Chartmetric has released its first “Year In Music Report” spotlighting the global music industry through tracking of radio airplay, streaming, and social media.

The report monitored 3191 radio stations in 1187 cities and 91 countries that played 7,375,258 songs an average of 102.4 times each. Chartmetric noted that the top 10 songs by radio airplay consistently experienced a significant surge in streaming within the first two months after release. Among the fastest growing genres were Cutecore female hip-hop and Sad Girl Indie with the most emerging artists coming from Latin, K-Pop, Indian music, African music (like Afrobeats and amapiano), and J-pop.

Chartmetric, the all-in-one platform advancing music through data insights, has been collecting comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data since 2016. Now, eight years in the making, the company’s Inaugural Year in Music report is here, with the stats and sounds of music in 2023. Tracking over 9.7 million artists–a 1.3 million artist jump from the end of 2022–Chartmetric’s five-section report tackles long-standing questions posed by the music industry with a focus on artist development, providing an overview of the social and streaming ecosystem. 

In 2023, the United States, Brazil, and India were the top three nations by their share of new artist profiles created, followed by Germany, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Quantity is only one metric to consider here, as there is also artist growth. The highest number of emerging artists in 2023 came from the US, followed by Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea.

After ranking artists each month by their peak Chartmetric artist score (an aggregated metric of various measures of success), a narrative emerged: the top 10 artists remained steady throughout the year.  The top artist slot was in flux early on but by summer, Taylor Swift cinched the lead and stayed on top for the rest of the year. The same six artists made the top 10 every month: Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Drake, and The Weeknd.

While Taylor Swift and The Weeknd became the first artists to surpass 100 million listeners this year, breaking through was an uphill battle for most up-and-coming artists in 2023. The year-end report reveals that very few artists moved from Chartmetric’s “undiscovered” to “developing” category and only 19.16% of artists on Spotify have over one thousand monthly listeners, indicating the need for artists to explore solutions to navigate the oversaturated music landscape.

While female acts like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and Ice Spice dominated the spotlight in 2023, Chartmetric’s data reveals a significant gender imbalance within the solo artist category. Of the solo artists for which Chartmetric has self-identified or publicly sourced pronoun information on (467.9k), a substantial 77% use he/him pronouns, while only 18% use she/her pronouns and 5% use they/them. 

At a global scale, Chartmetric’s analysis of emerging artists indicates the genres that are gaining momentum. Unsurprisingly, Latin music carried its meteoric rise over the past few years into 2023 as its sound continues to expand and grow. K-pop also keeps growing in strength and has been one of the most talked about genres in the 2020s. Despite there being a relatively modest number of releases compared to other genres, the marketing prowess of the K-pop industry ensures its phenomenal success rate. Other genres to watch include Indian music, African music (like Afrobeats and amapiano), and J-pop, which are starting to gain traction globally. 

Tracking 123 unique genres, Chartmetric data shows that hip-hop and rap account for the largest share of artists releasing music, followed by pop and then dance. Tracks follow a similar pattern, as hip-hop and rap are the most common genres of released music to date, followed by rock and pop. That said, 2023 saw an increase in the share of dance and electronic music.

Cutecore, with its pink and sparkly aesthetic, permeated the rap and hip-hop scene, offering a vibrant alternative for a new generation of female rappers. This trend was followed by the timely release of the iconic Barbie movie in 2023, which saw Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice sampling Aqua’s iconic Eurodance classic “Barbie Girl” to create the new smash hit “Barbie World.” This collaboration also helped fuel the recent resurgence of the Eurodance genre.

Meanwhile, other niche genres like Sad Girl Indie picked up steam thanks to rapidly growing cult followings on TikTok. This genre, greatly dominated by queer female artists and fans, has seen a recent boom–bringing artists like Mitski and supergroup boygenius to the limelight.

As an all-in-one data platform, Chartmetric points to much more than general growth patterns or the top artists and tracks of the last 365 days–providing comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data for artists of any level to create successful careers in music

Chartmetric’s full 2023 Year-End Report is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Korean, and Japanese at this link.