SoundCloud’s Music Intelligence Report leverages 2025 platform telemetry to identify a significant diversification in listener behavior, noting a 4% decrease in time users spend with their primary genre. The data highlights a structural pivot in content creation, with electronic music uploads expanding from 25% of total ingest in 2020 to over 33% in 2025, driven by high-BPM subgenres and a 39% year-over-year increase in #DJSET uploads.
This shift signals a rapid breakdown of traditional taxonomy, evidenced by 34% of hip-hop-influenced indie uploads now being algorithmically categorized as folk or rock. For industry stakeholders, the data validates the efficacy of social discovery models—where peer-to-peer curation drives a 3x increase in engagement—suggesting that rigid genre-based marketing may be losing relevance.
Curated by MusicResearch.com from billboard.com. Read the full article at: SoundCloud Data Finds Electronic Music ‘Surging’ and Hip-Hop ‘Rapidly Evolving’
