2025 Wrapped and learn more about this year’s campaign and experience on our 2025 Wrapped hub.

How Our 2025 Wrapped Campaign Turns Your Year in Listening Into a Global Celebration

December 3, 2025

Spotify Wrapped celebrates the audio that defined our year, and the annual global marketing campaign that accompanies it has become a cultural moment in its own right. For 2025, the campaign is a bold, dynamic experience that brings the story of your year in listening into the real world.

“2025 Wrapped is our most action-packed release yet,” said Marc Hazan, Spotify’s Senior Vice President of Global Marketing & Partnerships. “We’re bringing back the fan-favorite features you know and love, and adding bold new experiences that spotlight the way you listened this year. And for the first time ever, meet Wrapped Party, your chance to dive into Wrapped with friends and family and relive the moments that defined your year. Plus, we’re rolling out 50 fan destinations worldwide, giving listeners a place to come together, celebrate their year in music, and be part of something truly global.”

From the design inspiration to massive real-world installations, here’s a look at how the 2025 Wrapped campaign comes to life.

The design: A modern ‘visual mixtape’

Before streaming, mixtapes and burned CDs were the original playlists: handpicked, decorated, and shared as deeply personal gifts. The 2025 Wrapped design builds on that tradition, turning a year of listening into a bold, dynamic “visual mixtape” for more than 700 million fans around the world.

“For me, 2025 Wrapped captures that tension between chaos and clarity,” said Jeremy Wirth, Spotify’s Global Executive Creative Director. “Every gradient and texture reflects that unpredictable mix of emotion and rhythm that makes listening so personal. It’s our most expressive Wrapped yet, and I love that it feels stripped down with the reduced color palette and bold use of images to feel simple and super modern.”

Layered with texture and mixing analog and digital aesthetics, the design captures the spontaneous, authentic energy of music fandom in a way only Spotify can. As part of this, we’re also bringing back our special Wrapped-edition logos. For this campaign, we put a creative spin on our brand guidelines, reimagining the Spotify logo in the spirit of the year’s most popular songs and artists. Try to identify any of those below.

Inside the 2025 Audiobook Trends on Spotify: Romantasy, Modern Classics, and What’s Next

December 3, 2025

From page-turning thrillers to inspiring memoirs, audiobooks are becoming a core part of the daily listening habits of fans around the world. And this year, audiobooks appear in the main Spotify Wrapped experience for the first time, highlighting how many titles a listener finished and their top audiobook and audiobook genre. It’s a major moment of visibility for the format.

To celebrate, we’re taking a closer look at the genres, authors, and moments that captured our imaginations in 2025.

The trends that defined audiobook listening in 2025

Listeners dove headfirst into spicy romance and romantasy, as series like Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass dominated Spotify’s top audiobooks list.

These fan-favorite sagas are also part of another notable trend: the power of the backlist. Nearly all of 2025’s top audiobooks were released in previous years, with listeners creating a new canon of “modern classics.” And while fiction dominated the top 10, it was a big year for music memoirs, too, as releases from artists like Mark Ronson, Mark Hoppus, and Cher struck a chord.

For the Record spoke with three members of Spotify’s global Audiobook Editorial leadership team—North America Associate Director Katie del Rosario, European Manager Roshni Radia, and Director of Audiobooks Editorial Suzanne Galvez—about what drove book culture this year.

Looking back at 2025, what trends or shifts did you see in audiobook listening on Spotify?

Katie: The biggest trends were definitely spicy romance and romantasy, which continue to dominate book culture. We’ve also seen a real surge in music memoirs, with readers loving these behind-the-scenes looks at creative lives. And book-to-screen adaptations continue to be huge for us, with big hits like The Summer I Turned Pretty and Stephen King’s The Long Walk driving renewed interest in backlist titles.

What’s especially interesting this year is increased interest in what our team calls “dystopian anxiety.” We’re seeing a spike in interest not only in classic dystopias like Fahrenheit 451, I Who Have Never Known Men, and 1984, but also in contemporary fiction and nonfiction, like Moderation and Empire of AI, that explore themes of social unrest, climate change, and emerging technologies.

