2025 was an odd year for music. The ‘best song of the year’ was a diss track. Oasis did actually get back together. And AI-generated music hit the charts. All the while, independent artists and labels increased their share of the market to 50% up from 46%. Kneecap and Bob Vylan showed the world what freedom of speech sounds like at Glastonbury. Meanwhile, some are saying UK Garage finally boomed in the US. 

In the year ahead, AI undoubtedly will continue to destabilise the foundations of the music industry. But with so much fuel for the great swathes of independent, human musicians out there to transform into combusting sound, I’m not certain the music of 2026 will lack warmth and emotional depth.  

Here’s what the Mixcloud team and I think 2026 will sound like. This includes Rock music’s long-awaited return, CD players for everyone and record stores becoming the place to be for great gigs.

My own forecast: The mainstream charts will go even more stale, allowing the sun to shine on the underground

The mainstream charts have been dead for a while, but this year, it’s officially gone stale. 2025 was one of the most stagnant years for popular music in Billboard chart history, with so many of the so-called ‘hits’ rolling over from 2024. According to data from Billboard, the average number of weeks spent on the Hot 100 by songs in the top 20 is currently 30.35 weeks; five years ago, it was 18.75 weeks. 

Some ‘culture’ journalists may try to tell you it’s due to a lack of music being released by bigger acts like Frank Ocean or the Arctic Monkeys. But the truth is simple: the music landscape is dominated by machines, neurotically feeding us the same song on repeat, making those ‘hits’ appear bigger than they are. 

The machine will not be turned off. But as listeners yearn for something fresh, independent musicians are making a huge comeback. Indie labels are increasing their market share year on year. Independent music revenues reached an estimated $2.5 billion in 2024. This works out to an average of less than 25% annual growth for the independent music industry.

I hope this revenue brings much-needed support to the 84% of independent UK artists who say they can’t afford to tour. We love listening to so many independent labels here on Mixcloud and hope to see more mixes from the likes of Hospital, Jazzman, Nordic Voyage, Tru Thoughts, Kontor and House heavyweights Defected. Just to name a few.

Nico: “AI-generated music will split listeners further into those who value meaning and those who don’t care”

In November 2025, ‘Walk My Walk’ by Breaking Rust became the first AI-generated song to hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart. It achieved over three million streams on Spotify in less than a month. Many listeners were unaware they were listening to AI. Comments on the video were mixed. “Love your voice! Awesome songwriting! I want more”, said one listener. “I don’t know if this is a real guy, but his songs are seriously some of my favourite in life,” said another. Some fans even asked the ‘artist’ to go on tour.

There’s no doubt we’ll be hearing more of it in 2026, but to what effect? Well, our CEO, Nico, thinks we’ll see more and more of a “bifurcation of music technology into the mainstream with leanback/passive experiences, where AI-generated songs and playlists become prevalent, competing with an underground of aficionado experiences”.

While some may see this as a red flag, Nico’s perspective is nuanced. “Ultimately, we should recognise that for many mainstream listeners, music is something less important in their lives that happens in the background,” he continues. “Other people – such as the community on Mixcloud – will increasingly value music that is created or curated by humans, since AI lacks any lived experience and therefore any depth of meaning within music.”

Yemi: “An alternative UK artist will have a number one single”

“Off the back of successes like Jim Legxacy and Esdeekid this year, the floodgates are opening for alternative artists and how far their music can go”, says Yemi. He thinks “it would be great to see more artists make that leap and add some excitement to the mainstream.”

Laurie: “A Rock resurgence will make records longer”

Our product manager, Laurie, says that “after what feels like a never-ending Pop and Hip-hop dominance…we’ll get a resurgence of Rock music this year”. Well, the Foo Fighters are going on tour again! 

Post-Punk from the British Isles is having its post-Conservative government glow-up. Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg and Yard Act’s use of guitars, wit and talk-singing is resonating on a massive scale. Their lyrics are really connecting with austerity-stricken… well, I was going to say jobless graduates, but it’s everyone at this point.

