As Spotify turns 20 this year, I’ve been thinking a lot about how music travels. One of the biggest shifts over that time has been how quickly an artist or genre can now go from local to global. As a curator, it’s pretty amazing to watch how a song spreads once people start connecting with it.
One example that jumps out to me is the first time I heard the original version of “Calm Down” by the Nigerian artist Rema. It’s a deceptively simple, nuanced combination of Afrobeats/Afropop and Western indie pop, with very crisp production. From a curation perspective, often the first thing you ask yourself is, “What could this sit next to?” In this case, it felt really exciting, because these global influences had come together in a way that could fit naturally alongside so many different songs. And in fact, it would later become the first track led by an African artist to join Spotify’s Billions Club.
One of the coolest things about music is that there are these hard-to-articulate qualities in melodies and rhythms that speak to all of us. It’s especially cool when that connection comes from such a rich mix of influences.
Helping music travel is something we’re proud to have played a part in over the years. In honor of Spotify’s 20th, here’s a little insight into how it happens.
It often starts with an early bet.
Back in 2013, there were no Latin tracks in Spotify’s global Top 100. Reggaeton was beginning to take hold in Panama and Puerto Rico, but it was still often dismissed as a passing trend. As momentum around the genre built, our editors launched the Baila Reggaeton playlist, creating a space to showcase the movement for a global audience. This helped Spotify become the default home for reggaeton worldwide, and it also gave us an early look at which songs had the potential to break out internationally. This is a model we’ve kept applying to other genres ever since.
Since then, Latin listenership on Spotify has grown nearly 1,000%, and reggaeton has become one of the biggest and most influential genres in the world. It’s driven several major Latin music milestones: In 2017, “Despacito - Remix” became the first Latin track ever to hit No. 1 on our global chart. The following year, J Balvin became the most popular artist on our platform—a first for a Latin artist. And of course, Bad Bunny took that even further with his record-breaking run as the global top artist in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2025.
Passionate fan communities can take those movements even further.
K-Pop is one of the clearest examples of the power of passionate fandom. Over the past two decades, the genre has become a global force, driven in large part by fan communities helping amplify their favorite artists. From where we sit, we’re able to watch those movements happen in real time. As of early 2026, K-Pop generates nearly 6.8 billion monthly streams on Spotify.
What’s especially interesting is how the audience has matured. While Gen Z is still the core engine, we’re seeing significant growth in the 25-44 age demographic. That tells us fans are growing with their favorite artists, and that K-Pop culture is here to stay.
Our role in supporting K-Pop is about meeting those fans where they are. We want to make it easy for both new and longtime listeners to stay connected to what’s happening in the genre, go deeper into emerging trends, and discover new artists. Our flagship K-Pop ON! (온) playlist has worldwide reach, with especially strong audiences in Indonesia and the U.S., followed by Taiwan, the Philippines, and Japan. Nearly half of its listening also comes from a long tail of markets outside Korea, which speaks to just how global the audience has become.
Meanwhile, our editors stay deeply connected across markets.
We have editors all over the world, and we talk to each other about music all day. When someone notices something starting to build momentum locally, they can instantly share it with colleagues everywhere else. That gives us an edge in helping to grow an artist’s global footprint, earlier.
I remember when Afrobeats really started gaining traction about 10 years ago. We launched the African Heat playlist, and I was struck by how popular it became outside of West Africa, especially in the U.S. and the U.K. Not long after, we were able to move Afrobeats songs into traditional pop playlists and see how much our users were enjoying the mixture of sounds. It’s incredible how our editors were able to identify these opportunities so quickly, and we’re proud of the role we’ve played in introducing audiences to this genre.
Once a genre starts traveling, it also transforms.
That’s especially true for country music right now. What was once a predominantly U.S. and Canadian format has spread meaningfully into places like the U.K., Ireland, and Australia. Part of that comes from playlists like Hot Country and New Boots, but also from our local editors identifying spaces where country can fit with other sounds. Fans are connecting with the storytelling traditions of the genre, while the music itself is becoming more diverse, pulling in influences from hip-hop, folk, and pop.
This is no doubt what I’m most excited about for the coming years. In the U.K. & Ireland, artists like CMAT are taking the first steps toward what I expect will be a totally new evolution of the genre. And Australia, already the third-largest market for country music, has an incredible local scene. We’ve supported artists like Mack Geiger through our local Heaps Country playlist, helping his single “String By” eventually make its way to Hot Country. I’m pretty confident Australia will export some of the biggest country hits in the world over the next five years.
The next big wave is already taking shape.
Some of the most interesting music right now is coming from genres like Amapiano, Brazilian Funk, and I-Pop. They might still feel regional today, but we’re already seeing signs of their influence spreading. The fourth-largest audience for our AMAPIANO GROOVES playlist, for example, is the U.S.
I think we’ll see a similar trajectory for these genres as we did with Afrobeats and reggaeton, where artists around the world begin borrowing from their rhythms, production styles, and musical influences. One of the great things about Spotify is that not only can fans discover new sounds, but artists can, too. Right now it still feels early, but you can already hear artists experimenting with these styles in different ways. Over time, I think a lot of those influences will start meeting somewhere in the middle.
And that’s what makes global music culture feel so alive right now.
When I think about the future, two things stand out to me. The first is the sheer opportunity for artists everywhere. The idea that someone can create something in one corner of the map and deeply connect with someone somewhere else still inspires me every day.
The second is the new musical ideas that come from the blending of influences. As music curators, we all love finding and sharing great songs, but what’s especially interesting is when artists create something entirely new because they were inspired by music they might never have encountered otherwise.
On our end, we continue to invest in our global curation groups and the tools that help us spot artists and scenes early. Our job is to keep listening, all over the world, and to keep building new ways to guide fans on their own magical journeys of discovery.