What’s your take on the romantasy boom? What do you think is driving the trend?

Roshni: Romantasy is a major cultural phenomenon. Driven by communities like BookTok and authors such as Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, the genre appeals to diverse audiences craving intense, character-driven plots, high stakes, and breathtaking romance. While historically popular with women, men now account for roughly 15% of listening in steamier subgenres, proving the desire for passion, power, and escape is universal.

Was there a single audiobook or moment this year that really popped?

Suzanne: Spotify is everywhere, which is why I love when we get to tap into moments that connect across formats in meaningful ways. From celebrating Ozzy Osbourne’s legendary life through not just his music but also books like I Am Ozzy, to pairing Tina Knowles’ Matriarch with the fans of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour, Spotify continues to bridge culture and fandom like no one else can.

Share your predictions. What might be trending in audiobooks for 2026? Are there any emerging genres you’re keeping an eye on?

Katie: Romantasy isn’t going anywhere. There are some really big titles on the horizon, so I think 2026 is shaping up to be another blockbuster year for the genre. I also think the appetite for horror will keep growing, and that we’ll see continued growth in genre-blending fiction and in climate fiction, which tackles environmental and ecological themes in fresh, urgent ways. And I’d expect to see even more interest in books exploring AI and technology as readers look for stories that help them make sense of the world we’re moving toward.

How do you think listening on Spotify is changing the way people engage with books?

Suzanne: Spotify is blurring the lines between reading and listening, turning books into part of the same cultural ecosystem as music and podcasts. Nothing is more exciting to our editors than helping listeners connect with stories they might not have discovered otherwise. And with continued innovations like Recaps, videos, and follow-alongs, we’re expanding the experience and helping fans engage with books in a whole new rhythm.

Explore your personalized 2025 Wrapped and learn more about this year’s campaign and experience on our 2025 Wrapped hub.

The 2025 Wrapped Guide for Artists, Songwriters, Creators, Authors, and Advertisers

December 3, 2025

Spotify Wrapped is the moment when hundreds of millions of fans around the world get to look back on their year in audio. But the celebration doesn’t stop with listeners. It extends across the entire Spotify ecosystem.

This year, we’re once again providing personalized Wrapped experiences for artists, songwriters, podcast creators, authors, and advertisers. With access to their own microsites, they can dive into how their work resonated with fans and audiences in 2025 and get unique, shareable data stories to post across their social channels.

Here’s what’s in store for each group.

For artists and songwriters

For the ninth year, we’re helping artists celebrate their year on Spotify and connect with their biggest fans. This year’s Wrapped for Artists experience is more intuitive than ever, with new data stories that give a deeper look into how an artist’s music resonated with listeners. We’ve also streamlined things so it’s easy to jump between stories and share faster.

New stories for 2025 include Top Albums and Super Listeners, which highlight the outsized impact of an artist’s most dedicated fans. Artists will also discover which of the new Wrapped Clubs their music belongs to and see Accolades—like “The Party Starter” and “The Early Riser”—which are determined by the streaming moments when their tracks really over-indexed with fans. Every data story includes a share card, making it easy for artists to highlight where their music was heard, how it grew, and whom it connected with.

For songwriters with an active Songwriter Page, Wrapped for Songwriters returns with a personalized, shareable overview of the year. We’ll also be celebrating songwriters across our social channels with behind-the-scenes content and more.

Artists can explore their 2025 Wrapped by heading to Spotify for Artists.

For creators

From chart-topping storytellers to emerging talent, audio and video creators on Spotify are driving the cultural conversation. Wrapped for Creators is our annual moment to celebrate the people behind the mic (and camera) and the loyal fans who tuned in.

This year’s experience transforms creator data into personal storytelling, highlighting growth, fan engagement, and creative milestones. Some of the data stories creators will see include year-over-year gains across listeners and followers, their top episodes, deep dives into fan engagement, and their shows’ top countries.

Creators can access their custom Wrapped experience through Spotify for Creators.