Laurie thinks that as a result of Rock’s big return, songs might start getting longer. The average length of UK number ones dropped from 4:16 minutes in 1998 to 3:03 minutes in 2019. This trend continued throughout this decade. I think Laurie could be right. You can point to bands like Black Country, New Road, King Gizzard, Squid, Black Midi, Wu-Lu and even the jazzy Ezra Collective for signs that longer records are already popular.

Ricky: “Music fans will want more recommendations than their data currently gives” 

Our Product Designer Ricky feels “the majority of ‘music fans’ are probably over the basic-level of ‘analytics’ that Spotify Wrapped offers them about their music listening.” Which I personally agree with. I want to know who I missed out on this year, not who I played 30 times. 

“This is to say that they’re not against the concept”, he explains. “Quite the opposite, actually. It’s become such a cornerstone of how most people listen to music that I don’t see it going away.” But something is missing. Ricky’s confident “all of this data we give to platforms as listeners could be used to remind us of the music we dipped our toe into but forgot about, and should go back to”. 

The solution may lie in each other. Ricky points out that “there is a huge untapped network of ‘connecting nodes’ (i.e., artists, DJs, tracks and albums) based on the crossover of what I listen to and what others listen to. I’d prefer this information over the obvious fact that I listened to The Beatles more than any other artist. Something I’m well aware of without the need for Spotify Wrapped!”

We’ve built a feature, here on Mixcloud, called Spotlight, to give you recommendations from real people rather than recommendation algorithms. We’re announcing it officially later this month. Pick your own spotlights to start the recommendation chain.

Caroline: “More record stores will offer nighttime programming to stay afloat”

With rising rents and a cost-of-living crisis, vinyl sales saw a 2.8% decline in Q2 2025 before bouncing back again in Q3. Whilst the vinyl market looks set to continue growing, it’s the bigger names cashing in. Major labels are back on the bandwagon. Sam Fender’s People Watching became the fastest-selling vinyl album of the century. Leaving the dwindling amount of remaining record stores doing all sorts to make ends meet. 

There are a number of record shops here on Mixcloud showcasing their musical knowledge beyond their four walls. You’ve got Amsterdam’s Platypus Records, known for stocking unusual and hard-to-find records. One’s to catch live are the brilliant VPR Audio Club stationed in Vanishing Point Records in Chesterfield. They go live regularly, and we hope to catch them as much as possible in 2026.

The iconic Barely Breaking Even Record Store epitomises Caroline’s prediction with their incredible six-day-a-week DJ schedule. A bit like Paul Foster’s sensationally groovy mix at the store back in November for the Tenerife Funk Soul House Fiesta Takeover.

Calum: “The ongoing resurgence of CD players, iPods, and MP3 players will continue”

You’d have to be consuming Huxley’s fictional soma drug not to think the current mainstream musical landscape looks dystopian. Calum, one of our treasured Support team members, cites “AI artists, low artist payouts from streaming services and blanket algorithms” as evidence of a music industry in need of serious improvement. 

He thinks listeners across the board will be seeking escapism from the system through a return to nostalgia and simpler times. As mentioned in our article on slow listening, sales of refurbished iPods have been steadily on the rise for a couple of years as people seek to control the dizzying level of choice when enjoying music. 

Calum asked for a CD player for Christmas and has his eye on a player for his digital files. He’ll be enjoying the spontaneity of CD shopping this year as he did in his teens. That sounds lovely to me. Not just that, but the physical sensation of flicking through the credits in a booklet is a nostalgia dopamine hit unmatched by any online music purchase. 

Sophie: “Haute & Freddy get more attention this year”

Sophie, the newest member of our team, could not be more right when she says “we need more Synthpop silliness in our lives”. The theatrical Alt-Pop duo Haute & Freddy used to write hits for Britney Spears and Katy Perry. Now, they’re making names for themselves as “runaway carnies” who fled the circus of the commercial market to make 80s-inspired Synthpop.

They’ve managed to create a sound similar to the Synthpop success of Magdalena Bay fused with the medieval fantasies of The Last Dinner Party and the Folk Bitch Trio. We’re here for it.  “They also have a song called ‘Sophie,’ so I’m a bit biased but it totally slaps” says Sophie. 

Did last year‘s predictions live up to expectations?