- Shazam’s Fast Forward predicts the songs you’ll stream in the future
- It’s based on “Shazam data” and editorial picks
- 50 new songs from emerging artists; 10 new artists announced each day
Shazam already feels a little bit magical: the thrill of asking your phone or smartwatch to identify the song you can hear never grows old. But now Shazam is not just telling you what’s playing now. It’s predicting what you’ll play in the future.
Shazam’s new Fast Forward 2025 promises to reveal the songs you haven’t fallen in love with yet “based on Shazam data” – but not yours, because if you haven’t heard it then of course you won’t have Shazamed it either.
The songs are being announced with 10 artists per day over five days, and they’re being announced by genre: first up is dance music, followed by Latin, country/rock, pop and hip-hop/R&B. The first predictions dropped on 6 January.
Giving emerging artists a global boost
According to Shazam, the songs it’s showcasing to you are from “emerging artists who, based on Shazam data and reviewed by our editors, are poised to have a breakthrough year.” And by giving them a global platform, Shazam is helping make that prediction a reality: 80% of its 2023 picks reached the Apple Music Top 100 (and in case you didn’t know, you can buy that collection book form).
If you’re the cynical type, you might point out that the selections are likely to be based on what record companies are already pushing; for example, many of the artists in the first batch of recommendations have collaborated with big-name artists already and are well established in their respective scenes.
And of course, for songs to appear in the Shazam data they need to be getting played publicly already – on radio, on TV, on streaming services. People can’t Shazam things they haven’t heard.
But it doesn’t really matter if the music being recommended is good, and the music being recommended is good. The first day’s selection of dance tracks includes speed garage veteran Joe Hunt from the UK, folky house from North Macedonia’s Also Astir, Brazilian house from VCSION and Spanish techno from Prophecy.
You can discover Shazam’s picks for 2025 on the Fast Forward page of its website.