For authors

More and more readers are falling in love with audiobooks, and Spotify is at the heart of this shift. For the first time, audiobooks will appear in the main Spotify Wrapped experience, highlighting how many titles a listener finished and their top audiobook and audiobook genre—a major moment of visibility for the format.

We’re also celebrating audiobook storytelling with our second-ever Wrapped for Authors, giving authors and publishers a deeper look at how their work connected with listeners around the world. This year’s experience is even more robust, offering new insights like an author’s most popular title among first-time audiobook listeners, their biggest and highest-growth markets, and the other music and podcasts their listeners love.

Eligible authors can head to Spotify for Authors to find their Wrapped experience, or work directly with their publishers.

For advertisers

Wrapped for Advertisers helps brands better understand their audiences through Spotify’s streaming intelligence. By turning listening trends into clear, useful data, Spotify Advertising gives marketers a simple way to see what’s connecting with Spotify fans and use those insights to plan and measure more effective campaigns. In 2025, the experience expands to reach more advertisers globally. Select advertisers will receive a personalized recap in the Spotify app (on both mobile and desktop), self-serve advertisers can explore their own experience in Spotify Ads Manager, and others will get theirs directly from their Spotify representatives. The data provides a unique look at an advertiser’s audience, which could include their top music and podcast genres, their mix of ad formats used, and more.

Select advertisers will receive their Wrapped experience directly, while others can find theirs in Spotify Ads Manager.                                                                       

From artists to advertisers to fans, Wrapped is a moment for every part of the Spotify community.

Explore your personalized 2025 Wrapped and learn more about this year’s campaign and experience on our 2025 Wrapped hub.

These Music Trends Took 2025 in Surprising New Directions

December 3, 2025

Spotify Wrapped is back, and as always, it’s powered by the billions of streams that fans around the world delivered throughout the year. From the artists who dominated the charts to the unexpected tracks that found a home in playlists everywhere, Wrapped is shaped entirely by how our listeners hit play.

In 2025, music fans made bold choices. They pushed familiar names to new heights, championed emerging voices, and turned niche sounds into global movements. Pop, K-Pop, and country surged; cross-genre collaborations flourished; and a booming live landscape with a touch of social momentum shaped what broke through. What rose to the top wasn’t just a reflection of popularity, it was a reflection of passion.

To explore the biggest shifts in sound and the global fandoms behind them, we sat down with Ronny Ho, Head of Dance & Electronic Development, and James Foley, Lead of Global Editorial Strategy, both of whom are on Spotify’s music editorial team, for a look inside the data and trends that defined 2025.

Let’s start with a surprise. Which 2025 music trend caught you off guard the most this year?

Ronny: It’s not necessarily a 2025 trend, but I’m pleasantly surprised by the globalization of K-Pop this year. We couldn’t ignore the impact of K-Pop Demon Hunters, putting groups like HUNTR/X and Saja Boys at the forefront of pop music culture. Although fictional, they’re represented by real artists from around the world, including South Korea and the U.S. In addition to the aforementioned K-Pop Demon Hunters, KATSEYE, another group that became popular from a TV show, skyrocketed to stardom in 2025 and recently kicked off their headline tour. 

James: The continued growth of Afrobeats isn’t surprising, but perhaps the ways in which it now permeates global music has caught many unawares. This year has seen it morph further out of its West African roots into a staple of mainstream culture—the sonics are being adopted by other genres and places, further accelerating its reach. It’s now firmly part of mainstream pop and rap in North America and Europe. Notably especially is the cross-pollination happening with Latin artists such Kapo and Beéle, who interpret Afrobeats through their own lens while collaborating with some of the mainstays of the genre.To that end, our ever-growing Afro-Ritmo playlist spotlights Latin-African fusions, and Global Afrobeats gives you a true sense of this amazing global cultural shift.

We saw several new genres and microscenes pick up steam in 2025. Which ones stood out, and why do you think they resonated with listeners?

