Spotify has published its latest Culture Next Gen Z Report, mapping the habits of a demographic that now accounts for 35% of the platform’s total audience and spends an average of two hours per day streaming.
Developed with youth culture strategist Casey Lewis, the study segments Gen Z, spanning ages 14 to 29, into three distinct life stages to show how listening and engagement evolve from high school through early adulthood.
Video Podcasts and ‘Knowledgemaxxing’
Gen Z is increasingly choosing to watch podcasts rather than just listen. Global streams of video podcast content among this cohort climbed 90% year over year, a shift the report frames as an intentional move away from endless short-form scrolling.
The study identifies a related behaviour it calls “knowledgemaxxing”: using long-form media to build intellectual community outside formal education.
Comfort Creators and Ritualistic Listening
Despite a broader culture of launch fatigue, Gen Z listeners are gravitating toward “comfort creators” and ritualistic listening patterns. The report notes that the youngest fans exhibit radically dual habits: fierce loyalty to a core set of artists alongside rapid discovery of new music.
High school listeners dedicate 13% of their streams to their top 20 artists while maintaining the highest breadth index for finding new music. In college, listening narrows as environments shift, and by early adulthood it settles into a highly curated, discerning mix.
Brazilian Funk Becomes the Fastest-Growing Genre
Brazilian Funk has overtaken other regional styles to become the fastest-growing music genre among Gen Z globally. The subgenre Brazilian Phonk, a bass-heavy fusion with Memphis rap and lo-fi elements, is seeing year-over-year stream increases between 21% and 26% across all Gen Z age cohorts.
The report ties this acceleration to the popularity of “slowed + reverb” remixes, where producers rework tracks into hypnotic, decelerated versions that cross language barriers and double a song’s algorithmic presence on playlists.
