Sounds of 2025

What will the music of tomorrow sound like?

MIDiA Research and Splice present “Sounds of 2025” report

Discover the latest report exploring the music-making trends of 2024 and the genre shifts that are poised to reshape the landscape in 2025.

Read the full report

Behind the report

The global music creation platform Splice is the powerhouse behind some of the world’s biggest hits. Take Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”, the most streamed song on Spotify in 2024. Julian Bunetta produced it, but the track’s foundation prominently features a Splice sound pack by producer Oliver.

Platforms like Splice shape today’s music and offer an early glimpse into the future of music culture—highlighting the emerging trends, user searches, and styles set to dominate tomorrow.

That’s why MIDiA Research, the leading global authority in music, the creator economy and cross-entertainment, partnered with Splice to unveil “Sounds of 2025”, a groundbreaking exploration of 2024’s music trends revealing the genres, sounds, and creative shifts that will define the year to come.

Key insights

Pluggnb: The genre taking over

One of the report’s standout findings is the meteoric rise of pluggnb — a blend of the trap subgenre plugg and ‘90s R&B. Pluggnb emerged as the fastest-growing genre on Splice, with downloads surging by a staggering 342.8% to 699,987 in 2024.

Hip hop continues to dominate as Splice’s most popular genre, with 48.7 million downloads in 2024. Trap follows closely behind with 35.0 million downloads.

After pluggnb, other fast-growing genres include K-pop (up 328.2%) and Jersey club (up 281.3%).

The “Class of 2024” — users who joined Splice last year — are fueling Afro house’s growth, contributing 17.4% of all searches for the genre.

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