Music creation platform Splice has designated Afro house as its sound of the year following the genre’s 778% growth surge on the platform in 2025 — a number driven by 1.3 million searches for and 6.7 million downloads of the genre, the company revealed Tuesday (Jan. 13).
The surge helped lift the broader house genre itself up from the platform’s fifth most downloaded genre in 2023 to its second most downloaded genre in 2025, with Afro house driving 70% of that growth. Meanwhile, melodic house downloads on the platform grew by 75%, garnering 3.2 million downloads.
These stats come from Splice’s new report, Sounds of 2026: An In-depth Look At the Trends Driving Music Creation, which looks at significant trends on the platform. The report was prepared by data analysis firm MIDiA Research and covers data from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Download the full report for free here.
“This year, more than ever, we are seeing a world where the biggest trends are reaching a subset of people,” the report states. “In an industry now dominated by microtrends, it is nearly impossible for a single person to keep track of them all. With Splice’s data, however, we can zoom in on the trends and microtrends driven by the music industry’s biggest fans and most influential tastemakers: creators.”
Other key takeaways include hip-hop remaining Splice’s most downloaded genre, while trap remains its top subgenre. The report notes that generally, “growth in hip-hop is being driven by subgenres such as rage, boom bap and pluggnb, highlighting a shift away from a single defining sound.”
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Meanwhile, pop returns to the top three genres, with bedroom pop being pop’s top subgenre, owing to a 297% rise in downloads. Other key subgenres here under the pop umbrella include hyperpop and indie pop.
Beyond Splice’s top three genres — hip-hop, house and pop — Splice’s top 10 genres are RnB at No. 4, trap at No. 5, soul at No. 6, EDM at No. 7, cinematic at No. 8, techno at No. 9 and tech house at No. 10.
Notably, electronic music was also one of Splice’s fastest-growing genres, with speed garage climbing 625% year-over-year to more than three million downloads in 2025. Also among the fastest-growing genres on the platform were hardwave, phonk and hard dance.
“Music has entered an era where the biggest trends are personal,” Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava said in a statement. “Our data shows creators pulling inspiration from everywhere at once, blending global sounds and local scenes to create music that feels both deeply human and culturally expansive. Sounds of 2026 captures that shift in real time.”
“In a music economy increasingly shaped by micro-trends, sample usage offers one of the clearest signals of what’s coming next,” added Mark Mulligan, MIDiA Research’s managing director and music analyst. “The sounds creators choose today reflect not only genre evolution, but deeper cultural shifts towards global exchange and scene-driven growth.”
