2025 most streamed genres (didn't see a thread for it)

[IllmaticDelta]

Just like last year and the year before it, when it comes to overall music streaming in the U.S., R&B and hip-hop still lead, once again accounting for more than one in every four streams stateside.

In 2025, rap and R&B accounted for 349.9 billion on-demand audio streams, up from 341.63 billion last year.

It is followed by rock with 260.5 billion (up from 234.22 billion last year)


and pop with 167.2 billion (up from 165.49 billion).

Rounding out the top five is country with 122.5 billion (up from 117.58 billion)


and Latin with 120.9 billion (up from 113.02 billion.)

Music streams hit 5 trillion in 2025. Christian, rock and Latin lead growth in the US

The global music industry hit 5.1 trillion streams in 2025

abcnews.go.com

K-Pop, Afrobeats and Amapiano are together in the "world" category

 

[Knucklehead]

The hip-hop is dead crowd aren’t gonna like this!

 

[Canada Goose]

Rock gotta be mostly old music for it to the 2nd most streamed genre in 2025 Rock is beyond dead in modern times.

 

[A Tribe Called Quest ™]

Rock gotta be mostly old music for it to the 2nd most streamed genre in 2025 Rock is beyond dead in modern times.

Yea but Rock been out since like 50s

 

[Sir Richard Spirit]

How many of yall cities got a dedicated throw back channel on the radio? We’ve had one for a while, but I noticed early last year, a pop station kinda switched over to throwbacks.

Nobody wanna hear this bullshyt that’s coming out now.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The hip-hop is dead crowd aren’t gonna like this!

Too many people getting tricked by clickbait/sensationalized reporting like this one:

No Rap Songs Are in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40 for the First Time Since 1990

The highest-ranking rap song — defined as a song deemed eligible for charting on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs listing — on the Oct. 25 Hot 100 was YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Shot Callin,” at No. 44. Cardi B’s “Safe” (featuring Kehlani) and BigXthaPlug’s “Hell at Night” (featuring Ella Langley)...

www.thecoli.com

w/o looking deeper into it

Nah it's a combo of streaming and Billboards own fukkery. They are letting legit popular songs fall off the charts because they are older than a year old under the pretense that it will allow new songs to join. In reality all it does is allow album drops to dominate the boards for a few weeks with no real impact.

 

[Metal Face]

why is hip hop & RnB still grouped together

 

[Awesome Wells]

why is hip hop & RnB still grouped together

We know why.

The two most exploitable genres in music. For the powers that be, they're interchangeable.

No secret why they're the most streamed.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

why is hip hop & RnB still grouped together

I explained why before...repost:



Modern R&B (we're not talking about Soul music) and HipHop are closely related

more related than what they include in the "Latin" grouping (reggaeton, salsa, merengue, tejano, mariachi etc...)

Regional Mexican Music Sounds & Feels Nothing Like Reggaetón — And That’s Partly Why It’s Dominating in 2023

Mexican Music Beats Reggaeton With Acts Like Peso Pluma, Eslabon Armado, Fuerza Regida

www.billboard.com

and the "World" grouping (K-Pop, Afrobeats, Indian etc...)

World Music, Latin Music Surge

World music (up 26.4%) and Latin both grew at a lightning-fast pace; Latin grew at such a rate (28.4%) that in absolute numbers only R&B/Hip-Hop grew more, edging out rock for second-biggest growth in raw units, up 6.6 million over the same period last year. It’s Latin’s second straight year of 20%-plus growth, taking it to 6.25% of the total market, up from 5.32% at this point last year; and world music’s second straight year of double-digit percentage growth, taking it to 2.2% of the market, up from 1.9% midway through 2021. (The “world music” classification is generally a catchall of non-Latin music genres that originated outside the contiguous United States, and includes K-Pop and Afrobeats, among others.) Though every measured core genre is up at least a little bit year-over-year, only Latin, world, children and new age are growing at a faster rate than the market overall (9.3%) — and the top four genres all dropped in percentage of the overall market.

^^^definition of the "World" label from last years article

 

[TripleAgent]

I'd love to know how much is "traditional" rap and how much is mumble/trap bullshyt

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Rock gotta be mostly old music for it to the 2nd most streamed genre in 2025 Rock is beyond dead in modern times.

"Rock" is always going to do numbers because it's the DEFAULT genre of non-youth, white americans

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

The majority streaming old shyt when it was fire.

 

[Harry B]

The majority streaming old shyt when it was fire.

Drakes one dance, Travis goosebumps and dj Khaled Mariah remix was when it was fire ha.

Like I’ve said before, hiphop is still alive. It’s just scattered. A lot more cats getting a piece of the pie, just like rock been for decades now. While country for example seems to still have concentration in a few stars and major label pop as well, by definition.
And of course you are right, older hits are still booming (but I don’t know if 2016, 19, or 22 was when it was fire).

 

[im_sleep]

As long as it’s doing better than punk ass country music

 

[jadillac]

The hip-hop is dead crowd aren’t gonna like this!

It's mainly old hip hop music