As everyone checks their music streaming app of choice for their annual wrap-up, Spotify has released its stats calculating the most listened-to artists, albums and songs from the Halifax area.
Some of the report’s findings are a no-brainer. Others are quite surprising.
Before we go through the statistics themselves, let it be known that Spotify and other massive music streaming platforms significantly underpay artists (around $0.003 per stream) and have been implicated in several major controversies.
Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek has investments in a German defence company manufacturing military AI tech. He stepped down as CEO in September. Music made by AI has been proliferating on the platform with no tags telling listeners whether or not it’s artificially generated, taking attention and, consequently, money away from real artists. In November, two lawsuits were filed against the company—one alleging Spotify accepted payment for promoting artists on Discovery Mode playlists, and another alleging billions of fraudulent streams using bots.
This is not an endorsement of Spotify, its platform, its business practices, or even the year-end recaps. Spotify can and should do more to prioritize living, breathing artists who put their livelihoods on the line to create music. Our analysis of these statistics is not in support of Spotify, but rather to get a glimpse of what people in Halifax are listening to. For these reasons, we will not be linking artists’ Spotify pages in this article.
Tidal, Bandcamp, and, most recently, Subvert.fm are all known to better support artists, albeit to different degrees, so if you are thinking of making the switch, there are alternatives worth looking into.
Without further ado, here are Halifax’s Spotify stats for 2025.
Halifax’s Top Artists of 2025
- Morgan Wallen
- Taylor Swift
- Drake
- Zach Bryan
- Luke Combs
- Kendrick Lamar
- Eminem
- Sabrina Carpenter
- The Weeknd
- Tate McRae
Halifax’s Songs of 2025
- “Ordinary” by Alex Warren
- “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan
- “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey
- “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone ft. Morgan Wallen
- “That’s So True” by Gracie Abrams
- “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone
- “I’m The Problem” by Morgan Wallen
- “I Remember Everything” by Zach Bryan, Kacey Musgraves
- “Sports car” by Tate McRae
- “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
Halifax’s Top Albums of 2025
- I’m the Problem by Morgan Wallen
- One Thing at a Time by Morgan Wallen
- Stick Season by Noah Kahan
- Short n’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter
- You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1) by Alex Warren
- The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan
- So Close to What by Tate McRae
- THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY by Taylor Swift
- SOS Deluxe: LANA by SZA
- The Secret of Us by Gracie Abrams
What’s unsurprising?
Nova Scotians like their country music, and with country now back in the mainstream, it’s no wonder that names like Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and Luke Combs are appearing on people’s lists this year.
Wallen in particular makes a lot of sense—he did just drop a massive 116-minute album this year in I’m The Problem, but the length of that album may have something to do with his incredibly high placements. Spotify measures all of this according to minutes listened, and if a single listen to his album is two hours long, then that will total hours upon hours for the average Morgan Wallen fan.
Anyone could predict Taylor Swift landing in the top 10 most listened-to artists. On top of having a massive fanbase, the deluxe edition of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is also a long stretch of an album, coming in at just over two hours long. Her place under Wallen tracks given that it’s an album from last year that was rereleased, meaning people who aren’t fans or are just casual Swifties may not have been playing this one as much as Wallen’s new record.
Drake in the top three is also a given, considering his legacy as one of the highest-selling hip-hop artists of all time. Some may point to his feud with Kendrick Lamar last year as a reason for Drake to drop from his pedestal, but these stats indicate Drake didn’t take as much damage to his popularity as some may have predicted; rather, the feud seems to have further boosted Lamar’s public perception.
Lamar’s 2024 album GNX came out at the tail end of the year and followed his highly publicized back-and-forth with Drake. The momentum from “Not Like Us”, GNX, as well as his Super Bowl performance, is proof enough of his place on this list.
Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Tate McRae and Gracie Abrams all continued their meteoric rises, with Carpenter and McRae dropping albums this year. Notably, however, Carpenter’s 2024 album Short n’ Sweet is higher on the album listings than her recent project, Man’s Best Friend.
What’s surprising?
Taylor Swift’s most recent album not appearing in either the album list or any of her tracks in the songs list is more of an upset than some may realize. Her 2025 album Life of a Showgirl has been critically panned by many, and while that hasn’t necessarily stopped Swift before (TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is evidence of that), it seems even Swifties are rather divided on her latest record. In fairness, Showgirl only dropped in early October, so it may be likely that we see it on next year’s list.
Folk-pop artist Alex Warren not cracking Halifax’s top artists, but having the number-one song on this list is quite interesting, especially considering that Warren was set to play the Sommo Festival in P.E.I. earlier this year (he ended up not doing so, which led to some controversy). Warren does not have the same lengthy catalogue as other artists on these lists, which may be why his album and song are charting here, but not his name. You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1) is his debut studio record, following an EP from 2024.
Similarly, Chappell Roan’s rise to fame hasn’t netted her a spot in Halifax’s top artists, but people seem to love her album, and, in particular, “Pink Pony Club”. The staying power of her 2023 debut studio album is clear for all to see, but, similar to Warren, Roan is still building her discography, with a handful of singles dropping throughout the last year.
Lastly, The Weeknd didn’t find his way to a top spot in the album or song categories and barely made the artist top 10. The Canadian R&B singer released his latest record, Hurry Up Tomorrow, on Jan. 31, 2025. Coming in at just over one hour and 20 minutes, you’d figure it would chart just as Swift’s and Wallen’s did, but The Weeknd’s popularity these days seems to come from his wide breadth of hit singles.
Listen local
While it’s quite fun to look at what Halifax is listening to in terms of popular music, it’s always important to remember that some of the best artists around can be found throughout our city—folks who spend years perfecting sounds that oftentimes only people in their communities will ever hear.
So, this holiday season, take some time to look up local artists who fit your niche. We have some great country, hip-hop, pop, R&B, rock, electronic, and metal acts across the city that are worth taking up one of your top spots on your annual wrap-up.