Spotify has just released Spotify Wrapped, its annual end-of-year viral promotional exercise. For New Zealand musicians, however, there was little to get excited about.

Spotify Wrapped aims to reflect users’ listening habits back to them, revealing their most listened to songs, artists, podcasts and more.

It’s meant to be fun and lighthearted, but you don’t need to look closely at the 2025 list of the top 100 streamed songs in Aotearoa to notice there are only five New Zealand songs featured.

Global Korean-Kiwi superstar ROSÉ comes in at sixth for her collaboration with Bruno Mars, APT (released 2024), followed by Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over (1986), Hori Shaw’s Back In My Arms (2024), L.A.B.’s In the Air (2019), and Te Wehi’s Unaware (2024) in 60th, 72nd, 73rd and 78th respectively.

Kiwi music was also beaten by the KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack with six tracks in the top 100, and it seems Spotify also doesn’t consider ROSÉ or Crowded House New Zealand artists.

Last year’s Spotify Wrapped had similar results, with Corella’s Blue Eyed Māori being the only Kiwi song to make the top 50 songs streamed by New Zealanders.

The Wrapped results come as no surprise. New Zealand music made up only 3.8% of all streams in Aotearoa in the financial year of 2025, a 33.1% drop since 2021. This is despite close to

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