James: There’s something very gratifying to witness in the remarkable rise of Copenhagen’s alternative pop scene. It’s a perfect storm of a generation of super-talented independent artists—Erika De Casier, Smerz, and Astrid Sonne to name a few—the real life spaces and institutions in the city which have nurtured and supported musical innovation and collaboration, and a supportive industry infrastructure. Why has it resonated? The music is this fearless blend of trippy, left-field, sometimes experimental textures while retaining an accessible edge. On paper it’s incongruous, but in your ears, it’s just incredible. Hear for yourself on our Cph+ playlist.

Ronny: Rock is continuing to have its moment, especially influencing country music. This new wave of country rock is about the return of rock bands to the mainstream country sound, with groups like Treaty Oak Revival and Ole 60 growing massive fan bases in just a few short years. This is the next step in the expansion of the country genre, growing from the acoustic homegrown-y Zach Bryan arm of the genre but incorporating heavier production. Think big guitar and drum sounds over more mainstream country lyrics and imagery. You can get a taste of it on our newly launched GRAVEL playlist.

I’ve been noticing a wave of heart-on-sleeve pop taking over Spotify lately—the kind that feels pulled straight from a rom-com’s big montage moment. Artists like Olivia Dean, who has seven songs on the Global Chart, Role Model, Alex Warren, and Sombr are leading the way with songs that are emotionally direct and impossible not to feel. It’s romantic pop at its purest: earnest, catchy, a little self-aware, and perfect for anyone who wants life to sound a bit like falling in love on-screen.

On a personal note, what was your favorite music trend of the year? You know, the one you couldn’t stop listening to?

Ronny: I love that U.K. garage has properly crossed over in the U.S. this year! Speed garage was amongst the fastest-growing subgenres in music this year, and that’s thanks, in part, to the internet. Artists such as Sammy Virji and Girls Don’t Sync have added a modern touch to garage while paying homage to the classic sound. When I’m not out raving, I love listening to the emerging R&B artists coming from the U.K. If you’re not on the kwn train yet, it’s time to get on!

James: The surge and increasing international resonance of talent out of Ireland has been my favorite trend. There’s been a lot on repeat—the heartbreaking and hilarious CMAT on her album EURO-COUNTRY; KNEECAP’s bilingual rap, which is laced with humor and political intention; and hard-hitting, sophisticated bangers from KETTAMA. Irish artists in all their diversity are on a roll. Their music is connecting in ever more corners of the world and personally I couldn’t be happier about it!

We know social media is a discovery engine. In 2025, how did social platforms shape music trends?

Ronny: Social platforms continue to blur the lines of what it means to be regional. Artists are finding fans all around the world and genres are crossing borders faster than ever. As James mentioned, sub-Saharan Africa continues to showcase its cultural impact, with Afrobeats merging with Latin sounds and Afro house instrumentation weaved into pop and dance production. 

We also saw the revival of trip-hop as nostalgia continues to play a massive part in culture today. Trip-hop was the soundtrack of the mid-’90s, built on smoky vocals and hip-hop–leaning beats from icons like Portishead and Sneaker Pimps. Today, we’re hearing it everywhere, from the lush, atmospheric textures of FKA twigs and PinkPantheress to the glossy downtempo R&B of Oklou. Even Addison Rae’s brand of moody pop traces back to the genre. I recommend exploring our Deep Dive: Trip-Hop Revival playlist.

Looking ahead, are there any early signs or shifts that could hint at what’s coming in 2026? Any bold predictions?

James: Connecting the dots on what our editors are seeing and hearing around the world, it’s clear that artists have many more exciting moments ahead. This momentum is driven by a new generation of truly borderless listeners who don’t care about long-held boundaries of language or location. Specifically, I think we’ll see more Asian artists breaking through globally across a broader mix of styles and sounds. You can already see hints of this in the international reception for artists like Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba and Indonesian indie soul band Thee Marloes.

Ronny: Every year, we see harder, more aggressive sounds gain popularity and I predict that in 2026, it will infiltrate the mainstream. Whether it’s gabber, rage rap, country rock, Latin trap, or punk, we’re seeing communities galvanize online as much as they are in real life. 

Explore your personalized 2025 Wrapped and learn more about this year’s campaign and experience on our 2025 Wrapped hub.