K-pop had a smash-out year as always, but it was also a year of growth for Korea's indie and rock genres, according to data compiled by Spotify for the 2025 Korean music market.

According to the streaming service's 2025 Wrapped dataset, the number of streams for K-indie and K-rock songs grew by 68 percent and 16 percent, respectively, compared to the previous year.


The top five indie and rock artists were: DAY6, The Black Skirts, BOL4, Hanroro and 10CM. The most-streamed K-indie song was "yours" (2019) by Damons year, followed by "Happy" (2024) by DAY6, "Closely Far Away" (2021) by Car, the garden, "Time of Our Life" (2019) by DAY6 and "You Were Beautiful" (2017) by DAY6.

Spotify has been helping promote hidden K-indie and K-rock gems to global audiences through projects such as the Fresh Finds and RADAR programs, as well as expanded editorial curation.

The streaming service also strengthened domestic partnerships, including a collaboration with the CJ Cultural Foundation. The two companies' "Tune Up Meets Fresh Finds" collaboration showcased artists jisokuryClub, can’t be blue and New Zealand’s There’s A Tuesday, who delivered unique live performances that fostered creative exchange and expanded stage exposure.

"We will continue our support to help promote artists of diverse genres to global listeners," Spotify said in a press release.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]