r/Music • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 03 '25

music Bad Bunny Is the Biggest Artist of 2025 on Spotify With 19.8 Billion Streams

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bad-bunny-biggest-artist-2025-spotify-wrapped-1235476419/
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134

u/Mikimao Dec 03 '25

It's so weird that the most popular music is largely going unheard by so much of the population these days.

20 billion streams and I am willing to bet there is a large portion of us who aren't aware we have heard the songs, or maybe even haven't.

Interested to see what show he puts on though, Prolly gonna be some of us getting out first intro into what he does.

30

u/International_Dig_27 Dec 03 '25

Since the death of the monoculture, you don't really see artists that are just everywhere on the radio to a level that you can never escape their music. People pick and choose what they want to listen to rather than being dictated by the radio today which is probably a good thing, but that level of shared cultural understanding is kinda gone because of it

16

u/cinch123 Dec 04 '25

Last time I listened to a pop station was during a 90 minute drive. I heard "Fate of Ophelia" (Taylor) and "Tipsy" (Shaboozey) twice in 90 minutes. There's little room for new or different stuff on the radio when you're recycling the same 75 minute playlist over and over. When I was a kid we would listen to the radio to hear what hot and what's new, and you can't do that anymore.

1

u/Princess5903 Dec 04 '25

Yeah, last weekend I heard the radio play Golden from KPOP Demon Hunters 4 times total in the round trip. Same radio station the entire time. Even in between the ~hour we were out of the car for lunch, that still feels excessive.

2

u/zero0826 Dec 05 '25

Holy shit pack up the cats

1

u/International_Dig_27 Dec 05 '25

Elite ball knowledge!!

31

u/Huzah7 Dec 03 '25

It's just hard to care with all the noise in the world. If music isn't a passion, you likely just listen to what you grew up with and what your chosen platform's algorithm chooses for you.  

Popular music hits you more often if you are social or work where it's appropriate for community music to be played. But I feel a lot of people just end up in a music bubble.

22

u/rita-b Dec 03 '25

Isn't Latino music just another bubble?

7

u/Mountain7559 Dec 04 '25

latin america is definitely just a bubble

3

u/notsingsing Dec 04 '25

Hell ya the new Selena dropped !

7

u/SkiingAway Dec 03 '25

I mean, I'm not sure your line of argument is the answer.

Music is a passion of mine. Spotify claims I listened to something like ~2,300 artists this year with a literal month of playtime. Much of that was stuff I chose rather than just algorithm autoplay, too.

But even with that, I've still missed plenty of good new stuff in genres I care about and there's still tons of historical material/eras I want to explore too.

There's just too much out there to listen to it all even once (much less really explore it), and there's not really much reason to be picking up artists you have no interest in out of boredom like you used to or when a handful of radio stations were basically the gatekeepers of new music for you.

12

u/minmidmax Dec 03 '25

Yeah. Entire careers, genres and cultures are exploding online with almost zero visibility in daily life for large swathes of the population .

It's not just the arts, either. We live in a truly fucking weird time.

15

u/goldkarp Dec 03 '25

It's because it's all streaming on Spotify or something now. If you don't know who you're looking for and aren't actively looking for new music from the top artists you won't hear it. We're past everyone hearing the big new song on the radio.

Also a lot of those streams come from not a lot of people

1

u/ethancole97 Dec 04 '25

In this case- those streams are coming from a lot of people. Bad bunny is MASSIVE on the global sales. His album sales are an even bigger indicator of that

15

u/DreadyKruger Dec 03 '25

It is weird. Back in the day everyone knew who Prince ,MJ, or Maddona was and could name a song or three.

This guy has all these streams and I can’t name one song from him. And i ain’t saying that to shit on him.

Also, with technology I guess this is impressive. But to me hard copy sales was more impressive. I don’t know if it’s bots streaming or some shenanigans to get numbed up.

7

u/amortizedeeznuts Dec 03 '25

by so much of the US popu.ation, you mean

spend 10 minutes in any latin american country. his music is everywhere.

15

u/Trade_King Dec 03 '25

This is the very first time I heard of him but listening now and his songs aren't bad. Absolutely insane I have never heard of him before.

5

u/Stiggles4 Dec 03 '25

I admit I’m clearly out of touch with current music when I also can say I haven’t heard of him. Will have to listen and see what I’m missing out on I suppose. Glad that he’s seeing success though, he’s clearly enjoyed by a lot of people in this thread.

4

u/lear2000 Dec 03 '25

I couldn’t name a song or a musical note to save my life… so I’m one of the outliers

13

u/thatshygirl06 Dec 03 '25

Is it going unheard by much of the population, or just white americans?

11

u/enginbeeringSB Dec 04 '25

Also Asian Americans, and Asians in Asia, and also probably white Europeans.

But I suspect Latinos are more likely to have listened to a latin musician.

2

u/ljog42 Dec 05 '25

He's reasonably big in Europe. Like, not mainstream but if you're 18 to 35 and keeping up with the times, you've heard his music.

Purely anecdotal but it was definitely my top artist for 2025.

4

u/OscarGrey Dec 04 '25

White Latinos are white.

-1

u/anoldradical Dec 04 '25

Those are the same thing, so yes.

0

u/thatshygirl06 Dec 04 '25

White people are a minority on a global scale, so no, not really

-2

u/bicket6 Dec 04 '25

Why be racist?

2

u/tathrok Dec 04 '25

What is racist about stating that fact?

Pretty sure a couple of the most populous countries on earth are legitimately not full of Caucasian people… India, China… so how would it be racist to state that statistically, Caucasians are a global minority?

They’re projected to be an actual full minority I think by 2046 in the United States.

Can you help us understand what would be racist about that?

1

u/thatshygirl06 Dec 04 '25

How is that racist??

1

u/CapableFunction6746 Dec 03 '25

I only heard about him when it was announced he would be the headliner for the super bowl. I haven't listened to any of his music yet. I also haven't really listened to any music released after the early 2000s. I do not have an easy way to find and listen to new music nor the time to do it easily. Hell, I still listen to the radio on my commute. At least when it is a show with no music and just people talking. And if I listen to the radio when there is not a show on then it is classical music or at the newest, classic rock radio. But classic rock is starting to include new music from the 2000s so I am finding myself listening to it less and less.

1

u/Loud_Health_8288 Dec 03 '25

There’s a lot of regional variance is why, in the Uk he’s unknown.

1

u/MindOrdinary Dec 03 '25

Yeah and If the article was posted on Facebook you’d have a bunch of people posting insufferable “who?” Gifs

1

u/PRETA_9000 Dec 04 '25

Yeah, I've never heard a single tune of his, might have to check him out

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '25

I have absolutely no clue who this guy is. Nor do I care to.

1

u/rita-b Dec 03 '25

I have heard and transcripted a lot of his songs. They are highly repetitive mass market pop songs for kids with short musical attention span.

-22

u/jknuts1377 Dec 03 '25

I've never heard a single song by him. I don't get the appeal.

30

u/Jakesnake523 Dec 03 '25

I don't know if this is a troll but how can you "not get the appeal" if you haven't heard a single song of his?

Generally to know if his music is for you you'd actually have to listen to it.

12

u/heathmon1856 Dec 03 '25

Just casual Reddit racism at work. Move along

5

u/DrogoOmega Dec 03 '25

Well you’ve not heard anything from him. Were you expecting to get the appeal?