Why the charts are full of old songs - and so are your playlists

Image source, Getty Images for iHeartRadio

Image caption, One of 2026's biggest hits is Zara Larsson's Lush Life, originally released in 2015

More music is being created than at any other time in human history. Every day, more than 100,000 songs , external are being submitted to streaming services.

And despite the deluge of AI music , external - Spotify says it has removed 75 million "spammy tracks" from its catalogue - real music still makes up most of our listening. The streaming service Deezer says AI accounts for just 0.5% of streams on its platform.

The problem for all those artists creating new music is that our listening habits increasingly show a love for nostalgia.

Luminate, an independent entertainment data and analytics company that tracks music, film, and television consumption first started tracking music streaming in 2008.

This year, it recorded that the streaming of current music (released less than 18 months ago) was…