2025 Aotearoa Music Market: NZ Artists Help Drive Growth in Music ConsumptionFebruary 4, 2026

New Zealanders streamed music over 12.4 billion times in 2025, and nearly 900 million of those streams were New Zealand music, according to data collated by Recorded Music New Zealand for the Official Aotearoa Music Charts.

Recorded Music NZ has released key market data for 2025 and reports that while total audio streams increased by 1% from 2024, reflecting a mature streaming market, the past 5 years has seen 30% streaming growth.

Although music streaming remains the dominant mode of consumption, 2025 was a strong year for albums. Total album sales (physical and digital combined) were up just over 10% from 2024, and physical album sales up by 13%.

Notably in 2025, year on year growth in streaming and album sales of New Zealand music outpaced the overall market. New Zealand album sales grew by 18%, led by albums from Marlon Williams, Lorde and Devilskin among others, and streaming of New Zealand music rose over 3% in 2025 to just under 900 million streams.

The growth of waiata reo Māori is one of the biggest stories of last year. New Zealanders streamed waiata more than 69 million times, up from 64 million in 2024, and sales of albums in te reo Māori tripled from the previous year. Major contributors to these record numbers include Marlon Williams and the Aotearoa Songbook, the latter featuring strongly in the Charts since its release in September 2024 with 'Tōku Reo Tōku Ohooho' going on to top the End of Year Top 20 Te Reo Māori Singles Chart in 2025.

Reflecting this sales and streaming success, 2025 saw three Aotearoa artists edge out global competition to reach #1 on the Top 40 Charts.

Marlon Williams’ landmark reo Māori album Te Whare Tīwekaweka hit #1 on the Top 40 Albums Chart in April. Our biggest musical export – Lorde – went to #1 on both the Albums and Singles Charts here and also topped the charts in the UK and Australia with her fourth studio album, Virgin. Devilskin claimed the #1 spot for their album RE-EVOLUTION, contributing to a record-breaking year for New Zealand metal. More than 70 metal or heavy rock albums were released and an unprecedented 9 local metal bands made the weekly Top 20 Aotearoa Albums Chart during 2025.

Meanwhile, Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi | Bay of Plenty favourites, Hori Shaw and Te Wehi, enjoyed huge streaming numbers in 2025. Both dominated the End of Year Top 20 Aotearoa Singles Chart – as well as being the only local artists appearing in the End of Year Top 50 Singles Chart.

While the year saw notable growth in consumption of local music, New Zealanders’ overall listening and consumption reflected global trends, with Alex Warren, Olivia Dean and the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack making an impact. A chart record which had stood for 11 years was broken twice in the last 12 months – first US artist Alex Warren hit 15 weeks at #1 on the Singles Top 40 with his song 'Ordinary', while UK singer-songwriter Olivia Dean is currently up to 17 weeks in the top position with 'Man I Need'. Meanwhile The Life Of A Showgirl gave Taylor Swift her 15th #1 album, extending a record she already held for the most #1 albums by any artist.

Recorded Music NZ CEO Jo Oliver said:

"2025 was an exciting year for Aotearoa artists and music, and particularly strong for New Zealand albums. We saw a surge of support for local artists and a record-breaking number of streams of waiata Māori, while New Zealanders' music consumption broadly reflected global trends.

"Although there is much to celebrate, the environment for recording artists both here and globally is more complex than ever before. In this election year Recorded Music NZ is calling on government and political parties to support the music industry and local artists to shine, through ensuring the correct regulatory settings, supporting development for artists and industry, and fostering the conditions for export to thrive."

The Official Aotearoa End of Year Charts can be viewed here

NOTE: This release is based on data collected and collated by Recorded Music NZ for the purpose of the Official Aotearoa Music Charts, reflecting unit based data from a wide range of physical and digital retailers, audio streaming services and other outlets (such as gig sales). The data does not reflect revenues and does not include video streams or radio play.