Splice, a music tech company, has collaborated with Billboard to release exclusive data about the trending sounds among their users over the past year. This marks the first time the company has made their end-of-year data public. Since its establishment in 2013, Splice has provided music makers with a constantly evolving sound library of millions of samples and loops for royalty-free use. These samples range from kick drums to kopuz (a Turkish string lute) samples. The sounds are widely used by producers of all sizes, from hobbyists to those making hits with renowned artists like Justin Bieber, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, and Travis Scott. Splice has users in almost every country in the world, and is especially popular in its top ten markets: U.S., U.K., Germany, Canada, France, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Italy, and India. 44% of its registered users identify as Gen Z.
To organize its vast library, Splice utilizes a tagging system, adding genre and subgenre labels to help users find the sample they need. Some sounds have multiple genre tags. According to Jay “Capsun” Pulman, Splice’s creative director of Splice Sounds, when sample packs are tagged as a specific genre like K-pop, they are usually created by an artist, producer, or songwriter actively involved in that genre. This ensures that the samples come from within the genre itself. By sharing this data, Pulman says the company can shed light on the “very starting point of music making” and show where trends begin before they become mainstream hits.
African Music
Download activity for sounds tagged as “amapiano,” a South African dance music genre featuring log drums, has increased by 826% year-over-year. Additionally, searches for this genre are up 309%, with 17 cities showing a trend in amapiano. Particularly, Los Angeles and Atlanta have seen significant growth in the genre. Meanwhile, downloads for sounds tagged as “afrobeats” or “afropop” have declined by 45%, especially in cities like Lagos. Splice attributes this to users seeking more authentic sounds specific to individual Afro genres.
Hip-Hop / Rap
Hip-hop remains the most popular genre on Splice, accounting for 19% of total downloads. However, downloads for trap sounds are down by 14% globally since last year. Despite this decrease, 86% of Splice users still downloaded a hip-hop sample in 2023. Additionally, the introduction of the tag for phonk music has seen the genre grow by 1,246% year-over-year to over 1 million downloads. Phonk samples are trending primarily in cities like Los Angeles, Tokyo, Berlin, Chicago, and Seoul.
Electronic / Dance
Dance music genres have also seen a resurgence on Splice. Drum & bass was one of the fastest growing genres in 2023 with 85% growth year-over-year. Similarly, Jersey Club, a subgenre that fuses elements of house and rap, saw a significant increase in downloads. Various subgenres of house are also growing in popularity on the platform, with downloads and searches on the rise.
K-Pop
Sounds tagged as “K-pop” have declined 17.97% on Splice in 2023. However, the company states that this may not be indicative of the genre itself declining, given that K-pop is influenced by various other genres.
Latin
Reggaeton sounds saw 23% growth in downloads year-over-year, making it the 29th most downloaded genre on the platform. Sounds tagged as “baile funk” have also grown by 107% globally, likely due to exposure on platforms like TikTok.
Country
Country music is not considered a sample-heavy genre, but it is still growing among Splice users, with downloads for sounds tagged as “country” growing by 67% over the last year.
