What are the new music trends in 2025?
Discover the year’s latest music trends!
What are the new music trends in 2025, what’s the latest micro-genre to capture listeners’ imagination, and what’s up with all the singing cats? Let’s dig into all of that and more today.
Whether you’re a solo creator or part of an in-house team, it’s worth noting the latest music trends for 2025. After all, soundtracking is just as important for ads and filmmaking as it is for social media and small-scale projects. Whatever your budget and aspirations, music will make your content sing.
So, let’s cut to the chase. Here are the five recent music trends to watch out for in 2025:
- Genre-bending continues
- Indie artists take over the mainstream
- Sonic branding steps into the spotlight
- Imperfect subgenre aesthetics rule
- “Animal”-based music goes wild
1. Genre-bending continues
The rise of online tastemakers, streaming, and algorithms has reinvented the concept of genre. In 2025, artists will continue challenging traditional musical styles, pushing creative boundaries, and defining their work by feel, emotion, rather than neat genre boxes. Why? Because it works.
Billie Eilish isn’t one thing, the Weeknd can’t really be labeled — if the world’s biggest artists shun pop music trends and defy genre, why shouldn’t everybody else? We’ve seen this work wonders across our catalog, too. Turns out people love Latin Afrobeats, and they can’t get enough of Electro Corridos: a blend of traditional Mexican folk and electronic music.
That’s before we even mention the country-trap crossover that’s taken the world by storm. Artists like Lil Nas X and Cardi B kicked down the door, spurring interest in Epidemic Sound artists like Dylan Sitts.
2. Indie artists take over the mainstream
Chappell Roan is now one of the internet’s most beloved people. Despite now calling a major label her home, she still approaches her performance and music with the quirky, DIY attitude that made her so magnetic as an independent artist.
According to The Royalty Exchange, the independent artist market is expected to grow in 2025, reaching an estimated value of $149.91 billion by 2029. In the first half of 2024, the number of indie musicians with 500 million streams rose by roughly 2% compared to 2023.
This is something we’ve noticed at Epidemic Sound. Most of our artists could be classed as independent, as they operate outside the traditional label framework. Even so, they’ve resonated with audiences on a massive scale, enjoying countless viral moments across social media.
I’m Turning Into a Vampire, a limited YouTube series, recently featured a track from the Epidemic Sound catalog: Season of Love, by Gamma Skies and Victor Lundberg. As a result, the track’s popularity spiked across multiple DSPs, scooping up more than one million views on YouTube alone.
3. Sonic branding steps into the spotlight
Attention is a rare currency nowadays, making it harder for brands and professional creators to find an “in” and build instant connections with audiences. That’s why, in 2025, we anticipate the rise of the sonic brand: unique motifs, patterns, and sounds that users will associate with a brand.
We offer tailored sonic branding to our Enterprise customers, covering everything from sound workshops and custom playlists to bespoke creations and sound strategy. In the past year alone, we’ve worked on sonic branding playbooks for clients ranging from energy sector giants to household food brands. This service is something our clients have increasingly demanded, and we don’t think it’s going to slow down in 2025.
4. Imperfect subgenre aesthetics rule
Sure, 2024 gave birth to Rat Boy Summer, but it was also the year of Brat Summer. Inspired by Charlie XCX’s empowering, edgy Brat album, the phenomenon thrived off the UK artist’s danceable, rough-around-the-edges aesthetic.
It gave way to a bunch of viral moments, almost like flicking a switch in people’s heads: flaws and errors-on-purpose are cool. This inspired our Glitchcore, Hyperpop, and Bratcore playlists, which all did huge numbers last year. We’d be shocked if the appetite for this kind of unfiltered, scrappy music went away in 2025.
5. “Animal”-based music goes wild
Social media has long been the home of all things cute and fluffy — 2024 was no exception. We were blessed with absolute bangers like The Capybara Song, adorable miau miau covers of Grammy-winning Billie Eilish tracks, and this elite-tier glitchy cat song.
We’ve received a ton of requests for this type of music — everyone from hobbyist creators to world-famous social media networks want a slice of it. For that reason, we can’t see this trend going anywhere but up in 2025.
Find the perfect soundtrack for every music trend in 2025. Our catalog’s bursting with more than 50,000 tracks, covering everything from dubstep to J-pop, Bossa Nova to ambient house.
And if you’re a business looking to take your content to the next level, why not contact our Enterprise team? They’ll guide you through the latest music trends, deliver bespoke creations, plans, and playlists, and help you get the most out of your subscription.
And best of all? The entire Epidemic Sound catalog works around whatever you need, whenever you need it.
Our catalog is high-quality, affordable, and safe. An Epidemic Sound subscription goes beyond royalty-free music, removing the headache of licensing and freeing you up to do what you do best. You can enjoy the safety of our license hand-in-hand with our massive catalog — you’ll also gain unlimited access to our advanced search and editing functions. Finding the right sound’s never been easier.
It’s better than royalty-free. It’s worry-free. Get started with Epidemic Sound below.
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